Kondo Hikaru, president of Ufotable, who produced popular TV anime and theatrical versions of Fate Zero, Fate Stay Night, Live Strike Sword Dance, and Ghost Blade, has settled the tax evasion incident, and he and UFO need to make a supplementary payment of 138 million yen to conceal the tax amount of 441 million yen earned in 2015, 2017 and 2018, except for 1/3 of Lei's supplementary payment. He was also fined 30 million yen (1/13 ray), as well as a period of 1 year and 8 months, with a three-year suspension. Many netizens will complain that the president is really "happy", but these amounts will make you feel really not high, adding up to less than 1 lei, the production of animation is really a dark future, about the dark topic of the industry, the president of the UFO Society really has something to say, and recently released his answer dialectic.
In 2000, at the age of 30, Hikaru Kondo established UFO Society and served as its president, focusing on the planning of animation works such as television, theatrical versions, and games, as well as operating a wide range of businesses such as restaurants, movie theaters, and animation-related peripherals, and planned to hold two Machi Asobi animation game entertainment exhibitions every year, which were suspended after the epidemic. After the birth of the above-mentioned animation works, they also held related works activities and peripheral sales in stores such as the ufotable café and the Machi Asobi café operated by themselves, which increased sales.
The president said that it is precisely because of the increase in sales around the café and the works that he can continue to produce animation, but if the animation works are not popular, the customer source and related peripheral sales will not be able to pay the salaries of employees and the cost of production, so he wants to keep enough cash to deal with operational emergencies. In addition, in order to avoid high fees, restaurants pay in cash, he will regularly delete some sales data, and the sales of the production of "God Eater" that year are postponed to the next issue to compress revenue.
360 million yen in cash was found in his home, but instead of a safe deposit box, it was scattered in the home, and the president confessed that there were 60 million yen in the storage room of his child's room, and then told them to search. He and his wife in charge of the accountant receive remuneration from the sales of the café, and they put it directly at home without distinction, so it contains a lot of 1,000 yen or 100 yen. In addition to sleeping, he spent the rest of the time at work or thinking about work, with no particular interest and no memory of living in luxury, the cash in case something went wrong with the company.
Before the production of the theatrical version of "Devil's Blade", the president said that every time the production work was lost, it is said that the animation industry has 1 in every 10 works that can be a big hit, and now it may be less, if the work is not hot, the surrounding area cannot be sold, the café will not have guests, and if you desperately produce animation, there will be a loss, because the quality of animation production is getting higher and higher, he and the staff are desperately trying to meet the requirements, and the production fee given by the customer is very low, so each work is losing money. Occasionally, it is good that the work is hot, otherwise it may go out of business, and he always asks himself why he always goes to take the work of the lost work every time?
The judge asked him if it would be difficult to change the foundation of the industry? The president said that he did not know, he hoped that after this matter, all the employees who wanted to be converted into regular employees, after all, the income of freelance workers was very small, and then gradually changed to monthly salary payment, although the production fee was gradually increasing, but this did not mean that the customer changed, and the transformation of all employees into formal or led to the operation becoming severe, nevertheless, he chose this job to make good animation works. If he can't make a good animation, the employee will be unhappy, so he doesn't want to change this, and he is always thinking about how to promote and change.
Finally, the judge asked him how to deal with concerns about future business deterioration? The president said that after being accused in 2020, he did not accept the new animation production work, continued the work he accepted before, and there were no business problems after the accusation, but he received many customer quotations, but he no longer went to pick up the animation work that he knew he would lose at the beginning, if the animation industry's current production base remained unchanged, he could only do something himself, and now he is exploring whether to work in the form of commercial proposals.
No matter how the president argues, he pays the price anyway, and everyone does not have to question whether these testimonies are self-"whitewashed". On the contrary, we can understand from different angles what kind of animation company UFO Society is, and that "the industry is going to end" is not an empty shout, as for how to change the status quo, it depends on the thoughts and actions of the industry.