One thing that always surprises me is how numerous anime studios are significantly more discussed in Japan rather than the West and vice versa. This mainly comes down to the difference in taste with niche anime often proving to be more popular in the West than mainstream ones. Nonetheless, it’s always important to remember that fact, that a lot of the anime we consume is niche and that many mainstream titles are ignored, which is why I thought I might highlight Nippon Animation, a company that has proven to be one of the most important and impactful anime studios in the history of the medium, discussing some of their history as well as some particularly notable series from them.
Nippon Animation was founded in 1975 after Zuiyo Eizo, a studio founded in 1969, was split into Nippon Animation and Zuiyo. Zuiyo Eizo had been working on World Masterpiece Theater and Nippon Animation continued to work on these series. While this left arguably the most famous of all World Masterpiece Theater series, that being Heidi, Girl of the Alps in the hands of Zuiyo, Nippon Animation continued to work on World Masterpiece Theater from their founding to 1997 and then from 2007 to 2009, creating international hits such as A Dog of Flanders, Anne of Green Gables and Tales of Little Women to name only a few.
While particularly notable in their catalogue, Nippon Animation had done much more than the World Masterpiece Theater series with numerous other anime adaptations of Western literature including The Adventures of Pinocchio, The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli and, perhaps most famously, Future Boy Conan, a very important TV series in the filmography of Hayao Miyazaki.
However, they did not restrict themselves to adaptations of Western Literature and, within a year of their founding, began working on an anime adaptation of Dokaben, an adaptation of the popular manga series notable for having the second most volumes of any manga series ever. It may also interest Western fans that Nippon Animation was responsible for the first anime series of Hunter x Hunter which ran from 1999 to 2001 as well as the OVAs from 2002 to 2004.
However, by far their most successful series outside of World Masterpiece Theater has to be their anime adaptations of Chibi Maruko-chan. Based on the manga of the same name, Chibi Maruko-chan ran from 1990 to 1992 with the second series beginning in 1995 and continuing to this day! Chibi Maruko-chan is also notable having one of the most watched anime episodes of all time! This episode, Maru-chan Does an Experiment, aired on the 18th of October, 1990, and managed to get an audience share of 39.9%, a feat only comparable to the original Astro Boy’s 40.3% in the 1960s!
Between the international success of World Masterpiece Theater and the incredible popularity of Chibi Maruko-chan, there is no doubt in my mind that Nippon Animation is one of the most important anime studios in the industry and is deserving of greater attention by Western fans of anime. Let me know your thoughts on Nippon Animation, which of their series you’ve seen, what you thought about them, whether you’d heard of them before and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!