“How to get paid to watch anime.” After 13 years of publishing my blog, Otaku Journalist, this 2015 post is still the all-time most popular article I’ve ever written. I’m not surprised at all! As writing jobs, most visibly journalism, become increasingly more precarious, I can imagine people typing their more fantastic career ideas into search engines and seeing what turns up.
But since this post is nine years old now, I’m going to share my updated advice for modern times, right here for Anime Herald readers. And it all starts with a single question: Are you sure you want to do this? Once your hobby becomes a job, it’s not your hobby anymore. Is watching anime really something you want to monetize?
Next question: how much of your soul are you willing to part with? “Zero” isn’t an option.
When it’s about making money, you’re never fully independent. Whether you get a job at a big anime site (that makes decisions you don’t agree with), or start a newsletter on Substack (where the owners waffled and demurred for months over denouncing Nazis), or make a Patreon (where the owners choose shareholders over users every time), or stream on Twitch (where the rules are always changing), or sell products on Etsy (where sellers get dinged by referral fees), or…
That’s a bit bleak. So let’s change course and talk about how I personally get paid to watch anime. First, I put ads and affiliate links on my blogs. When people click them, I make a small commission. My most profitable links go to Amazon, an unethical monopoly. Second, I write about anime for different sites. I write for Anime News Network, which is majority-owned by Kadokawa. This new owner hasn’t interfered in the editorial side, but by virtue of being majority owner, it does maintain that ability. I’ve written about anime for Crunchyroll, for Forbes, for the Washington Post, and I don’t agree with every decision each of those companies has made.
I used to believe in dream jobs, but work is just that: work. By doing the tasks I listed, I technically make a (very small) amount of money watching anime. Whether that’s worth it to you or not, though, is a very individual decision. It’s not as simple as the title of my most popular post makes it sound.
