Japan’s anime and manga industries have experienced explosive growth globally, but this success masks a bitter irony: While publishers and intellectual property holders prosper, many anime studios are quietly going bankrupt.
According to the Japan Publishing Science Research Institute, the estimated total revenue of the Japanese manga market, including print and digital formats, reached $4.67 billion in 2024, an increase of 1.5% year-on-year. At the same time, the anime industry reached a record $25 billion, with growth of 14.8%, as reported by the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA).
Manga titles and their anime adaptations are loved around the world, expanding far beyond the borders of Japan. However, in Japan, anime studios are facing a “profitless boom,” a surge in demand with little financial reward.
A recent report from Teikoku Databank (TDB) revealed that in the first 9 months of 2025 alone, eight anime studios closed, two declared bankruptcy, and six ceased operations. This is the third consecutive year of increase in closures. In contrast, only four studios closed their doors in the same period of 2024.
If this pace continues, up to 16 studios could close by the end of the year, rivaling the record set in 2018. Studios like Ekachi Epilka, 3DCG Studio5 and Cloud Hearts, known for works like Whisper Me a Love Song, are among the recent casualties.
The problem lies in the financial structure of anime production. Before any anime is made, a “production committee” of investors is formed. These stakeholders fund the project, maintain copyright, and control revenue distribution. Anime studios are often excluded from these committees and only receive a one-time production fee, regardless of the anime’s success.
Many movie studios report that these fees are barely enough to cover costs, especially for smaller studios that work as subcontractors for even lower wages. AJA’s 2020 survey found that most of Japan’s 811 anime studios are small, under-resourced and recently established. With little compensation, their income has to be cut across departments, leaving them financially vulnerable.
In 2023, the anime market was worth $22.31 billion, but studios collectively earned only $2.848 billion, just 13% of the total market size. Meanwhile, production costs for a standard 12-episode anime can range from $2 million to $4 million.
This distorted profit model prevents studios from reinvesting or increasing animators’ wages, despite a severe labor shortage in the anime industry. The broken system is further exacerbated by increased production demands post-COVID, overloading limited studio capacities. As order volumes rise while tariffs stagnate, movie studios struggle to absorb rising expenses, including rising wages for highly sought-after animators and higher costs of outsourcing abroad due to the weak yen.
The TDB concludes that urgent structural reforms are needed to ensure a sustainable future for anime, particularly the creation of an equitable business environment and increased workforce development. Without these, the same studios behind the world’s most beloved anime could continue to fade away, one by one.
Sources: Znews
