Animation Studios Discussion

[Heizei_koukousei]

I thought it might be interesting to see what the Fuwa community likes or dislikes in studios.

Feel free to list a few studios that you like or comment on studios that you believe are succeeding or failing.

 

Here's a few that I have enjoyed in no particular order:

 

Bones

Production I.G

Gainax

Shaft 

and some Studio Deen 

[Ceris]

I do like Shaft, but I haven't seen a lot from them. What I have seen (Madoka, ef - a tale of memories/melodies) have really awesome artwork that's enjoyable to watch in itself.

I also like Kyoto Animation stuff, they haven't disappointed me yet. PA Works has a pretty good track record with me as well.

[Nosebleed]

Shaft, because it's Shaft.

It makes the boring turn into interesting. It makes staring at a background fun. It just adds something unique and entertaining to an otherwise dull show.

 

I also like Sunrise. Sunrise has given life to some of my all time favorite shows (inb4 Love Live). For some reason they just know what they're doing for the most part. At least with all the stuff I've seen from them.

 

KyoAni before 2011 was good (Except for Tamako Market I guess, that was a pretty fun SoL) 

I like all their older stuff but now.. it's just sad.

Kyoukai no Kanata, Chuunibyou Ren, Free season 2.. *sigh*

[Narcosis]

 

Nuff' said.

[Nosebleed]

We can close the thread now. It's all been said.

 

 

But you forgot to mention the head tilts!!

[Stanleys]

I actually never pay that much attention to the studio of whatever I'm watching, probably because I'm usually happy with whatever I'm watching. The only one I ever make an exception for is Shaft since you usually hare good things about them. Plus their art is not that hard to distinguish from other studios.

[Nosebleed]

There's some studios to be warry of though.

 

One I always remember is Idea Factory who, aside from Hyperdimension Neptunia, has only produced some of the worst, if not THE WORST anime ever

Atrocities like:

Diabolik Lovers (5.93 on MAL)

Tenkuu Danzato Skelter Heaven (2.42 on MAL)

Mars of Destruction (2.59 on MAL)

 

In fact if you see their name in any anime, you should probably not watch it.

 

 

Then again this might just be an isolated incident.

[The Major]

We can close the thread now. It's all been said.

 

I haven't seen any mention of Ufotable, though.

[Nosebleed]

I haven't seen any mention of Ufotable, though.

The only thing I've seen from them is Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight.

 

And ufotable is only really known for the Fate and Kara no Kyoukai series. They haven't made anything noticeable aside from those 2.

Of course what they did with those 2 series is supposedly great quality, I'm not denying that. But I haven't seen them for anything else so I can't judge much.

 

Don't hate pls.

[The Major]

The only thing I've seen from them is Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight.

 

And ufotable is only really known for the Fate and Kara no Kyoukai series. They haven't made anything noticeable aside from those 2.

Of course what they did with those 2 series is supposedly great quality, I'm not denying that. But I haven't seen them for anything else so I can't judge much.

 

Don't hate pls.

 

You should check out Kara no Kyoukai sometime. It's pretty cool.

[Homaru]

Im a fan of a1 pictures in my opinion they have great animation. But then again they have (Sao, vividred operations)

[solidbatman]

Mad House, Shaft, and White Fox are all studios I enjoy a lot. KyoAni is very hit and miss (mostly miss). PA Works has let me down with Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha (not even Kishida Mels, incredible character designs could save it). JC Staff is another one I haven't hated anything I've seen (which isn't much). 

[Lewycool]

Mad House, Shaft, and White Fox are all studios I enjoy a lot. KyoAni is very hit and miss (mostly miss). PA Works has let me down with Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha (not even Kishida Mels, incredible character designs could save it). JC Staff is another one I haven't hated anything I've seen (which isn't much). 

 

You just love getting "Shaft"-ed

 

Kyoto Animation is my favorite!! 

[monkeysrumble]

Ufotable and Shaft make some of my favorite animations. Ufotable not only does great animations but they just happen to do the animations for most of my favorite things (Fate and Kara no Kyoukai). It would be amazing if ufotable did a Tsukihime anime as well. Shaft just makes everything look trippy as fuck and does a good job at doing it, they are probably the most unique when it comes to animation.

 

I enjoy a lot of stuff that J.C Staff does but overall you kind of have a 50/50 chance with them. You get something good or you get a plate of mediocrity. 

[solidbatman]

Ufotable and Shaft make some of my favorite animations. Ufotable not only does great animations but they just happen to do the animations for most of my favorite things (Fate and Kara no Kyoukai). It would be amazing if ufotable did a Tsukihime anime as well. Shaft just makes everything look trippy as fuck and does a good job at doing it, they are probably the most unique when it comes to animation.

 

I enjoy a lot of stuff that J.C Staff does but overall you kind of have a 50/50 chance with them. You get something good or you get a plate of mediocrity. 

I do see a lot of complaints that Shaft is getting stale since you can expect that their anime will always be trippy. Truth is, Shinbo has been taking a step back and looks to be in a more supervising role now, which is why Nisekoi and Mekaku were animated completely different. 

[Tenkuru]

Shaft + Akiyuki Shinbo is such a great combination. Though I would like to elaborate more, I don't think there's a need to. 

Ufotable is always at the peak of animation, they're always the one to raise the bar and set new standards.

Kyoto Animation with their KeyKyoAni holy trinity is just awesome. Although I'm not really into their moe stuff, shows like Hyouka appeal to me.

Well, there're lots of other studios out there that I love, but I'm just too lazy to list them all.

[Yukiru]

Shaft rarely has something I dislike. That aside, I usually pay more attention to directors instead of studios. Perhaps a thread for directors could be born?

[Nosebleed]

I do see a lot of complaints that Shaft is getting stale since you can expect that their anime will always be trippy. Truth is, Shinbo has been taking a step back and looks to be in a more supervising role now, which is why Nisekoi and Mekaku were animated completely different.

The Nisekoi BDs were heavily edited to have trippy backgrounds if i recall correctly. I was kind of shocked with how big the difference was. They also added MORE censorship in them for some unknown reason despite the TV release already being censored enough.

I hope this doesn't become a routine.

[Praeliator]

My favourite studio would have to be Madhouse. They've produced so many anime that I love, e.g Hunter x Hunter (2011), Kaiji, Black Lagoon, Death Note + a few others. Sure they've made some mediocre or bad anime (hell which studio has never made a bad anime?) but whenever they make an anime, the quality for the most part is consistant, and that's why I rate Madhouse so highly.

 

Just throwing in my opinion.

[Down]

Hm, let's see.

 

First, there's Gainax. We'll never say it enough, but Gainax was made by otaku for otaku, and they were kinda godly in the 90s with Evangelion, Nadia, Gunbuster, Honneamise...

They've done a lot of crap in the 2000s, but also some really good stuff.

The real issue with this studio is that a lot of his talented people leaked elsewhere. Anno leaved in 2006 with some people to make Khara. Imaishi leaved in 2010 with yet other people to make Trigger. And for the last 4 years Gainax has been ridiculously irrelevant, it's really sad. No good stuff, but nothing selling well either nor anything provoking any hype.

 

Bones are probably the best animation studio of the 2000s. They did so much good stuff, they honestly used to have a good few years in advance in terms of animation technique compared with other studios. And now they're the only one still making giant robots in 2D and resisting the advance of 3D CGI. They're no as good as they were but it's a really solid studio.

 

Trigger is very young and surfs on the hype mainly. KlK was good, but it wasn't the new TTGL. They still have to prove themselves, get some more staff, produce something more solid than just hype. But hope is there.

 

Madhouse is a staple. They did lots of movies, produced a number of great directors that couldn't express themselves elsewhere, (Hosoda, Yuasa, Kon...), did very solid adaptations (Chihayafuru, HxH 2011). They've been here for a long time, and let's hope they'll still be around for a while. They might not have a very distinguishable style or genre, but they do what they do right.

 

Ufotable is also a quite young studio. I saw they were discussed above, what I'm afraid of is that now that they're renowned for KnK and Fate/Zero they'll be trapped in doing only Type-Moon stuff because of how the fandom is very possessive.

Whereas at first they didn't do stuff like that, they did stuff like Manabi Straight (which was really good btw). And nobody fucking cares about Majocco Yoyo yo Nene, their latest movie, because it's not TM stuff. Okay, it's a kids movie, but it's good.

I like them but I'd want them to stay diversified.

 

Shaft... Erm, I'm not that fan of the Shinbo/shaft style of doing stuff to begin with, and I do think doing the same thing for 10 years gets really stale at some point.

But at the same time they did too much stuff I love, like Madoka or Hidamari Sketch or Bakemonogatari, and stuff like SZS or Nanoha too. I can't really be critic of the quality of what they do, even though they also have produced a certain deal of crap.

 

KyoAni is kinda special. They're particular in the sense that they're one of the rare studios to be able to do whatever the fuck they want, because they do everything internally and have the budget for.

Sadly adapting the LN they produce doesn't seem to do them much good lately, at least in my opinion. But they did a lot of very good stuff and they've been one of the studios the most in phase with the otaku fandom those last years (it's less true lately I guess).

 

Deen was good 15 years ago. Lotsa great stuff like Patlabor of Kenshin Tsuioku-hen. But meh, now...

 

Meh, there's a bunch of others, but those are the main ones I think about when talking specifically about studios. Oh yeah, there's JC Staff too, but I don't have much anything lauditive to say about them... And stuff like PA works or Brains Base or A1-Pictures but I don't know those studios so well.