Nippon Animation

Nippon Animation (日本アニメーション, Nippon Animēshon) is a Japanese animation studio.[1] The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with chief offices in the Ginza district of Chūō and production facilities in Tama City.

Nippon Animation
TypeAnimation film studio
IndustryMedia and Entertainment
Founded1962 (1962) (as Zuiyo Eizo)
June 1975 (June 1975) (as Nippon Animation)
HeadquartersKoganei, Tokyo, Japan
ProductsAnimated feature films (Anime)
Number of employees
100+
Websitewww.nippon-animation.co.jp/

Nippon Animation is famous for producing numerous anime series based on works of Western literature such as Anne of Green Gables and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, co-founders of the famous Studio Ghibli, directed several episodes in the World Masterpiece Theater series.

Company history

What is now Nippon Animation is descended from Zuiyo Eizo (Zuiyo Enterprises), an animation studio that produced several popular series in the early and mid-1970s, including 1974's Heidi, Girl of the Alps, an adaptation of Johanna Spyri's popular children's book Heidi.[2] The Heidi anime was enormously popular in Japan (and later in Europe, and the feature-length edit of the TV series saw a U.S. VHS release in 1985). Zuiyo Eizo soon found itself in financial trouble because of the high production costs of a series (presumably Maya the Bee) it was attempting to sell to the European market.

In 1975, Zuiyo Eizo was split into two entities: Zuiyo, which absorbed the debt and the rights to the Heidi anime, and Nippon Animation, which was essentially Zuiyo Eizo's production staff (including Miyazaki and Takahata). Officially, Nippon Animation Co., Ltd. was established on 3 June 1975 by company president Kōichi Motohashi. The newly rechristened Nippon Animation found success right away with Maya the Bee and A Dog of Flanders (both of which began as Zuiyo Eizo productions), which became the first entry in the World Masterpiece Theater series to be produced under the Nippon Animation name. Hayao Miyazaki left Nippon Animation in 1979 in the middle of the production of Anne of Green Gables to make the Lupin III feature The Castle of Cagliostro.

Body of work

In addition to the World Masterpiece Theater series, Nippon Animation has also produced many other series based on Western works of literature, as well as original works and adaptations of Japanese manga. Especially, until Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (1992), its peak of productions based on Western works of literature. Many of these are included in the list of the studio's works below.

Of the studio's productions not based on Western literature, the most popular is undoubtedly Chibi Maruko-chan (1990), based on the popular manga by Momoko Sakura. At its peak, this slice-of-life anime about an unusually intelligent elementary-school-aged girl and her family and friends managed an audience rating of nearly 40%, making it one of the highest-rated anime series ever (and the highest-rated anime program in Japanese history at the time).

Works adapted from Western literature

World Masterpiece Theater series
Main article: World Masterpiece Theater

Other TV series

TV specials
  • Anne's Diary: The Story of Anne Frank (Anne no Nikki: Anne Frank Monogatari) - 1979
  • Manxmouse (Tondemo Nezumi Daikatsuyaku) - 1979
  • Back to the Forest (Nodoka Mori no Dobutsu Daisakusen, English titles: Peter of Placid Forest, Back to the Forest) - 1980
  • The Story of Fifteen Boys (Hitomi no Naka no Shonen Jugo Shonen Hyoryuki, Two Years' Vacation) - 1987

Other works

TV series

TV specials, movies and OVAs

Nippon Animedia

It is a department of Nippon Animation that had a partnership with famous toy company Takara on some anime.

References
  1. "Nippon Animation Co.,Ltd". CELSYS. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  2. Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (9 February 2015). The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 9781611729092. Retrieved 6 March 2019 – via Google Books.
  3. Schilling, Mark (23 January 2015). "Nippon Animation Sets Sail With Top Crew on 'Sinbad'". Variety.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  4. Milligan, Mercedes (23 January 2015). "Nippon Animation Announces 'Sinbad'". Animationmagazine.net. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
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