Madhouse (company)

Madhouse, Inc. (株式会社マッドハウス, Kabushiki-gaisha Maddohausu) is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1972 by ex–Mushi Pro staff, including Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

Madhouse, Inc.
Native name
株式会社マッドハウス
Kabushiki-gaisha Maddohausu
TypeKabushiki gaisha
(formerly yūgen gaisha)
IndustryAnimation studio and production enterprise
FoundedOctober 17, 1972 (1972-10-17)
Founders
Headquarters
Honchō, Nakano, Tokyo
,
Japan
Key people
  • Sanae Tashiro (CEO)[lower-alpha 1]
  • Akira Shinohara (managing director)
  • Satoki Toyoda (board member)
  • Kako Kuwahara (board member)
  • Hitoshi Nishioka (board member)
  • Takanori Seo (auditor)
Number of employees
70 (including contractors)
Parent
SubsidiariesMadbox Co., Ltd.
Websitemadhouse.co.jp

Madhouse has created and helped to produce many well-known shows, OVAs and films, starting with TV anime series Ace o Nerae! (produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha) in 1973, and including Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Perfect Blue, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Trigun, Di Gi Charat, Black Lagoon, Death Note, Paprika, Wolf Children, Parasyte: The Maxim and the first season of One-Punch Man. Unlike other studios founded at this time such as AIC and J.C.Staff, their strength was and is primarily in TV shows and theatrical features. Expanding from the initial Mushi Pro staff, Madhouse recruited important directors such as Morio Asaka, Masayuki Kojima, and Satoshi Kon during the 1990s. Their staff roster expanded in the 2000s to include Mamoru Hosoda, Takeshi Koike, and Mitsuo Iso, as well as many younger television directors. The studio was also responsible for the first Beyblade anime series as well as the Dragon Drive anime and the 2011 anime adaptation of Hunter × Hunter.

The studio often collaborates with known manga artists, including Naoki Urasawa and Clamp. Madhouse produced adaptations of Urasawa's Yawara!, Master Keaton and Monster, with Masayuki Kojima helming the latter two. The company has animated a number of CLAMP's titles, including Tokyo Babylon, two versions of X (a theatrical movie and a TV series), Cardcaptor Sakura and its sequel Clear Card, and Chobits.

History

Madhouse was established in 1972 by ex–Mushi Production animators, including Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, with funding from Yutaka Fujioka, the founder of Tokyo Movie, and co-produced its earliest series with Tokyo Movie. In February 2004, Madhouse became a subsidiary of Index Corporation.[1] On February 8, 2011, Nippon TV became Madhouse's primary stockholder (replacing Index Corporation), via a third-party allocation of new shares.[2] NTV bought 128,667 new shares (each ¥7,772) issued by Madhouse for ¥999,999,924 total (about $12.4 million), raising its stake in the company from 10.4% to 84.5%. Index Corporation's stake in Madhouse fell from 60.91% to 10.54%.[3][4] In January 2012, Madhouse announced their acquisition of the animation rights to the Peanuts comic strip.[5] In March 2014, NTV bought all the shares belonging to Index Corporation, increasing its stake in Madhouse to 95%.[1]

Presidents
  • Yasuo Oda (1972–1980)
  • Masao Maruyama (1980–2000; also COO from 2000 to 2011)
  • Jungoo Murata (2000–2009)
  • Hiroyuki Okada (2010–2015)
  • Masahiro Takahashi (2015–2020; also former chairman and board member)
  • Sanae Tashiro (2021–)

Others
  • Tsuneo Takayama (former board member)
  • Ren Iwasawa (former auditor)

Business

The studio employs approximately 70 employees, with employment levels varying depending on the number of productions currently underway. Additionally, the company has invested in the animation studio DR Movie.[6] Madhouse has a subsidiary, Madbox Co., Ltd., that mainly focuses on computer graphics.[7]

Works

1973–2000

2000s

2010s

2020s

Television Specials

Film

Madhouse's early theatrical work included assistance on the Barefoot Gen films, and Lensman, an anime movie based on the space opera series by pulp science fiction author E.E. "Doc" Smith.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, director Yoshiaki Kawajiri produced a string of action films including Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, and Ninja Scroll.

In the late 1990s, the studio aimed at a younger female audience with Morio Asaka's two Cardcaptor Sakura films, based on the popular television series.

In the early 2000s, an ambitious collaboration with Tezuka Productions resulted in Metropolis, directed by Rintaro and adapted from the manga by Osamu Tezuka. Earlier collaborations with Tezuka productions included two feature-length films made for Sanrio starring Tezuka's unicorn character Unico.

Director Satoshi Kon produced all four of his films with the studio: Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika, as well as his TV series Paranoia Agent. Kon was also making his fifth film the Dreaming Machine with Madhouse, although it was left incomplete at his death in 2010.

In 2003, Madhouse produced Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, which was adapted from the seinen manga Nasu by Iou Kuroda and directed by Studio Ghibli veteran Kitarō Kōsaka. Nasu was the first Japanese animated film ever selected for screening at the renowned Cannes Film Festival.[8] Kōsaka followed up his film with an OVA sequel in 2007.

In 2006, director Mamoru Hosoda began his career with the studio by directing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Recent productions included Masayuki Kojima's theatrical debut Forest of Piano (2007), Hosoda's acclaimed Summer Wars (2009), Sunao Katabuchi's Mai Mai Miracle (2009), the company's first CG animated film, Yona Yona Penguin (2009), Takeshi Koike's feature film debut Redline (2009), a theatrical version of the Trigun series, Trigun: Badlands Rumble (2010), and The Tibetan Dog, a co-production with China (2011).

The first film in the Hunter × Hunter franchise, Hunter × Hunter: Phantom Rouge premiered on January 12, 2013.

Madhouse co-produced Wolf Children (2012) with Mamoru Hosoda's Studio Chizu.

Collectively, Madhouse films have won a total of two Japan Academy Prizes, four Grand Prizes in the Animation Division at Japan Media Arts Festival, two Gertie Awards, six Mainichi Film Awards (three Ōfuji Noburō Awards, and three Animation Grand Awards), two Tokyo Anime Awards for Animation of the Year, and five Animation Kobe Feature Film Awards.

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

OVAs

(These also include some outsourced productions)

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Video games

Collaborations

Madhouse designed the characters for Hudson Soft's game Virus (the first installment of the Virus Buster Serge franchise).[10] Madhouse worked with Square Enix on the OVA Last Order: Final Fantasy VII as well as Capcom for the mini series of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.

They collaborated with Studio Ghibli by contributing animation to Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), and The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), as well as Tomomi Mochizuki's I Can Hear the Sea (1993) and Goro Miyazaki's Tales from Earthsea (2006).

Madhouse collaborated with professional rapper Snoop Dogg in the 2006 horror-comedy movie Hood of Horror, in which they assisted in the animated sections of the movie.[11]

Madhouse also collaborated with Disney for the anime Stitch! for its first and second arcs (equal to 56 episodes total), between 2008 and 2010. They also animated the intro cutscene to PlayStation video game Wild Arms and the opening movie to PlayStation Vita video game Persona 4 Golden (Persona 4: The Golden in Japan), along with opening to the PSP remake of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

They worked with Marvel Entertainment and Sony Pictures to create adaptations of Blade, Iron Man, Wolverine and X-Men,[12] and then again with Marvel Entertainment, Disney+, and Walt Disney Japan to create an adaptation of the Avengers.[13][14][15] Conversely, they worked with Marvel's rival company, DC Entertainment, Warner Premiere, and Warner Brothers to create an anthology adaptation of Batman.[16] Madhouse had also worked with Warner Brothers and Sony on separate occasions to create an anthology adaptation of the Matrix franchise, an adaptation of Ultraviolet, [17][18][19] and an adaptation of Supernatural. [20] [21] Additionally, they were commissioned by Top Cow Productions, an imprint of Image Comics, to provide an anime adaptation of Aphrodite IX. However, the project was suddenly canceled without any explanation.[22][23][24]

2010 also saw the publication of Devil, a manga intended specifically for the American market; the property is a collaboration with Dark Horse Comics, and is written and drawn by Torajiro Kishi.[25]

Madhouse also participated in animating the Wakfu TV special Ogrest, la légende in collaboration with Ankama Japan.[26]

Non-Japanese productions

In addition to Madhouse creating anime of Western media, they were also responsible for making a few notable American cartoons, particularly through collaborations with Western companies such as Hanna-Barbera, Film Roman, and HBO.

See also

Notes
  1. Since 2021.

References
  1. 沿革 (in Japanese). Madhouse Inc. Archived from the original on April 11, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  2. "NTV to Make Madhouse Anime Studio Its Subsidiary". Anime News Network. February 8, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  3. Schilling, Mark (February 8, 2011). "Japan's NTV to take over Madhouse". Variety. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  4. 子会社の第三者割当による新株式発行に伴う子会社の異動に関するお知らせ (PDF) (in Japanese). Index Corp. February 8, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2011. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  5. "Animation production for Peanuts begins!". Madhouse Inc. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  6. "DR Movie History". DR Movie. Archived from the original on February 20, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  7. 採用に関するご案内 - マッドボックス (in Japanese). Madhouse Inc. July 30, 2013. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  8. Tom Mes (June 10, 2003). "Midnight Eye interview: Kitaro Kosaka". Midnight Eye. Retrieved July 5, 2007.
  9. Romano, Sal (April 22, 2022). "Echoes of Mana launches April 27, animated trailer". Gematsu. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  10. "TGS 1997 Spring". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 95. Ziff Davis. June 1997. p. 59.
  11. Anderson, John (June 30, 2006). "Review: 'Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror'". Variety. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
  12. "Marvel Anime Heads to G4". marvel.com. July 29, 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  13. "Marvel creates a new Japanese original TV anime "Marvel Future Avengers" produced! Broadcast this summer". Animate Times (in Japanese). animateLAB Corporation. February 27, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  14. Dinh, Christine (February 25, 2020). "'Marvel's Future Avengers' on Disney+ | Meet Our Heroes". Marvel.com. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  15. Valdez, Nick (February 28, 2020). "Marvel Future Avengers Anime is Now Streaming on Disney+". ComicBook.com. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  16. "Japanese Anime Studios Confirmed for Batman Video". Anime News Network. December 8, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  17. "Ultraviolet Anime Announced". Animekon. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
  18. "Madhouse Creates New Animation From Sony's Ultraviolet". Madhouse. July 1, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  19. ANIMAX『ウルトラヴァイオレット コード044』アフレコレポート. animeanime.jp (in Japanese). May 29, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  20. "Supernatural The Animation Project Launched in Japan". Anime News Network. June 9, 2010. Archived from the original on June 13, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  21. "Madhouse Makes Anime For Warners Supernatural TV Show". Anime News Network. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  22. "[Animation] Aphrodite IX chez Madhouse - News | Catsuka".
  23. "Aphrodite IX Trailer". October 4, 2023.
  24. "Aphrodite IX Anime Trailer Available – AnimeNation Anime News Blog".
  25. "Devil #1 :: Profile :: Dark Horse Comics". Darkhorse.com. February 17, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  26. "Ogrest says: Ogrest wants his new friends to come play!". kickstarter.com. Ankama. January 24, 2014. Archived from the original on January 26, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
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