About three weeks ago, I wrote a post listing my 50 favorite anime. Last week, Scamp over on The Cart Driver analyzed his own list of favorites based on animation studio. I realized that I had never really thought about my favorite anime studios even though it’s one of the first things I look at when deciding to watch a new series. Thus, I was inspired to look back at my 50 favorite anime and, based on those, decide on my favorite studios…
What I did in order to determine my favorite anime studios was to look at the studios of each of my 50 favorites and determine two things; how many of the 50 were produced by any given studio, and the rank in my list of the anime produced by that studio. So for example, even though J.C. Staff produced more of my favorites than KyoAni, the ones KyoAni produced are ranked higher on my list overall. I also considered other factors, such as anime I like that didn’t make it on my 50 favorites, as well as my own personal feelings about the studios and their anime.
As a result, I’ve come up with my ten favorite anime studios, which you can see below. With each studio, I’ve included a list of all the anime titles from my 50 favorites that the studio produced. The number in parenthesis next to each title is its rank on my favorites list (with 1 being the highest).
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10. Studio DEEN
Ranma ½ (38)
Fruits Basket (18)
Studio DEEN isn’t known for their good animation quality, but they have produced quite a few series, many of which I’ve enjoyed. My other favorites of theirs include Higurashi, Umineko, and Hetalia.
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9. Bee Train
Phantom – Requiem for the Phantom (45)
Noir (5)
Bee Train has produced relatively few anime, most notably their “girls with guns” series (though they’ve produced others). A lot of fans dislike the slow pace and gloomy atmosphere of these series, but I personally like them. I’ve only seen three of their series (in addition to the two above, El Cazador) but I’ve held them all in high regard.
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8. GAINAX
Shikabane Hime (47)
Evangelion (10)
Even though I don’t love them as much as other fans, I have respect for GAINAX. I haven’t seen all of their big hits – in addition to the two above, I’ve seen only Kare Kano and Gurren Lagann – but I hope to see more of their titles one of these days.
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7. Production I.G.
Blood+ (46)
Kemono no Souja Erin (16)
Production I.G. has made a lot of unique, quality series. Most of them I didn’t simply enjoy, but felt they were above average. My other favorites of theirs are Eden of the East, Seirei no Moribito, and Kimi ni Todoke.
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6. Toei Animation
Konjiki no Gash Bell!! (37)
Sailor Moon (32)
Digimon (23)
One Piece (9)
Toei is known for producing popular, long-running kids anime. Me being a kid at heart and loving certain kids anime as much as any other, I had to put them on my list for having four of my favorites.
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5. Sunrise
Gundam Seed (42)
Cowboy Bebop (40)
Code Geass (20)
Inuyasha (6)
Sunrise is obviously a favorite for Gundam fans since they’ve produced all (I think) the Gundam series. I’m not a Gundam person (I’ve only seen Seed and 00) so I mostly like them for Code Geass, Cowboy Bebop, and my oldest favorite, Inuyasha.
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4. J.C. Staff
Revolutionary Girl Utena (26)
Slayers (25)
Shakugan no Shana (24)
Hayate no Gotoku! (21)
Toradora! (14)
Azumanga Daioh (7)
Thanks to my making this post, I now know that J.C. Staff has produced the highest number of my favorites. Like Studio DEEN, they’re not known for superb animation quality or extremely unique titles, but I’ve seen, and enjoyed, a good amount of their series. They have produced some true gems, like Toradora! and Azumanga Daioh.
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3. Madhouse Studios
Trigun (34)
Chobits (33)
Chi’s Sweet Home (15)
Death Note (11)
Cardcaptor Sakura (8)
Madhouse is a studio known for quality – they’ve produced a number of noteworthy titles; some that I’ve seen include Aoi Bungaku, Nana, some CLAMP series, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I mostly love them for Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, and Chi’s Sweet Home.
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2. BONES
Darker than Black (50)
Ouran High School Host Club (39)
Eureka 7 (19)
Fullmetal Alchemist (17)
Wolf’s Rain (4)
I love BONES – they’re a quality over quantity studio with awesome animation and unique, engrossing stories. I have yet to be disappointed by any of their series that I’ve seen.
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1. Kyoto Animation
K-ON! (48)
Clannad After Story (27)
Air (22)
Lucky Star (2)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (1)
And now I admit that I’m a hopeless KyoAni fan. What can I say if they’ve produced my two most favorite anime? But in all honestly, I just personally really love their character designs and beautiful, high-quality animation. I know a lot of their shows follow the moe trend, but most of their titles that I’ve seen have stood out with truly emotion, whimsical tales (the Key series) or sincerely refreshing, addicting fun (Haruhi and Lucky Star). I know KyoAni has enemies because of their insistence on moe designs and the way they market Haruhi, but for someone like me who usually prefers character-driven anime with high-quality animation, KyoAni gives me just that.
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I decided not to include Studio Ghibli on the list because they’re so different from the others and they only produce anime movies. I felt making a comparison between Ghibli and most TV anime studios would be a pointless “apples to oranges” comparison.
A couple of major studios not on my list are SHAFT and Gonzo. I actually only started watching SHAFT titles in the past year – I’ve only seen Bakemonogatari, Dance in the Vampire Bund, and Natsu no Arashi – so I have a lot of catching up to do with them. As for Gonzo, I like the stories for the Gonzo series I’ve seen, but I usually end up having issues with how they execute those stories, such as with Dragonaut, Shangri-la, and Romeo x Juliet.
Anime studios are something I’ve only been paying attention to in the past few years of my ten years as a fan. I still have much to learn about each one and lots more anime to see. Perhaps I may view certain studios differently in years to come.
My favorites would be Production I.G., Bones and not yet mentioned: Brains Base. Brains Base is relatively new in the anime world but so far they’ve made only one error (Akikan, stay away from it) next to a variety of really excellent shows. if these don’t ring any bells, you should get to work with catching up: Baccano, Kure-nai, Spice & Wolf 2, Natsume Yuujinchou and Durarara.
I think you may have listed virtually every anime studio that most people even know.
@ pietel
Yeah, the only Brains Base series I’ve seen are Spice & Wolf II and Durarara!!. The others you mentioned look good. I’ll have to check them out.
@ 2DT
I think the only other prominent ones I didn’t mention in this post are, as pietel mentioned, Brains Base, and also Studio Pierrot, A-1 Pictures, and AIC. I almost put A-1 on the list because of Kannagi and Sora no Woto, but they’re pretty new and I need to see more of their shows.
Total lack of Gonzo makes me sad. If you’ve only watched their recent stuff like Shangi-La and Romeo X Juliet then it’s pretty clear that you’d have a poor view of them. Watch their older stuff and be amazed!
That sounded like a very oldfaggery statement so I’d also like to say that Brains Base will become one of my all-time favourites if they continue progressing the way they are. They’re still new but if they continue to churn out quality like Durarara then they’re well on the way to being the next big thing, if they aren’t already
What’s with all of these anime studio lists. Oh well at least this one doesn’t try to rank them on faulty criteria and just lists favourites unlike that hilariously awful one by Jason Miao (though no more awful than usual by his standards) a couple of days ago that left me in tears of hysterical laughter.
For me my favourites are definitely Sunrise, Bones, Gainax and Madhouse. The former has finally stopped getting that bad rap it doesn’t deserve and is a favourite thanks to it’s contribution to sci-fi and mecha, the middle is excellent with it’s original titles and variation in concept and theme. For studios like Kyoto Animation who just do all moe all the time Bones is like the polar opposite and does a bit of everything and usually executes it well. Gainax is that studio that comes along with something that can only be described as awesome every few years. Finally Madhouse is the newest addition, but there contribution to dramatic anime, their equal contribution to shonen, seinen and shoujo, their excellence in cinematography and their general well roundness in all areas of production make them an everyman’s studio that earned itself an easy berth onto my favourites list.
@Scamp: I agree, Gonzo used to be very great, but unfortunately they are down and out now. They got more of a bad rap then they deserved IMO, but they still brought a lot of it onto themselves.
@ Scamp
Really? I’ll have to check out some older Gonzo then.
@ Kaioshin
Yeah, this list is strictly my personal favorites and not a list of what I think are the best studios. Like I said, I’ve only been paying attention to anime studios in the past few years so I don’t have as much knowledge about them as you or many other fans do. I hope to acquire more knowledge as time goes by =)
I agree. BONES does create unique, engrossing stories. I haven’t watched Ouran High School Host Club yet, but the 4 other shows you listed for Production I.G. are awesome<3!!! I'm planning on watching Ghost in the shell:Stand Alone Complex, Blood +, Kemono no Souja Erin, and Seirei no Moribito. I'll go check out Eden of the East and Kimi ni Todoke.
Card Captor Sakura and Code Geass belongs to CLAMP ANIMATION STUDIOS..
oh? that’s our topic in our club now…*smiles*
try researching about this… it might help you out…
oh? and..? I love all the animes you have post….
*smiles*
and? sorry.. I don’t have my own website yet.. I’ll have it soon..^_^
I am gonna post it here.. and? nice site….^_^
*smiles*
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