Anime Studios

Favourite anime studio

  • Madhouse

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Gainax

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Gonzo

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Bones

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Production I.G

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sunrise

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Kyoto Animation

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Studio Pierrot

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Studio 4°C

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
W

Wildcard

Thousand Master
In the spirit of forum revival, I have uncharacteristically decided to start a topic: 'Which is your favourite anime studio and why?'

What have they made? What are they currently releasing/producing? What was their highpoint? Give the best support you can for your studio! Oh and sorry about the limited poll options, I only included the heavyweights and most well known. There are a lot of minor studios out there.

For me it's got to be Madhouse: they've made several of my favourite series and films - on top form they're spectacular and they rarely deliver anything less than at least decent. For shows like Black Lagoon, Gungrave, Monster, Death Note and Gunslinger girl I really owe them the vote.
 
A tough call, as each Stuido has done at least 1 thing i liked, but i'll give it to Sunrise, for the gundam series, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, GaoGaiGar FINAL etc. Overall they have most of my fav series. Though i did learn a few things about the other studios like how Madhouse did the Spawm animated cartoon from a while back
 
Madhouse, for the same reasons as you - they've made a lot of my favourite series. They put a lot of effort into their work (unlike studios such as Pierrot of Naruto and Bleach fame) and you're very rarely left feeling that they cut corners, not caring about the fans who watch what they release. Their shows have excellent 'camera' angles and effects (many Death Note scenes spring to mind), with Kurozuka, a series that's airing right now, being a great example of how well they're able to make simple sequences special.

They do have their faults, though. Like every animation studio, they have a budget to work with and sometimes find themselves needing to hold back. In Claymore the action started out looking brilliant, but it did become a bit lazy towards the end with Clare's sword attacks being handled cheaply.
The other fault they have is their lack of skill at creating original endings. In Claymore the last few episodes were poor due to them not going down the Berserk path, instead opting to go with their own ending, and they did a poor job with the last few minutes of Death Note by wrongly attempting to make Light into a sympathetic character.

Gonzo would probably be my favourite if not for them being very inconsistent. Gankutsuou is easily the best looking anime TV series I've watched, it having a unique and artistic 'reflective' effect and some of the best CG in a TV series I've seen. It's too bad their other shows aren't at the same level..
 
Gainax for me. I've liked things from all the main players but Gainax wins for somehow consistently producing things I want to see. There are only a couple of duds in their whole catalogue - in fact it's faster for me to list things I didn't like from Gainax than things I liked because the former list is so short. Particular favourites are their take on Re: Cutie Honey (how is this still not on R1?), FLCL and Karekano and I'm enjoying Gurren Lagann at the moment. I will prioritise a series if Gainax is behind it because I know it will suit my tastes.

Studio Pierrot is somehow responsible for some excellent shows and some terrible ones all at once. The less good stuff has dampened my enthusiasm.

Sunrise is an staple of my collection but if they made a show I wasn't that interested in I wouldn't watch it "because it's Sunrise". That's where Gainax is strong.

Bones got my notice with FMA; it oozes quality at some points that far surpasses the manga in my opinion. Scrapped Princess was another standout and now I'm looking forward to checking out some more of their recently released localised series for myself on the strength of the studio.

Kyoani are really popular right now but most of their shows are the type I wouldn't want to buy no matter what. I'd like to see more from them in different genres to see some of this famous quality for myself. I enjoyed the few shows they did which I watched.

R
 
Aion said:
They do have their faults, though. Like every animation studio, they have a budget to work with and sometimes find themselves needing to hold back. In Claymore the action started out looking brilliant, but it did become a bit lazy towards the end with Clare's sword attacks being handled cheaply.
The other fault they have is their lack of skill at creating original endings. In Claymore the last few episodes were poor due to them not going down the Berserk path, instead opting to go with their own ending, and they did a poor job with the last few minutes of Death Note by wrongly attempting to make Light into a sympathetic character.
Click to expand...

You have a point about Madhouse's original endings but there are positive examples too - Trigun's ending was surprisingly powerful, and despite it's inconclusive nature I really liked how they ended the first series of Gunslinger Girl (too bad about the second).They fair better than many of Gonzo's infamous endings anyhow.

Really liked the point you made about them not cutting corners though, there's always a sense of maximum effort having been used even when they are restrained by budget.
 
Voted Sunrise, for sheer volume of good quality output, but if I was able to specify "other" I'd choose Studio Deen. They've proved very capable of change, I was surprised to learn that the same studio that once produced Patlabor also produced Higurashi. Madhouse would come a close second, bearing in mind they've not been around as long - everything I've seen from them has been outstanding quality.
 
The Trigun ending was very poor, in my opinion. I haven't read the manga, so I have no idea how the real story ends, but Vash not killing his enemy, instead deciding to save an insane guy who has every intention of killing every last human on the planet, wasn't exactly the ending I had in mind. It wasn't as if Vash hadn't got his hands dirty by that point... He should've been a man (for once) and ended it all.

And, if I was to be overly critical, I'd say that the final fight was very disappointing. It was pretty clear that Madhouse weren't following the manga and just threw the fight together with nothing to go on. It made me roll my eyes when Wolfwood's weapon just happened to be by Vash's hand.

Anyway. If I were to go down my list, I'm sure that many of my favourite shows would turn out to be Madhouse series. Gungrave is 4th in my top 10, Gunslinger Girls is a very good series; one that's supposed to be far better than the manga it was based on thanks to Madhouse, Monster is one of the best adult series out there....
 
Aion said:
The Trigun ending was very poor, in my opinion. I haven't read the manga, so I have no idea how the real story ends, but Vash not killing his enemy, instead deciding to save an insane guy who has every intention of killing every last human on the planet, wasn't exactly the ending I had in mind. It wasn't as if Vash hadn't got his hands dirty by that point... He should've been a man (for once) and ended it all.
Click to expand...

Meh, I felt that him killing legato covered getting his hands dirty, but hey just my thoughts. I suppose I just liked how it started and ended on a pacifistic message, even if it is slighty niave.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wildcard said:
Aion said:
The Trigun ending was very poor, in my opinion. I haven't read the manga, so I have no idea how the real story ends, but Vash not killing his enemy, instead deciding to save an insane guy who has every intention of killing every last human on the planet, wasn't exactly the ending I had in mind. It wasn't as if Vash hadn't got his hands dirty by that point... He should've been a man (for once) and ended it all.
Click to expand...

Meh, I felt that him killing legato covered getting his hands dirty, but hey just my thoughts. I suppose I just liked how it started and ended on a pacifistic message, even if it is slighty niave.
Click to expand...

I agree with this and was going to use the Legato exmple myself. Till that point Vash had always stuck to this "Love and Peace" message, and in the majority of cases it worked out. Like when he pretended to kill that rich guy's son and the dancer. The fact was he couldn't kill his brother, wanting to save him and humanity, something that was alluded to earlier on when he wanted to save a moth (i think it was a moth) from a spider. Would the ending of worked with Vash getting his hands dirty, maybe but i still like the ending what we were given. Now if only i could get my hands on the Trigun Maximum manga.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If Knives had some chance of changing, becoming a nicer person, then I would've thought the ending was ok. But Knives was never a character that could change from a baddie into a goodie in convincing fashion - from start to finish, he was painted as the evil half of Vash; a man who wanted people to die for fun.
 
Aion said:
Anyway. If I were to go down my list, I'm sure that many of my favourite shows would turn out to be Madhouse series.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting way to look at it. I ranked Gainax at the top of my list because overall, I love almost everything they have ever touched. But if I was to give a nod to the studios behind some of my absolute favourite shows it would be a very different picture:

Utena (JC Staff)
Slayers (EG Films...though it seems JC Staff took over for Revolution)
[Insert all Satoshi Kon works here] (Madhouse)
Fruits Basket (Studio Deen)
Le Chevalier D'Eon (IG)
Rose of Versailles (TMS)

Anyone else have such apparently contradictory results? I'm still sticking with my Gainax answer.

R
 
My top 10:

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo - Gonzo
Death Note - Madhouse
Code Geass - Sunrise
Berserk - OLM
Gungrave - Madhouse
Now and Then, Here and There - AIC
Fullmetal Alchemist - Bones
Naruto (excluding fillers) - Studio Pierrot
Claymore - Madhouse
Cowboy Bebop - Sunrise

Madhouse are ahead of Sunrise by 1. Going on my top 10, my vote was the correct one since Madhouse *just* about have more series in my top 10 than anyone else.
 
Judging from my favourites (at this moment in time its graviated towards Trigun, Tsukihime, Gundam 0080, and Outlaw Star) It works out something like

1 for Gonzo
1 for JCstaff
and 2 for Sunrise, but if i find the top ten list i did earlier this year i'm not sure the results would be the same :?
 
Hmm... well once you get down to it what are we actually voting on? Who have produced our favourite shows or who we think does the best job at production? The studios aren't responsible for the script / plot of a show are they?

For example, KyoAni's production values are very high but as Rui said, I wouldn't touch most stuff they've done with a barge pole (bar Haruhi).
 
You're voting for the studio that you think does the best job with what they're given.

And, yes, the studio sometimes has someone come up with the script and story from next to nothing - that's what original animations are. Gungrave was created with little to no story set - the entire episode 2-14 gangster back-story disn't exist prior to Madhouse creating the anime.
 
ayase said:
Hmm... well once you get down to it what are we actually voting on? Who have produced our favourite shows or who we think does the best job at production? The studios aren't responsible for the script / plot of a show are they?

For example, KyoAni's production values are very high but as Rui said, I wouldn't touch most stuff they've done with a barge pole (bar Haruhi).
Click to expand...

I meant it in generalised way. Quality of production is down to various factors such as director, script, source material etc - I intended it in sense of output quality overall.

To put the question bluntly: if all the studios were going broke and you could save one, which would it be?
 
Aion said:
You're voting for the studio that you think does the best job with what they're given.

And, yes, the studio sometimes has someone come up with the script and story from next to nothing - that's what original animations are. Gungrave was created with little to no story set - the entire episode 2-14 gangster back-story disn't exist prior to Madhouse creating the anime.
Click to expand...

That is because the game came first isn't it, also the backstory part ends at ep 14? I need to crack on with that series then.
 
The back-story ends a few episodes later iirc...not sure when exactly. I said 14 because EP14 is the highlight of the series.
 
Aion said:
You're voting for the studio that you think does the best job with what they're given.

And, yes, the studio sometimes has someone come up with the script and story from next to nothing - that's what original animations are. Gungrave was created with little to no story set - the entire episode 2-14 gangster back-story disn't exist prior to Madhouse creating the anime.
Click to expand...
Let me put it another way - it was Yōsuke Kuroda who wrote the screenplay for Gungrave, and he's not attached to Madhouse. So if the story was good but the animation crap I would say that would make them a bad studio and him a good writer, but if it was the other way around the reverse would be true (not a comment on the series, just an example).
 
Back
Top