When Goku Prints Zeni

Hey everyone! Grab your favorite drink and let’s chat for a moment.
I’ve been thinking about bonuses—do you get them where you live? In Japan most full-time workers do. Last year mine was a whopping ¥15,000. At today’s rate (¥145 per dollar) that’s about USD $103.🎉

Why so tiny?

Here, bonus size is tied to your job type and years of service. I was already 3 years in, but because I was still classified as a contract worker, the math was brutal. During Raincode I covered the workload of a full-timer who quit after a toxic manager drove him out. On Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO I picked up the slack for teammates who were completely stuck, just to hit the deadline.

The game smashed records—

• 3 million copies sold in 24 hours

• 5 million by February 2025

…yet that success never trickles down to the shop floor. My pay stayed the same, bonus and all.

The part that really stung

My bonus slip even had a corporate disclaimer:

※当該金額については、全社業績への貢献度合い等を加味したうえで決定されます。
“This amount reflects your contribution to overall company performance.”

Translation: “Thanks, but your effort is worth a single day’s temp wage.” Ouch.

Bullshit Jobs, Goku Edition

David Graeber’s “Bullshit Jobs” describes work that feels pointless. That was Dragon Ball for me. Fans would buy a plastic bucket if Goku’s face was on it, so the actual craft mattered less than the logo. Sure, the project honed skills I now use for modding—but I wish it had paid even a little better...

So what now?

Simple: finish Reman Rampart before my savings run dry and rent is due.

Honestly, I even feel a bit sorry for the Virtuos animation crew—chances are they got shoved onto an Elder Scrolls project they don’t care about, just because it was on the schedule. If only we could have swapped places: let their Dragon Ball super-fan handle my old gig, and drop me into Tamriel from day one. Everyone would’ve been happier.

Stay tuned, and thanks for riding shotgun on this adventure. Your support means I can ignore the nonsense and focus on the good stuff—like making swords swing exactly the way they should.

Time to get back to animating.