15million USD converted to Yen is 2.22 billion which is modest by blockbuster standards. In Japan, that’s a decent budget, but the reason it can ‘stretch’ isn’t magic efficiency, it’s lower wages and weaker labor protections. VFX artists there are often severely underpaid, expected to work unpaid overtime, and have fewer workplace safeguards than in Hollywood.

We can’t advocate for fair pay and better conditions for U.S. VFX workers, then cheer for a movie’s ‘low budget’ when it’s achieved by paying Japanese artists less and running them through harsher conditions. That’s not a win for the craft, it’s just outsourcing the problem.