I’m 16 and for a long time (around 6 years I believe) I’ve been interested in animation. I’ve made some of my own but, none that are really notable yet (I’ve only really made animation memes) though I’m trying to make some good ones! Along with animation, I’ve always liked anything related to Japan like music, art, and, history. I’m in my sophomore year in high school (that’s coming to an end in under a month) and I’m hoping to go study animation and work on anime or some of my own projects. The only problem I have is figuring out if I should get an education on character animation in America (where I’m from) or in Japan.
I’ve tried looking for other opinions on Google and whatnot but couldn’t find what I was looking for. For background, I’m not new to the Japanese language. Although I’m not fluent, I’ve been learning this language for 3 years (though until a year ago I started studying it seriously) and I can possibly get around in Japan if I went on a trip. Animation, especially those made in Japan, is something I deeply want to do as my career. I’m just stuck on if I should get that education in America or in Japan.
I am more than willing to study and save money to study and work in Japan. I understand the work conditions are rather poor from what I’ve read up on but it’s still something I want to pursue. I’m told by my parents and some teachers to work in America rather than in Japan. It might be easier to work in America for animation since it’s in my mother tongue. I’m not against the idea of getting my education in an American school if I can still get to my goal! I just need help deciding where to study before I start looking for schools in this field. Thank you in advance!!
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This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Should I get a education in America or in Japan for animation**
I’m 16 and for a long time (around 6 years I believe) I’ve been interested in animation. I’ve made some of my own but, none that are really notable yet (I’ve only really made animation memes) though I’m trying to make some good ones! Along with animation, I’ve always liked anything related to Japan like music, art, and, history. I’m in my sophomore year in high school (that’s coming to an end in under a month) and I’m hoping to go study animation and work on anime or some of my own projects. The only problem I have is figuring out if I should get an education on character animation in America (where I’m from) or in Japan.
I’ve tried looking for other opinions on Google and whatnot but couldn’t find what I was looking for. For background, I’m not new to the Japanese language. Although I’m not fluent, I’ve been learning this language for 3 years (though until a year ago I started studying it seriously) and I can possibly get around in Japan if I went on a trip. Animation, especially those made in Japan, is something I deeply want to do as my career. I’m just stuck on if I should get that education in America or in Japan.
I am more than willing to study and save money to study and work in Japan. I understand the work conditions are rather poor from what I’ve read up on but it’s still something I want to pursue. I’m told by my parents and some teachers to work in America rather than in Japan. It might be easier to work in America for animation since it’s in my mother tongue. I’m not against the idea of getting my education in an American school if I can still get to my goal! I just need help deciding where to study before I start looking for schools in this field. Thank you in advance!!
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If you are deeply passionate about Japan studying here is not the worst idea, working in animation here might however be. The industry has a terrible reputation for a reason. They feed on passionate people who work themselves to exhaustion for a pittance. From what I heard it’s worse for the freelancers than for the full time employees (not saying that their job will not be excruciating). But those positions are highly competitive and I don’t see you having a chance with rudimentary Japanese and without a degree from a Japanese university.
Working conditions being rather poor is an understatement btw. Take a look at this [video](https://youtu.be/Tvj-XnVKQI8).
Don’t want to advise against your passion, but you already know the logical answer. With that being said: You are still young and have room to try out things in live and take a few failures. So might as well go for it and try things out, just don’t get stubborn an maneuver yourself into a position you can’t get out of.
Studying animation in Japan is generally cheaper than going to private art schools in the US (over 50k usd in tuition per yr if you go to private art schools such as Calarts/SVA/RISD/accd etc). In both countries you need to practice sketching by yourself and build a portfolio. Also, you can participate in Japanese animations even if you don’t work there (you can look up American animators such as Spencer Wan, Curie Lu, Zhang Weilin)
To study animation in Japan you have basically two choices: vocational schools and art universities. I’m not so familiar with vocational schools but the entrance exams for good art universities, such as 東芸大/多摩美／武蔵野are very competitive and you have to speak, read and write at least N2 level Japanese (many Japanese art students go to preparatory schools aka美術塾for art uni and they even have entrance exams for those preparatory schools). I’m not sure whether they have English programs. For vocational schools you still need N2 and they are not cheap (10k usd per year tuition for HAL東京CG学部for example). I think the good ones have lots of industrial connections. Since you are still 16, I think what you should do now is to learn Japanese and (I guess?) take JLPT n2 or n1 so you will have a solid idea on your Japanese level, though the exam itself won’t reflect your real language skills such as writing and speaking. With the ability to read Japanese you can look up the materials online for art universities and vocational schools. I think many of them have information for international students. If you really want to study in Japan without jlpt n2 or n1, the most possible route is first go to language school and applying for universities or vocational schools (so maybe the biggest challenge is to have family sponsoring your study.)
I think there’s no art schools etc. here that offer animation degrees in English, so you’d have to get your language level up to at least around N2 to enter them. They’re also mostly private schools, meaning they’re quite expensive (although not as expensive as the US). It woukd be a possibility to come to Japan as a language student, get your language leve up, and then try to enter animation school.
Why are Japan and the US your only options? You could also look into Europe. Uni there is way cheaper (sometimes even free, although I’m not sure if there’s many public unis offering animation, might just be the privates) and the degrees are generally relatively prestigious.
If you’re passionate about animation, working in Japan is not the way to go. Japanese animation studios outsource a lot of work to Korean/Chinese/etc studios. And they give passionate Japanese animators low wages to complete key parts of animation sequences.
What would be most ideal is if you got yourself into a prestigious school so you could learn animation and develop connections. Even skilled western animators can be requested to work on a major sequence of a Japanese animation project.
Japanese animation projects require a ton of animators to meet strict deadlines and most of them don’t even get credited in the project.
Going to school and working are two different things. If you go to school in Japan I think that would give you more options for work in the future. Speaking both English and Japanese will be a crazy bonus in the industry I think.