Here we are at Day 7 and we are looking at my favourite animation studio. Given I’ve done two top 5 lists on specific studios it is probably pretty clear who I’m going to pick. Definitely Studio Bones. If you missed my top 5 fun series from Bones you should definitely check out that post.
But why do I like them so much?
Mostly I’m fairly indifferent to the studio that produced something (or at least I used to be), however I noticed that there are certain studios that come up over and over again when I look at some of my favourite titles. Bones just happens to have produced a large number of my absolute favourite anime ever. As a direct result, if someone tells me Bones is involved in something, I’ll at least give it a look. That isn’t a guarantee I’ll like it. There are definitely titles from Bones that have fallen kind of flat for me.
But with titles like Darker Than Black, Soul Eater, Wolf’s Rain, Snow White with the Red Hair, My Hero Academia, Ouran High School Host Club, Noragami, and so many others, Bones was an easy choice for this question.
Which studio would you have chosen?
Are you a fan of 100WordAnime.blog?
If you like this site and you like what I do, consider becoming a patron.
Thanks,
Karandi James.
Bones is a great choice and they still would’ve been one of my favourite studios even if they hadn’t released anything but FMA, Darker Than Black, Eureka Seven and Scrapped Princess. I really like that Bones like and know how to make adventure anime, anime about travelling and at the same time the plot is typically decent too (MHA is an exception, hehe). Oh, and the way how their series are drawn – that style is easy to recognize!
The best one to me is still Gainax, though. Unfortunately, they haven’t released anything worth mentioning in a while and all the series they released in last few years were… meh. Shaft is great too, although I guess that if they didn’t have Akiyuki Shinbou on board than we wouldn’t even think about them as about a candidate into an any “best” list. And P.A. Works, of course.
FMA:B, Noragami, OHSHC, Akagami no Shirayukihime, Escaflowne, and Angelic Layer are the series I loved by Bones, but surprisingly for me, it’s not the studio that comes up first when I think about my favorite studio.
For me, I guess it’s either Madhouse or Production IG. Or A-1 Pictures. And of course, Ghibli! I also like PA Works because of their lovely visuals, too. They only have a few shows under their belt, though, and they’re either hit or miss. ufotable’s Fate UBW’s visuals are stunning too but I haven’t watched much of them.
I’m struggling to think of what Madhouse have done. I probably know and just can’t remember but I’ll google it later and wonder how that slipped my mind.
I guess I should have mentioned some titles. Madhouse is the studio that handled Hunter x Hunter (2011), Death Note, Cardcaptor Sakura, Chihayafuru, and Satoshi Kon movies, just to name some titles. They also did Daiya no A, but with Production IG. 🙂
Thanks. I knew I would know them, I was just struggling to think of any off the tope of my head. From that list, I love Death Note and Cardcaptor Sakura.
I think anyone that’s been reading your blog for a decent amount of time could have guessed this, but it’s an apt choice nonetheless. Bones has done some great work.
If I were going by which studio has done most of my favorites it would probably be A-1 Pictures, but in addition to Bones I’ve frequently found the stuff that Madhouse makes to be worthwhile.
I had to get an easy question eventually.
A-1 has actually done quite a few anime I like and I was thinking of using them for my next studio based top 5 list. I might need to get around to that sooner rather than later.
Whelp, I’m no expert about studios either, but I think I can associate Ufotable with great and glorious animation (or at least from the year they did Fate/Zero), Shaft with head tilts and particular animation, KyoAni with Moe and gorgeous eyes.
Weird how I never really took into account Bones though, as some of my favourite are done by it. I’m unsure about which I would pick though, probably Shaft as of now (they will also do Fate/Extra! And adapting Fate series was pretty much the main point Ufo had in advantage for me).
Shaft is hit and miss for me. I love some of their stuff and other titles I just can’t get into. THat said, I like the look of a lot of Shaft’s titles.
But mostly I just try shows and usually I’m halfway through the show before I even pay attention to which studio was involved.
Unless it’s for some particular elements, I don’t really pay much attention to the studios either.
Shaft did both Monogatari and Ef – a tale of, which I really love, that’s my main reason. But they are only ones among my favorites I can remember at the moment.