Top 10 Anime Production Studios

Did you know that, according to statistics, more than 200 anime shows and movies appear every year on TV in Japan. Also Japanese Anime make up 60% of the total world animation production. Now that's some animation that has to be produced there every year. Gladly we have many and with many I mean  approximately 1058 (according to the number listed on My Anime List) anime production studios all over Japan. Some of them have a long lasting tradition in Japan, some studios are winners of prestigious awards and some of them just fascinate us with their work. Here for you is a list of Top 10 Anime Production Studios that really deserve world's attention and especially the attention of every single otaku out there. I've done quite the research and here is the result. Enjoy!  

10.KYOTO ANIMATION 

Place 10 in this ranking is the Kyoto Animation Studio that was founded in 1981. They had their breakthrough after producing a very popular anime called "Free!". Their work "Violet Evergarden" was the first to win the Grand Prize in the Kyoto Animation Awards. Today they are famous for the following anime: Clannad, Clannad: Afterstory, K-On!, Hyouka, Kyoukai no Kanata, Lucky Star and Suzimaya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. 

9.UFOTABLE

First thing that comes to my mind when I hear Ufotable is amazing animation. Every Ufotable anime I have watched, old and new, has an amazing animation and probably have one of the best animations I have seen. It is a rather new studio founded in 2000. representing Ufotable: Fate/ Zero, Fate/ Stay Night, Kara no Kyoukai, God Eater and Tales of Zestiria the X. I believe that in the future we'll see many great works from Ufotable. 

8.TOEI ANIMATION

I think this is the production studio of my childhood. Toei Animation was founded in 1956 and has won many awards so far including the Animage Anime Grand Prix Award for the anime Galaxy Empress 999 (1981), Saint Seiya (1987) and Sailor Moon (1992). As mentioned in the beginning, it is the studio of my childhood because they are the producers of One Piece, Dragon Ball (Z), Digimon and Sailor Moon and other popular anime such as: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lovely Complex and World Trigger.

7.SUNRISE

Sunrise was founded in 1972 as a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings and has since then been an important part of the anime industry. I think it is not hard to see that Sunrise has focused its anime production on robots. Anime like Cowboy Bebop, Accel World, Mobile Suit Gundam, Planetes, Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon, Kakumeiki Valvrave and of course Code Geass all belong to one genre, Mecha. But Sunrise is also known for InuYasha and currently the best rated anime on My Anime List: Gintama. 

6. PRODUCTION I.G 

The letters I and G stand for the two founders: Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Takayuki Goto that founded Production I.G in 1987. The anime Tokyo Marble Chocolate won the Grand Prize in the Feature Film category at the 12th Seoul International Cartoon and Anime Festival held in Seoul, Republic of Korea. They are responsible for two of my favorite anime: Psycho Pass and Ao Haru Ride and many other popular series such as: Attack on Titat, Guilty Crown, Kimi no Todokoe, Higashi no Eden and Ghost in the Shell. 

5. MADHOUSE

Madhouse is a production studio that is a winner of two Japan Academy Prizes and two Tokyo Anime Awards for Animation of the Year.  Madhouse was founded in the year 1972 and has produced a lot of great anime. The most popular madhouse piece is probably Death Note followed by One Punch Man and High School of the Dead. It also produced other anime such as: No Game No Life, Hunter x Hunter, Death Parade, Black Lagoon, Btoom!, Claymore etc. One thing that all Madhouse anime have in common is their amazing, if not flawless, animation.

4.BONES

This name is in my opinion the most popular one when it comes to production studios. Bones is known for its good animation and to be honest it is a good one, no doubt. It was founded in the same year I was born, 1998. Representing Bones anime: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Soul Eater, Noragami, Darker than Black, Zestsuen no Tempest, Gosick, Eureka Seven, Kekkai Sensen and Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. 

3. A-1 PICTURES

A-1 pictures is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment that was founded in 2005. It is a really new production studio but it still produced some of the most popular anime ever. Among those is also one of my favorite anime Fairy Tail, but there are many more. Some of them are: Sword Art Online, Ao no Exorcist, Black Butler, Your Lie in April, Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic and Hai to Gensou no Grimgar.  

2. STUDIO PIERROT

The number 2. in this ranking is a production studio that was founded in 1979. It won the Animage Grant Prix Award for Yu Yu Hakusho and Saiyuki. The name Pierrot actually means clown in Japanese and of course their logo is a clown-head. My two favorite anime ever Naruto (including Naruto Shippuden) and Akatsuki no Yona are produced by Pierrot and those are not the only ones. Popular anime such as Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul and Beelzebub are a Pierrot production and there are many more. Also produced by this anime studio are: Divine Gate,  Yu Yu Hakusho, Tokyo Mew Mew, Kingdom etc.

1. STUDIO GHIBLI

Studio Ghibli is the most popular and probably most successful production studio in Japan and this is exactly why it deserves the first place. Eight out of fifteen of the highest grossing anime films in Japan are a Ghibli production. On the first place is Spirited Away, which also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2003 (I think I'll watch it tonght). Moreover, another four movies have been nominated for the same category. The Ghibli Studio has tradition and is well known all over the world. It produces anime, mostly movies, since 1985  and here are some of them: Mononoke Hime, Howl no Ugoko Shiro, Tonari no Totoro, Majo no Takkyuubin, Mimo wo Subaseba, Gedo Senki...