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Curated category

Japanese animation studios

GEMBA (studio)GEMBA is a Japanese animation studio with an unusual origin story: it spent its first decade working in the background before anyone outside the industry…
MillepenseeMillepensee is a Japanese animation studio founded in 2013 and based in the Nerima district of Tokyo. At its heart is an unusual creative partnership…
The Association of Japanese AnimationsThe Association of Japanese Animations, known by its initials AJA, speaks for an industry that reaches every corner of the world.
Studio GhibliStudio Ghibli was founded on the 15th of June, 1985, in Japan, and it took its name from a desert wind. The word "Ghibli" traces back to the Libyan Arabic…
CoMix Wave FilmsOn the 15th of October 2024, Toho announced it had bought 45 shares in CoMix Wave Films, a stake equal to 6.09 percent. The acquisition raised a question.
Liden FilmsLiden Films was founded on the 22nd of February, 2012, in Suginami, Tokyo. In the years since, this single studio has grown into a network of five branches…
Bandai Namco FilmworksBandai Namco Filmworks has won more Animage Anime Grand Prix awards than any other studio. Those awards are voted on by Japanese fans, and those fans kept…
Studio PonocStudio Ponoc's logo shows a young witch named Mary Smith, watching the way Totoro watches from Studio Ghibli's own crest.
Mushi ProductionMushi Production was born from a rivalry. When manga artist Osamu Tezuka's contract with Toei Animation expired in 1961, he did not simply move on.
Studio PierrotStudio Pierrot opened its doors in May 1979, founded by four animators who had each cut their teeth at two of Japan's most storied studios: Tatsunoko…
A-1 PicturesA-1 Pictures was founded on the 9th of May 2005, when Sony Music Entertainment Japan's anime arm, Aniplex, spun off its animation production division into a…
SatelightSatelight is a Japanese animation studio whose very name encodes its origins: S for Sapporo, A for Animate, T for Technology, and E for Entertainment.
Good Smile CompanyGood Smile Company sells some of the most recognizable figurines in the world, yet the company began not as a toy manufacturer but as an event management and…
Kyoto AnimationKyoto Animation occupies a small corner of Uji, a city in Kyoto Prefecture, but the studio's influence on Japanese animation stretches far beyond its address.
Nippon AnimationNippon Animation was founded on the 3rd of June 1975, but its story begins six years earlier in a moment of creative ambition that nearly broke the company…
TMS EntertainmentTMS Entertainment traces its roots to 1946, when a textile manufacturer was founded in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, with no connection to cartoons whatsoever.
Wit StudioWit Studio opened its doors on the 1st of June 2012, born out of one of Japan's most respected animation companies. A small group of producers and directors…
OLM (studio)OLM began its life not as a household name, but as Oriental Light and Magic, a small Japanese animation company founded on the 3rd of October 1990 by nine…
Bones (studio)Bones, a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Igusa, Suginami, Tokyo, began in October 1998 with a staff of exactly eight people.
Madhouse, Inc.In 1972, a group of animators left Mushi Production to establish Madhouse. Masao Maruyama and Osamu Dezaki led the charge alongside Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
Gonzo (company)Gonzo, the Japanese anime studio, was not born in a conference room or a corporate boardroom. It grew out of the creative wreckage of Gainax, the legendary…
MAPPAMasao Maruyama was seventy years old when he founded MAPPA on the 14th of June 2011, in Suginami, Tokyo. The name spells out Maruyama Animation Produce…
P.A. WorksP.A. Works is a Japanese animation studio that opened its doors on the 10th of November 2000, in the city of Nanto, in Toyama Prefecture.
Production I.GProduction I.G is a Japanese animation studio that rewrote its industry's business rules from the inside. In 1996, its film Ghost in the Shell reached number…
Toei AnimationToei Animation traces its origin to the 23rd of January 1948, when animators Kenzō Masaoka and Sanae Yamamoto founded a company called Japan Animated Films.
UfotableHikaru Kondo established Ufotable in October 2000 within Shinjuku, Tokyo. The studio emerged from the experience of a former Telecom Animation Film producer…
Studio 4°CStudio 4°C takes its name from a precise physical fact: four degrees Celsius is the temperature at which water reaches its greatest density.