Nippon Animation


is a Japanese animation studio founded on June 3, 1975. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with its headquarters in their Tama City studio and an administrative head office in the Ginza district of Chūō.
Nippon Animation is known for producing numerous anime series adapted from works of Western literature as well as original works and manga adaptations such as the World Masterpiece Theater series with entries such as Rascal the Raccoon, Anne of Green Gables, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tales of Little Women, Romeo's Blue Skies among others as well as Maya the Bee, Papuwa, Uchūsen Sagittarius and Chibi Maruko-chan which has become a major hit for the studio in Japan and globally. Amongst many of its past and present staffers include Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, co-founders of Studio Ghibli. Aside from animation production, the company also handles character licensing.
The titular protagonist from Rascal the Raccoon serves as the studio's mascot.
WWW nippon-animation.co.jp𝕏 nichiani_kohoYT UCKsZgsxifJpNFLQx52UTcIA

History

Early history (as Zuiyo Eizo)

What is now Nippon Animation is descended from Zuiyo Eizo, an animation studio and planning and production company founded in April 1969 by TCJ former manager Shigeto Takahashi.
Zuiyo Enterprise was the former sales division of the animation studio, TCJ before it spun off in March and was formally established the following month.
The studio has been involved in the planning and production series based on Western literature in the early and mid-1970s such as Moomin, Vicky the Viking and 1974's Heidi, Girl of the Alps, an adaptation of Johanna Spyri's popular children's book Heidi. The Heidi anime was enormously popular in Japan. Zuiyo Enterprise soon found itself in financial trouble because of the high production costs of a series it was attempting to sell to the European market.
The company was involved in the production of animated series for the TV anime staple Calpis Comic Theater, later known as World Masterpiece Theater, broadcast on Fuji TV. These series were based on children's literature such as Moomin and Andersen Stories. These earlier series' animation were commissioned to two other studios: Mushi Production and Tokyo Movie Shinsha, while Zuiyo was mainly involved in the planning.
In 1972, after changing its headquarters, Zuiyo Enterprise formed an animation studio division known as Zuiyo Eizo. By this time, Zuiyo was working on its first independent production based on Johanna Spyri's Heidi, an ambitious project on which Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki also worked on. In 1967 Takahashi had already produced a short pilot for a Heidi series with TCJ, but the project was shelved. In the meantime Zuiyo also worked on Vicky the Viking, a German co-production with ZDF and ORF, based on Runer Jonsson's eponymous book series. In 1974 Heidi, Girl of the Alps and Vicky the Viking were broadcast in Japan, soon gaining a huge success also in Europe. Nevertheless, Zuiyo Eizo found itself in financial difficulties due to the high production costs of its series, not enough repaid by the selling of its properties to European market. In 1975, Zuiyo Eizo was split into two entities: Zuiyo Co., Ltd., which absorbed the debt and the rights to the Heidi anime and other previous series, and Nippon Animation, which was essentially Zuiyo Eizo's production staff, which would continue to produce World Masterpiece Theater, retaining the rights of other series on which the studio was working on, such as A Dog of Flanders and Maya the Honey Bee.

Modern History (as Nippon Animation)

In 1975, Zuiyo Eizo's staff spun off its studio into a separate company known as Nippon Animation, which was essentially Zuiyo Eizo's production staff. 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 Honey Bee and A Dog of Flanders, 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. As a result, Zuiyo Enterprise absorbed the debt and the rights to the Heidi and Vicky the Viking television series and continued operations until 1988, when due to its debt, the copyrights for the Zuiyo Enterprise programs moved to a separate company under the Zuiyo name.
A lawsuit by 361 voice actors was filed against Nippon Animation and its recording production subsidiary Onkyo Eizo System in demand of unpaid royalties from DVD releases of the studio's series. After four years, a judge ruled in 2003 that Onkyo Eizo owed 87 million yen to the actors, but dismissed the case against Nippon Animation as they deemed actor compensation to be the responsibility of the recording studio. Both parties appealed the decision. On 25 August 2004, the Tokyo High Court upheld the ruling against Onkyo Eizo and also found Nippon Animation liable, ordering both companies to pay the 87 million yen. The Supreme Court of Japan upheld the ruling in 2005.

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, 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 and its 1995 revival, 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.

Works adapted from Western literature

Other TV series

Vicky the Viking – 1974–1975

TV specials

Other works

TV series

Films

TV specials

Original video animations

  • Locke the Superman: Lord Leon – 1989
  • Bucchigiri – 1989
  • Bucchigiri 2 – 1990
  • Bucchigiri 3 – 1991
  • Locke the Superman: New World Command – 1991
  • Bucchigiri 4 – 1991
  • Jungle Wars – 1991
  • Boku wa Ō-sama – 1996
  • Hunter x Hunter – 2002
  • Shiritsu Araiso Koutougakkou Seitokai Shikkoubu – 2002
  • Hunter x Hunter: Greed Island – 2003
  • Pink Crayons – 2004
  • Hunter x Hunter: G.I. Final – 2004
  • Resident Evil 4: Resident Evil Masterpiece Theater: Leon and the Mysterious Village – 2023

Nippon Animedia

It was a subsidiary of Nippon Animation.
;Works