Things just stop being fun when you get a headache at 2pm and then you’re at work until 1am. Yes that’s a 14-hour shift there for me, starting at 10am. Gotta love it how the anime industry isn’t overworking people at all. And how most of the Japanese in the trade are actually content with how things are and don’t consider it weird at all that they work over 250 hours a month without getting paid for overtime.
Foreseeable future returns might make such an investment of time and stress worth it, but the obvious lack thereof (looking at my seniors) makes me doubt stuff. You know, on the “it might be better somewhere else” line.