--- title: 'Front-End Engineer (Anime) at Spellbrush' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/front-end-engineer-anime-spellbrush-san-francisco-bgraht6gnhf3' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-13' --- # Front-End Engineer (Anime) at Spellbrush - **Company:** Spellbrush - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2024-02-07 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/spellbrush/d490168e-2b28-479d-88a9-64d63e6fa8b3 ## Job description The Frontend Role: We're seeking a talented Front-End Engineer to join our team and help us build the next generation of anime and video game tools. You'll be responsible for designing and developing complex front-end applications, usually in react and typescript, with a focus on making responsive and delightful user interfaces. You may be a good fit if: You love anime and the anime aesthetic As a member of our team, you'll have the opportunity to push the boundaries of what's possible in the anime and video game industry. Ideally you're a fan of the genre. You enjoy working on complex SPAs. Most of our apps are interaction-heavy single-page editors, much closer in spirit to photoshop and blender than your typical SaaS app. A willingness to dive headfirst into canvas, webGL, and (maybe!) webGPU is recommended! And you also have some design sense. Large complex SPAs have all sorts of super interesting UI/UX challenges! We're looking for someone with experience building tasteful UI, a good design sense for layout, experiences, and microinteractions. You're comfortable working on small, fast-paced teams We currently have a tiny team of three on frontend engineering. You'll be working directly with some of the best AI researchers in the world to integrate their state-of-the-art models into your beautiful interfaces. We also believe in the unmatched speed of in-person teams, and prefer on-site collaboration in either our primary research office in Tokyo (downtown Akihabara) or San Francisco. Visa sponsorships are available. ## About Spellbrush ## Company Overview - **One‑liner**: Spellbrush is the world’s leading generative AI studio for anime – the team behind niji・journey – that is building a no‑compromise turn‑based tactics game. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed‑stage; received $245K in total funding from Y Combinator and other investors) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (also offices in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan) - **Founded**: 2018 - **Founders**: Cory Li (CEO), Haitao Mao (Co‑Founder, GameDev), Ruwen Liu (Co‑Founder) ## Core Business - **Primary industries**: Generative AI, Computer Games (Anime) - **Target customers**: B2C – anime fans, gamers, and digital artists; also B2B2C through their AI image/video generation platform used by artists and studios. - **Mission statement**: “Making Anime Real” – using AI to help human artists create masterpieces in the most complex medium of video games. ## Products & Services - **[niji・journey](https://spellbrush.com/)**: AI image generation model specialized in anime and illustration styles; accessible via Midjourney. Users can generate high‑quality anime art from text prompts. - **Niji Video**: A recently released video generation model that produces anime‑style video clips (announced in 2025‑2026). - **Unannounced Turn‑Based Tactics Game**: A “good anime game” being developed in‑house, focused on well‑balanced gameplay and a truthful love of visual arts. The game uses Unity and leverages Spellbrush’s own AI research. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metrics**: - Annual Revenue: Approximately $800K (estimated from 2025‑2026 data). - Total Funding: $245K (Seed rounds in 2018). - Headcount: ~25 employees (+19.2% YoY). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator (Winter 2018 batch; primary partner Diana Hu). Seed investors include unnamed backers. - **Growth Signals**: - 10 active job postings across AI research, engineering, and game design. - Released Niji Video, expanding beyond static images into anime video generation. - Expanded headcount by ~20% year‑over‑year. - Presence in both San Francisco and Tokyo, tapping into the global anime and game talent pool. ## Competitive Advantages - **Leading generative AI for anime** – niji・journey is the most prominent anime‑focused AI image generator, with a large user community. - **Deep integration with Midjourney** provides a built‑in distribution channel for their model. - **Niche focus**: The company is singularly dedicated to high‑quality anime and game art, creating a tightly‑focused R&D pipeline. - **In‑house game development** allows them to eat their own dogfood – using AI to accelerate game asset creation while maintaining human artistry. ## Strategic Focus - **AI‑powered game development**: Using their generative AI to build an original turn‑based tactics game, demonstrating their technology in practice. - **Advancing anime video generation**: Expanding from still images to video (Niji Video) to capture the growing demand for AI‑assisted animation. - **Research‑first approach**: Hiring AI researchers (LLMs, motion generation, video models) to push the boundaries of what AI can do for the anime medium. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & mission**: A team of passionate anime and game lovers who care about artistic quality. “No‑compromise approach to well‑balanced gameplay married to a truthful love of visual arts.” - **Work environment**: Remote‑friendly – roles are open to candidates in San Francisco, Tokyo, or fully remote. Fresh graduates are welcome (some positions note “Any (new grads ok)”). - **Engineering culture**: You’ll work on cutting‑edge generative AI (diffusion models, LLMs, video generation) alongside veteran researchers from Midjourney, Meta, NVIDIA, and Preferred Networks. - **Perks & highlights**: Opportunity to contribute to a globally used AI platform (niji・journey) and to build an original anime game from the ground up. Flexible location, small team with high ownership. ## Sources 1. [spellbrush.com](https://spellbrush.com/careers) – Career page (company description, values) 2. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/spellbrush) – Y Combinator profile (founding, batch, team size, HQ) 3. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/spellbrush) – LinkedIn page (headcount, revenue, funding, locations, recent news) 4. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/spellbrush) – Open roles (tech stack: Unity, TypeScript; remote policy) ## Other roles at Spellbrush - [HPC/ML Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/hpc-ml-infrastructure-engineer-spellbrush-san-francisco-zhh2f9af9wcn) — San Francisco, CA - [3D Game Programmer (Unity)](https://feeny.ai/job/3d-game-programmer-unity-spellbrush-san-francisco-fwee1ea6fp02) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Anime Researcher - LLM](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-anime-researcher-llm-spellbrush-san-francisco-1tzstywjhh72) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Anime Researcher - Motion Generation Models](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-anime-researcher-motion-generation-models-spellbrush-san-francisco-sb7f86zn4qvq) — San Francisco, CA - [バックオフィス　マネージャー](https://feeny.ai/job/spellbrush-tokyo-07ng2njrate7) — Tokyo, Japan - [Level Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/level-designer-spellbrush-san-francisco-2rn72sf2g34v) — San Francisco, CA - [Game Programmer (Unity)](https://feeny.ai/job/game-programmer-unity-spellbrush-san-francisco-rt0g3ng467yr) — San Francisco, CA - [Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-spellbrush-san-francisco-7p9r7r1f6q1b) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Anime Researcher](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-anime-researcher-spellbrush-tokyo-5pej30ze08je) — Tokyo, Japan - [AI Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-infrastructure-engineer-spellbrush-san-francisco-gesa1p6q0qnf) — San Francisco, CA