Mushi Production
TypePrivate
IndustryJapanese animation
Founded1961 (original company)
November 26, 1977 (revived company)
FounderOsamu Tezuka
Defunct1973 (original company)
HeadquartersFujimidai, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan
Websitewww.mushi-pro.co.jp

Mushi Production (虫プロダクション, Mushi Purodakushon, "Bug Production") or Mushi Pro[lower-alpha 1] for short, is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Fujimidai, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan.[1] It previously had a headquarters elsewhere in Nerima.

The studio was headed by manga artist Osamu Tezuka.[2] Tezuka started it as a rivalry with Toei Animation, his former employer, after Tezuka's contract with Toei expired in 1961. The studio pioneered TV animation in Japan, and was responsible for many successful anime television series, such as Astro Boy, Gokū no Daibōken, Princess Knight, Kimba the White Lion, Dororo and Ashita no Joe, as well as more adult-oriented feature films such as A Thousand and One Nights, Cleopatra (the first Japanese X-rated animated film) and Belladonna of Sadness.

In addition to doing their anime productions, Mushi was best known for its overseas work on five traditionally animated TV projects from Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass' Videocraft International (now Rankin/Bass Productions) in New York, New York, including the Christmas special Frosty the Snowman, with the production artwork being done by Paul Coker, Jr., along with the animation supervision by Yusaku "Steve" Nakagawa.

Morisawa argues that Tezuka "proposed an unrealistically suppressed production budget... in an attempt to outbid his competitors", a budget that contributed to the Studio's (and industry at the time) low profitability.[2] Mushi, plagued by financial difficulties, declared bankruptcy in 1973 and its assets were divided.[2] Tezuka had already left the company by then, having stepped down as acting director in 1968 and formed a new animation studio, Tezuka Productions (which made such works as Marvelous Melmo and Unico). The company was later reestablished on November 26, 1977, and has continued to operate as "legacy company" until today.

Productions

Original (1962-1973)

(based on the works of Osamu Tezuka)

Films

  • Tales of a Street Corner (November 5, 1962) - experimental film
  • Male (November 5, 1962) - experimental film
  • Memory (September 21, 1964) - experimental film
  • Mermaid (September 21, 1964) - experimental film
  • Mighty Atom, the Brave in Space (July 26, 1964)
  • Cigarettes and Ashes (October 1, 1965) - experimental film
  • The Drop (October 1, 1965) - experimental film
  • Jungle Emperor Leo Movie (July 31, 1966)
  • Pictures at an Exhibition (November 11, 1966) - experimental film
  • Genesis (October 1, 1968) - experimental film

Television series

Television specials

Non-original (1968-present)

(original TV/film productions, or adaptations of other material)

Television series

Films

OVAs

Commission work

See also

  • Tama Production, an animation studio founded in 1965 by former Mushi Production animator Eiji Tanaka, but gone bankrupt in 2011
  • Tezuka Productions, an animation studio founded in 1968 as a spun-off division by Tezuka
  • Group TAC, an animation studio founded by former Mushi Productions employees, including sound effects director Atsumi Tashiro, and animators Susumu Akitagawa and Gisaburo Sugii, went bankrupt in 2010
  • Madhouse, an animation studio founded by former Mushi Production animators, including Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro and Yoshiaki Kawajiri
  • Sunrise, an animation studio founded by former Mushi Production animators
  • Studio Pierrot, an animation studio founded by former Mushi Pro employees, along with the other employees from Tatsunoko
  • Kyoto Animation, an animation studio founded in Kyoto by former Mushi Pro staff
  • Shaft, a studio formerly concerned with cel work that eventually branched off into original productions, founded in 1975 by Hiroshi Wakao
  • Studio Gallop, animated studio founded in 1978 by former Mushi Pro staffs

Notes

  1. ↑ shortened as Mushi Puro (ムシプロ) in Japanese.

References

  1. ↑ Home. Mushi Production. Retrieved on March 15, 2012. "〒177-0034 東京都練馬区 富士見台2-30-5"
  2. 1 2 3 Morisawa, T. (19 August 2014). "Managing the unmanageable: Emotional labour and creative hierarchy in the Japanese animation industry". Ethnography. 16 (2): 262–284. doi:10.1177/1466138114547624. S2CID 147049529.
  3. ↑ "The Japanese Studios of Rankin/Bass". Cartoon Research. April 14, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
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