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.