The top 15 Japanese Anime Studios
The Japanese animation industry, better known as anime is a huge titan in the entertainment world.
And for those not into anime at all, the fact of its popularity can be hardly disputed - it has broken through to a mainstream around the world.
Anime foes like Dragon Ball Z are household names. Meanwhile, movies that have since won widespread critical acclaim - think Spirited Away as one of the best films ever made.
The very lifeblood of the anime ecosystem, Japanese studios churn out new series and adaptations with a near-miraculous efficiency.
These studios serve as more than just production studios, they are Japanese media companies in their own right.
Welcome to this list of the most influential brands in China and beyond, some have grown so mighty they've taken on global titans like Universal Pictures to hit screens even further afield.
Madhouse
Madhouse Studio is a Japanese anime studio that has been around since 1972.
It was the brainchild of four highly-skilled animators Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro, Yoshiaki Kawajiri and Masao Maruyama (all of whom had been working at the aforementioned Mushi Production Studio owned by anime legend Osamo Tezuka).
Madhouse were producing quality television and film that, while amazing right from the start, still goes on being awesome to this very day. Madhouse is behind the production of some amazing anime, like Death Note, One-Punch Man, Claymore and Cardcaptor Sakura.
Madhouse is known for hiring top-tier directors (like Satoshi Kon, to pick just one standout employee),
All four of Kon's critically heralded films were produced by the anime studio Madhouse (Perfect Blue, Paprika; Millennium Actress; Tokyo Godfathers).
The studio also has a reputation for luring high-profile manga artists, such Clamp and Naoki Urasawa. Madhouse would also work in collaboration with other Japanese and international studios. In the past, it collaborated with Marvel on several animated series including X-Men and Wolverine.
Studio bones
Kyoto Animation
Rather than the usage of freelancers in the manufacturing procedure, Kyoto has a group of salaried animators on workforce. The emphasis is located on generating precise work rather than assembly production quotas. Offering in-residence training and providing activity security is a long way from the norm in Japanese anime.
This approach has led Kyoto Animation to develop a recognizable fashion, and the studio has produced various awesome and famous anime, which include The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Free!, Clannad, A Silent Voice, and extra. In a in addition twist in the Kyoto story, its studio burnt down in 2019, resulting inside the lack of existence and a huge quantity of sources. It has in view that rebuilt itself, and seeing it returned in movement is heartwarming.
Wit Studio
This subsidiary studio of Production IG is a relative newcomer within the international of Japanese anime, however it has controlled to make a huge effect in a short area of time.
Founded in 2012 by means of Tetsuya Nakatake, Wit Studio got to work soon after on its first popular anime collection, an anime adaption of Hajime Isayama’s manga Attack on Titan.
The first series of Attack on Titan hit the screens in 2013, and in no time in any respect, it become being held up as one of the first-rate anime collection of all time.
Wit Studio went on to supply two more seasons of Attack on Titan, earlier than it went to MAPPA Studios for the fourth season.
Other superb projects encompass Vinland Saga, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, and The Ancient Magus Bride. The studio is nicely appeared for its capability to create a one-of-a-kind art fashion for any show it's miles running on.
Toei Animation
If the call Toei Animation would not ring any clock now, it approach that the creators will virtually ring – Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon are of Toei Animation's maximum globally successful and culturally a hit merchandise 1/2 of the pop.
Similarly, Toei follows the animated series One Piece and its spin-off movies, one of the longest-running anime suggests of all time.
Toei Animation has an extended records, and is miles away from being one of the first anime studios ever. Founded in 1948, it turned into at the start referred to as Japan Animated Films.
In 1956 it became changed on the market through the Toi Company, first in Japan as Toi Doga, and inside the sluggishness of the field as Toi Animation, and then in 1998, Toi Doga became renamed Toi Animation
His first animated movie, Kitty’s Graffiti, became released in 1957, and his first function movie, Wolf Boy Ken, turned into launched in 1963.
Since then, Toei Animation has released numerous anime collection, and these days is taken into consideration one of the largest names in Japanese animation.
MAPPA Studio
MAPPA Studio was founded in 2011 by former Madhouse employee Masao Maruyama, and the name stands for Maruyama Animation Project Produce Association.
Maruyama's motive for breaking away and starting his very own studio is that he wanted to escape the corporate trappings he changed into experiencing at Madhouse, and as a substitute do initiatives wherein he had greater creative freedom.
MAPPA Studio located instant success with its first anime, Kids at the Slope, and it's been always producing huge hits ever seeing that, such as Yuri!! On Ice, Banana Fish, Jujutsu Kaisen and the final season of popular series Attack on Titan.
In an ironic twist of destiny, the studio’s fulfillment led it to become one of the maximum popular animation studios, which intended it advanced the equal kind of pressures that Maruyama left Madhouse to keep away from.
In 2016, Maruyama decided to go out the business enterprise and leave it in younger palms, so Manabu Otsuka took over as CEO, and MAPPA Studio has endured to thrive.
Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli is a big call now not just in anime movies, however in film in widespread. The studio has a popularity for generating a number of the most a hit movies of all time – now not simply in terms of anime movies, however ALL movies.
Co-based and headed up by way of the mythical director Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli is at the back of 8 of the 15 maximum-grossing Japanese anime movies of all time.
The studio has not had just outstanding business fulfillment, it has also received a legion of awards, including the Oscar for Best Animated Feature film for Spirited Away in 2003.
A aggregate of powerful and emotive storytelling with stunning and lovely animation is a feature of Studio Ghibli’s paintings, and it frequently tackles larger topics deftly.
There are too many first rate anime titles to mention, however some standout movies are Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, and Howls’ Moving Castle. A actual treasure of a studio.
Sunrise Studio
Founded in 1972 via ex-employees of Mushi Production, Sunrise has when you consider that end up considered one of the most important anime studios of all time.
Sunrise now has greater than 10 separate sub-studios running in extraordinary anime tasks. The studio is first-rate recognised for its recognition on the mecha-anime genre, and it has produced huge mecha-anime hits like the Gundam collection and its offshoots.
The studio doesn’t confine itself to mecha-anime and has produced different famend series, together with the conventional Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star.
An exciting reality approximately Sunrise is that lots of its personnel have long gone on to start their very own studios.
A general of six extraordinary former Sunrise employees have taken this direction. This shouldn’t be taken as a failing of Sunrise but as a substitute a sign that the studio knows how to spot and nurture a number of the first-rate skills in anime.
A-1 Pictures
A-1 Pictures is one of the studios that became commenced through a former Sunrise employee. Producer Mikihiro Iwata left Sunrise lower back in 2005 to set up A-1 Pictures.
The studio is a department of Aniplex, that's Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s anime manufacturing enterprise. To begin with, the studio produced a lot of family-pleasant anime, however over time it has diversified into different styles.
This is something that lots of studios do – they focus on one type of anime to establish themselves, after which they branch out into different genres to reach more anime enthusiasts and convey greater initiatives.
Some of the most first-rate projects that A-1 Pictures has produced consist of Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online, Black Butler and Seven Deadly Sins.
Ufotable
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Ufotable become founded in 2000 with the aid of former personnel of TMS Entertainment’s Telecom Animation Film department.
While it's miles a fairly new studio, it nonetheless has a number of tremendous productions beneath its belt, plus a large achievement, which we’ll get to.
It launched its first anime series in 2002, and in view that then it has produced standout anime collection including God Eater and Fate/Zero. But what placed Ufotable on the map and made them a big call became the Demon Slayer collection and movies.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba changed into a highly a hit series based on the authentic manga and written by means of Ufotable workforce.
The movie Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Infinity Train, was released as an instantaneous sequel to the primary collection of the anime display.
It have become the highest-grossing Japanese film of 2020, then took the mantle as the very best-grossing Japanese movie of all time. Pretty excellent going!
Studio Pierrot
This Japanese animation studio became based in 1979. Like many other studios, it became commenced by using former employees of other animation studios.
In this situation, the employees have been from Tatsunoko Production and Mushi Production. Studio Pierrot takes its name from the traditional individual Pierrot, because of this ‘clown’ in Japanese, and is based totally in Mitaka, Tokyo.
The studio has produced many famous anime collection, such as Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Black Clover, Tokyo Ghoul and greater.
Two of the anime collection produced by means of the agency – Saiyuki and Yu Yu Hakusho – have gone on to win Animage Anime Grand Prix Awards, that's usually a mark of nice.
Production I.G
Production I.G. Turned into founded in 1987 by manufacturer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and character clothier Takayuki Goto, and the name is derived from their initials.
The studio is thought now not most effective for its anime series and films however also for its work in video game design.
Some of the maximum famous titles that Production I.G has labored on consist of Kuroko’s Basketball, Psycho-Pass, and Eden of the East, however the satisfactory-recognised anime the studio produced is, truly, Ghost inside the Shell.
The Ghost inside the Shell anime collection become a large hit, and the feature film of the identical call turned into an worldwide sensation that even went on to get a Hollywood stay-motion version.
The studio has also earned a recognition as one of the pioneers of CG in anime, which has grow to be more of an enterprise preferred since it blazed the path.
A a laugh Production I.G reality is that the studio produced the animations in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1.
Studio Trigger
Despite most effective being just over a decade in the past old, Studio Trigger has already made a real call for itself as a studio that produces anime that is dripping in fashion and panache.
Founded in 2011 through former Gainay employees Hiroyuki Imaishi and Masahiko Otsuka, Trigger picked a route and ran in it.
Imaishi had shown his expertise on the Gainax manufacturing Gurren Lagann, earning reward for the way he combined bold and colourful animation with sharp visible humor.
The studio’s animation style has emerge as something of a trademark.
Trigger’s first anime collection became Kill la Kill, and that is arguably nonetheless the studio’s quality-regarded work.
Other incredible collection it has been behind include Little Witch Academia and Space Patrol Luluco. If you need your anime to appearance as cool as viable, you bought to Trigger.
P.A.Works
P.A. Works founder, Kenji Horikawa, had previously labored at Bee Train, Tatsunoko Production and Production I.G earlier than he stepped out on his personal.
He began P.A. Works in 2000, and for the first range of years the P.A. Works collaborated with other studios on productions. The studio didn’t sincerely produce its first anime series until 2008.
This debut anime turned into called True Tears, and on the grounds that then, the studio has been step by step churning out anime collection and movies.
Some different terrific indicates that have been produced by means of P.A. Works include Hanasaku Iroha, Charlotte, The Eccentric Family, and Angel Beats.
The studio doesn’t cognizance on any unmarried genre of anime and instead works in a number of genres, inclusive of slice-of-life and supernatural anime.
J.C.Staff
Former Tatsunoko Production director Tomoyuki Miyata founded J.C. Staff in 1986, making it one of the longest-going for walks anime studios in this list.
The J and C stand for Japan Creative, and innovative is a phrase that may truely be used to describe this Japanese animation studio.
It has a popularity for producing a number of the maximum uncommon and stale-the-wall anime accessible, with certainly one of our favorites being Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma.
Since the studio’s first characteristic release in 1987, it has produced a steady move of anime series and movies, with a extent that could be appeared as prolific.
Some highlights encompass Toradora!, Bakuman, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., and the second one season of One-Punch Man
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