LO1 - Analysing Existing Animations

Unit 61: Animation Studies

Assignment: To investigate the animation industry and develop an idea for a new animation.

LO1: Understand the animation industry and its products.

LO2: Be able to plan a new character for use in an animation.

LO3: Be able to plan a new animation to feature the character they have created.

 

 

LO1 – Task 1: Analysing existing animations

 

A)        Company Structure

B)        Media applications

C)        Types of animations

D)        Regulatory Bodies 

Madhouse:

A) Company Structure:

Madhouse is based in Honchou, Nakao, Tokyo and is a Kabushiki gaisha (Stock company) which means they will be owned by a parent company and will have stock holders to let the company run. Masao Maruyuma, Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro and Yoshiaki Kawajiri founded the company in October 17, 1972. There are currently 70 employees, which include contracted employees. They are owned by several partners but are owned mostly by Nippon Television [95%] (NTV) since buying out the rest of the shares from Index Corporations. They also have their own subsidiary, Madbox Co., Ltd. The company also owns South Korean-based studios DR Movie, MOI Animation and Anihouse Sun.

B) Media applications

Their works have included anime series, OVAs (Original Video Animations), music videos and films. Madhouse has worked with quite a lot of directors who in turn become famous because of their productions. Madhouse began with film production and slowly started to integrate in to the adaptation of manga into anime series, OVAs and films around 2003. Madhouse has worked with Clamp to create a music video known as CLAMP in Wonderland. CLAMP in Wonderland features a series of characters from the Clamp’s entire canon of work. They have also worked on the sequel Clamp in Wonderland 2 that features over 100 characters from the Clamp universe.

Madhouse has worked with CG film production and owns a subsidiary known as Madbox Co., Ltd. Their subsidiary focuses on working on 3D and CG related productions. Madhouse has also worked on video games, providing animated content on certain parts such as some of the cutscenes/in-game cinematics/openings. They collaborated with quite a few prominent companies such as Square Enix, Capcom, Studio Ghibli and Disney.

C) Types of animations

Madhouse works with Japanese animation style and 3D animations with their subsidiary, Madbox Co., Ltd. They work by either adapting original manga works or by creating original work with directors. They have created several types of animations, which include fully animated films, TV series, CG animated films, OVAs and anime series. There are differences between a manga adaptation and a original animation: Usually, manga adapted films and series tend to have a more mature themes and are usually aimed towards older ages (16+) and certain original animations tend to be more for younger audiences. Madhouse has done adaptations from novels such as Record of Lodoss War, which had 8 volumes that ran from 1988 to 1993; It was adapted into an OVA series.

Examples of an adaptation that’s considered for older audiences could be Monster, a manga than ran from December 1994 to 2001 with a 74-episode adaptation. An adaptation aimed for a younger audience could be Beyblade, which ran from January 1999 to December 2003, resulting in 154 episodes between 3 seasons/adaptation.

Madhouse produces anime series, OVAs etc. on a regular basis such as the recent and extremely successful adaptation of One Punch Man. They have also adapated from video games, such as their collaboration with Square Enix in the creation of Last Order: Final Fantasy VII and Capcom, creating the Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.

D) Regulatory Bodies

Madhouse is regulated by WOWOW, a private satellite broadcasting television station and most likely the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to cover certain regulations and rules as to what they can broadcast. Anime and OVAs are generally broadcasted in the afternoon/night, which is usually in time with when educational institutes and places of learning are generally over for the day.

Nippon TV is the parent company that owns and is most likely the one who closely regulates the work Madhouse puts out and to see if it is allowed to be broadcasted, not only nationally but also internationally. WOWOW is the more lenient broadcasting centre for Japan, which is apparent due to the type of original anime series and certain media that they have broadcasted. Considering that WOWOW also features Japanese-dubbed Western TV shows are broadcasted, certain controversial content that Madhouse creates may be allowed through.