English Anime Textbook Targets Japan's Animator Training Gap as Global Demand Grows

A global audience, a shortage of trained hands

Japan's anime business reached about 3.35 trillion yen in 2023, its largest total on record, yet studios still struggle to find enough artists trained for the work that brings drawings to life. A new English textbook from the Nippon Anime and Film Culture Association, or NAFCA, addresses a specific part of that shortage: the basic skills needed to enter an animation studio.

Released in August 2025, the book translates training used for NAFCA's Animator Skill Test for an international readership. Its focus is doga, the animation work that connects the main poses drawn by key animators. Those connecting drawings make a character's movement look smooth rather than like a sequence of separate pictures.

The textbook teaches tasks such as accurately tracing key drawings, planning eye blinks and matching mouth movements to dialogue. It also explains the Japanese vocabulary and production paperwork that artists need to understand when working with a studio.

NAFCA, founded in 2023 to improve working conditions and strengthen training, began administering its certification in 2024. The English edition extends that teaching beyond Japanese readers at a time when packed production schedules, growing global revenue and streaming platforms seeking new shows are putting more pressure on studios.

For an aspiring animator overseas, the book offers access to practical instruction grounded in Japanese production methods. For studios, the aim is a more consistent foundation among newcomers, so supervisors can spend less time correcting basic mistakes and more time developing their ability to animate a performance.

What the book teaches first

The English edition is titled The Animator Skill Test Trace and Tap wari Test: Levels 6 and 5. Written by NAFCA, the 112 page book uses A4 pages and was supervised by experienced doga directors Rie Eyama and Tomoko Fukui. Renato Rivera Rusca translated it.

The layout follows the Japanese original, with readers turning the right page first, a format familiar to manga readers. Its lessons support independent preparation for the test while explaining how work moves through an animation studio.

Levels 6 and 5 concentrate on doga fundamentals. Key animation, known as genga, sets out the main poses or important moments in a movement. Doga artists must preserve the shape, proportions and volume of the character while producing clean drawings and the connecting images needed between those poses.

Eye blinks, called me pachi, and mouth movements, called kuchi paku, are other core exercises. A blink must happen at the intended moment, while mouth shapes need to follow speech and fit the character's expression. These small actions help make a performance readable and believable.

The textbook's main areas of instruction include:

• Genga tracing, copying key animation accurately while maintaining clean lines, volume and proportion.
• Me pachi and kuchi paku, planning blinks and mouth shapes around dialogue and emotion.
• Reading and writing timing sheets, including frame counts, exposures and scene IDs.
• Understanding the roles of key animation, doga, checking, coloring, compositing and production management.
• Handling corrections, responding to feedback and passing completed work to the next person.
• Practicing sample test questions that assess drawing skills and vocabulary used in studios.

Timing sheets connect drawings to time. They tell a production team which image appears on which frame and how long it stays visible, known as its exposure. An artist who draws well but misreads that information can still deliver a movement at the wrong speed.

Learning the language of a studio

NAFCA's textbook follows the production process from storyboards to final delivery. Alongside drawing drills intended to build speed and accuracy, it explains how departments work together and what chiefs and directors expect when they assign a task.

Japanese studio shorthand receives particular attention. One example is sakkan check, the review a chief animation director performs on key drawings. Such expressions rarely appear in standard language classes, yet they can carry essential instructions on a drawing or correction note.

The book also covers how corrections move through a team. Understanding who checks a drawing, what a mark means and where the revised work goes next is part of completing an assignment, rather than a separate administrative skill.

Interviews with working professionals and tips from active animators add practical perspectives to the exercises. The glossary uses phonetic guides and plain definitions to help readers approach vocabulary that may otherwise arrive as a mixture of kana, kanji and abbreviations.

The English edition is not a Japanese language course. Its purpose is to make the drawing tasks and the language surrounding them easier to understand together. For artists working across borders, that shared understanding matters when directions arrive on timing sheets or in brief correction notes.

How the test sets a common standard

NAFCA developed the Animator Skill Test in response to thin training pipelines, low pay and inconsistent quality control. The organization promotes fairer working practices and stronger technical standards, with practical instruction for young artists central to that effort.

The certification covers multiple levels, with the current English textbook mapped to Levels 6 and 5. These assess the foundational doga work that commonly forms an animator's entry into studio production, including clean tracing, blinks and mouth timing.

The exam runs twice a year and provides professional feedback to examinees. NAFCA's materials say candidates must be at least 15 years old, able to read and write Japanese, and have a return address in Japan. The test is currently administered domestically.

An overseas reader can therefore study from the English textbook without necessarily being able to sit the exam. The distinction matters for anyone treating the book as a route toward certification: the learning material is accessible in English, while the examination still requires Japanese literacy and a return address in Japan.

NAFCA's recent development has followed a short sequence:

• 2023: NAFCA was founded to improve working conditions and strengthen industry training.
• 2024: The association began administering the Animator Skill Test.
• August 2025: The English textbook was released, extending access to the material for Levels 6 and 5.

No date is given for a future examination or for any expansion of the current eligibility arrangements. NAFCA also sells companion materials for the test.

Why the mentoring chain weakened

New animators traditionally learned beside experienced colleagues, who corrected drawings and explained timing and spacing. A beginner might copy stills, receive red pencil corrections in the margins and redraw the work. Repeated guidance helped turn drawing ability into skills suited to production.

The expansion in the number of shows during the late 1990s and 2000s strained that arrangement. Senior artists became too busy to teach consistently, while newcomers could move between projects without receiving sustained feedback.

Ayano Fukumiya, NAFCA's managing director, described the loss of that training when explaining the organization's assessment of the industry:

When we looked at the state of the industry, we noticed that one of the biggest issues was lack of training. Traditionally, animators would work directly under their seniors, learning the ropes. But about 25 years ago, the number of titles exploded, and senior animators have been too busy to train others. Since then on, young animators haven't been able to improve their skills.

NAFCA's textbook and test attempt to put a consistent set of basic expectations into that gap. A studio considering a successful candidate can have a clearer idea of the practical knowledge that person has demonstrated.

A common study program can also reduce repeated explanations. When beginners have already practiced the same tracing, timing and vocabulary exercises, a supervisor can devote more attention to the finer choices that give a character personality and emotion.

Months of guided correction may still be necessary before a new graduate can work at the pace demanded by a weekly series. The book supplies structured practice, while the draw, correct and redraw process still depends on time and useful feedback from other people.

The market makes training more urgent

The Association of Japanese Animation's industry data put the anime business at about 3.35 trillion yen in 2023. Overseas revenue accounted for roughly 51.5 percent, compared with 48.5 percent from Japan, giving the overseas market a lead of three percentage points.

Streaming, theatrical releases around the world and licensing have expanded anime's audience. The shift has been visible since the late 2010s, when streaming income first overtook sales of physical video.

Currency movements have also increased the yen value of overseas receipts. Alongside that effect, the growing international audience has made anime production more dependent on work and communication that cross national borders.

Studios looking beyond Tokyo for talent need artists who can work within shared production methods. A drawing may be created in another country, but it still needs to match the character, follow the timing sheet and respond correctly to the director's notes.

The English textbook addresses those practical connections by combining drawing instruction with Japanese terms. Its value lies in teaching an international reader both how to complete a basic assignment and how that assignment fits into a Japanese studio's production process.

Demand also increases the pressure for consistent work on tight schedules. A small error in tracing, timing or the interpretation of a correction can send an assignment back for revision. Practicing those basics gives trainees a way to prepare for expectations that go beyond producing an attractive individual drawing.

What training can change for newcomers

NAFCA's effort sits alongside continuing problems with pay and workloads. Entry level wages are often low, overtime is common, and studios sometimes bid too little for projects, passing financial and scheduling pressure down to production teams.

Standard teaching materials can reduce avoidable errors and make basic preparation more consistent. Better working conditions and time for mentoring remain part of the same challenge, because newcomers need opportunities to practice, receive corrections and improve while working.

The textbook also enters a discussion about tools. Some veteran animators prefer paper and pencil, while others use digital tablets. The exercises concentrate on timing, spacing and line control, which artists need with either method.

A tablet cannot correct a hand drawn with the wrong proportions or fix uneven spacing between movements by itself. Paper alone cannot produce convincing mouth timing. The artist still needs to understand the action and make each drawing serve it.

Aspiring doga artists are the book's main audience, but it can also help people who already draw well and need to learn Japanese studio practices. Teachers and vocational programs can turn its sections into practical assignments covering drawing, production vocabulary and the handling of work.

A practical study plan

Learners can use the textbook to organize regular practice rather than reading it only as a description of the industry. The exercises connect drawing control to timing, communication and the ability to respond to corrections.

A focused preparation routine can include the following tasks:

• Draw daily with attention to confident lines and consistent volume. Trace key poses under time limits to practice working at a production pace.
• Plan eye blinks and mouth shapes for short audio clips. Begin with slower dialogue, then work with faster speech.
• Recreate a simple shot from a timing sheet, counting frames and exposures before comparing the result with the example.
• Study workflow diagrams to understand how doga connects key animation, checking and coloring, and to anticipate the notes an assignment may receive.
• Learn studio terms and abbreviations, using the glossary's phonetic guides and definitions to interpret notes containing kana, kanji and shorthand.
• Build a short portfolio showing clean tracing, connecting drawings that preserve the character's design, and accurate lip synchronization. Include a timing sheet for each cut.
• Ask peers to mark corrections, then redo the work within the same deadline to practice combining speed with quality.

Foreign readers preparing for the test must also account for its Japanese literacy requirement and the need for a return address in Japan. Readers who cannot take it can still use the same exercises to build a more focused portfolio and a clearer understanding of studio expectations.

Price, corrections and overseas interest

The English edition is available through major online retailers, although availability varies by region. A Japanese listing puts the price at about 6,000 yen, while a United States retail listing places it near 60 dollars.

Readers can find the book through the Amazon listing for the Animator Skill Test textbook. The publisher has posted minor image corrections for two pages on the Amazon product page. Those corrections are worth checking when using the illustrations for formal study.

A crowdfunding campaign for the English edition exceeded its target and raised millions of yen. The response showed demand among overseas readers for instruction based on Japanese studio practice. Announcements about the project describe content drawn from what working animators teach and support from multiple studios.

The educational interest extends beyond drawing. Research on learning Japanese through anime suggests that animation can help motivated viewers develop listening skills and vocabulary. Instructors using interactive lessons built around animated dialogue have reported strong engagement and better retention of grammar in context.

The textbook brings production instruction together with explanations of the Japanese used at work, including timing sheet labels and shorthand on correction notes. That combination gives vocational schools and university programs material relevant to students seeking animation jobs.

For those students, the central task remains concrete: produce accurate drawings, place them at the right moment and understand the instructions that connect their work to the rest of a team. NAFCA's English edition makes that foundation available to a wider readership while its test provides a shared measure of the skills being taught.

What to Know

• NAFCA released an English textbook in August 2025 covering Levels 6 and 5 of its Animator Skill Test.
• The 112 page A4 book teaches doga fundamentals, including tracing, eye blinks, mouth movements, timing sheets and studio vocabulary.
• Rie Eyama and Tomoko Fukui supervised the book, and Renato Rivera Rusca translated it.
• The exam runs twice a year and requires candidates to be at least 15, literate in Japanese and able to provide a return address in Japan.
• Japan's anime business reached about 3.35 trillion yen in 2023, with overseas revenue accounting for 51.5 percent and domestic revenue 48.5 percent.
• Retail listings put the book at about 6,000 yen in Japan and near 60 dollars in the United States. Image corrections for two pages appear on the Amazon product page.
• Structured practice can help newcomers prepare for studio work, alongside continued mentoring and improvements in working conditions.