There aren’t a lot of cushy jobs in the anime industry. Aside from the pressure of having to please fickle fans and meet strict deadlines, most animators in Japan earn a pitiful salary.
Still, almost all anime professionals are also fans, and at the end of the day, being able to contribute to the art form that they love must be worth something. Plus, the employees of one particular anime studio get to enjoy the ultimate after-work perk: a dip in the hot spring that was found in their office building!
Anime studio Zexcs was founded in the late ‘90s and has taken on a number of projects since then. It’s highest-profile productions from recent years include The Flowers of Evil, Say “I love you.”, and Mushi-shi. The company recently moved into a new office situated just one block from Higashi Koganei Station, which puts it in a fairly swanky part of Tokyo. But the best thing about the location isn’t its convenience or cool-factor, but the fact that the building has its own onsen, or hot spring.
Anime reporter and Japanese Twitter user @__mayu719__ recently toured the facility and shared a couple of snapshots of the bath and changing room.
アニメミライでお世話になった『ZEXCS(ゼクシズ)』さんがお引越しとのことで遊びに行ってきましたーー＼(^o^)／！
なんと温泉付き！！！
な ん と
＼!! 温 泉 付 き!!／
※アニメ制作会社です(笑) https://t.co/RiyYPax0SD
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まゆちん◆ Δ発表会司会→魂ﾈｲｼｮﾝ (@__mayu719__) October 30, 2015Just to be clear, this isn’t just a large-scale bathing area that’s connected to the standard Tokyo water supply. It’s an honest-to-goodness natural hot spring, and unlike the one at Sannomiya Station in the middle of downtown Kobe, no one expected it to be there. According to professional animator Fumitoshi Oizaki, the builders didn’t know they’d find a spring before starting construction.
▼ “I heard that when they were putting up the building, the spring started gushing forth.”
@maeQ 普通ないですね温泉はｗ 社屋建ててたら、たまたま湧いて出てきたらしいです。
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追崎 史敏@コミティア11.15う25b (@01_chan) October 31, 2015The contractors are still putting the finishing touches on the baths, so they’re not ready for use just yet. Moreover, it’s unclear if the hot spring will be the private domain of the Zexcs staff, or if the other tenants in the building, which include a medical center, can enjoy a dip too. Given that Zexcs’ website lists its office as being on the fifth floor of the building, odds are the animators will have to share, but still, they must be happy to know they’ve got a place to rest their tired muscles after a marathon shift of drawing, or to soothe their stressed-out souls after looking at Flowers of Evil’s lackluster home video sales numbers.
Source: Jin
Top image: Twitter/@__mayu719__
Origin: Anime studio’s new Tokyo office building has the ultimate amenity: a natural hot spring!
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