Around the time Fujimaru was ending in 1965, Toei Doga was incorporated into a separate company. Prior to then Toei Doga had been merely the animation arm of film studio Toei. Now they were a separate company, and management changed as well. I mentioned how conditions had been very tight during production of Fujimaru, with barely anybody trained in animation working under Kusube, and Kusube consequently having to take on a tremendous workload. Conditions were so severe that, a one point, Kusube was asked to singlehandedly animate two entire episodes a month. This meant a lot of work, but also a lot of pay for doing so much work. The pay situation had presumably been considerably ameliorated by the formation of a union at Toei Doga. Kusube reports that he was earning somewhere in the vicinity of ¥1.5 million a month, which I figure works out to something like $20,000 USD a month in today's terms. It's a figure that's hard to believe at first sight, especially compared to what animators earn today (most reportedly earn less than minimum wage). It's a little easier to swallow when one learns that, upon a review of the books following incorporation, management ordered Kusube to take a pay cut because he was earning more than the president. Kusube, unlike the president, had worked for every penny with every stroke of the pencil, so he rightly felt affronted. By that time Kusube was already feeling he was ready to call it quits, so he used the opportunity to tell them what was on his mind and left, despite the fact that they still wanted and needed him to stay. They offered him the next film after Horus, which was in production at the time, but he refused. He took his money and quit in September 1965, the month after Fujimaru ended. Three months later, in December 1965, Daikichiro Kusube founded his own company: A Production Ltd.