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A-1 pictures is a company established by Experimentx to strengthen animation production capabilities, and its production mainly follows the production policy of Aniplex, and Aniplex, as a well-known animation distribution company in Japan, has accumulated rich experience in creating popular IP and using IP. A1 classic IP, including "Confused Restaurant", "Idol Master", "Sword Art Online", "His Royal Highness the Prince of Song", is not only popular but also has amazing vitality.
Author: Mo Nianci
Another year in April, the arrival of the new fan, produced by A-1 pictures, "Miss Hui Ye Wants Me to Confess" ended with joy, the proud student president Bai Yin Miyuki still did not share the victory and defeat with Miss Hui Ye, but some people said that the biggest winner of this anime was Fujiwara Chika, the secretary of the student union of Hidechi Academy, after all, this is a woman who conquered a million otaku with a one-minute secretary dance.
Along with "Miss Hui Ye Wants Me to Confess" is also "Sword Art Online Alicization" produced by A1, but this is only a short departure, as a well-known light novel IP in Japan, A1 has invested a lot of production resources in animation production, and the second half of the Alicization chapter of the split animation will return in October this year.
Looking back at the production company A-1 pictures behind these two animations, its unique animation production mode and creative style also have a lot of noteworthy places. In the early years, A1 had left a "tragic A1 animation" in the animation enthusiast circle due to the poor quality of many adaptations of animation, but from the perspective of animation production in recent quarters, A1 has had amazing performances in different fields of animation production.
A-1 pictures with the producer as the core
In order to expand its business areas, Sony established Sony Image Entertainment Publishing House in 1995, and then established a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment, established sony image entertainment visual workshop in 1997, in 2001 the company merged into sony music, became its wholly-owned subsidiary, and in 2003 changed its name to Aniplex, the company name is animation (Animation) and complex (Complex) composed of two words, meaning the company has a multi-faceted feature in the field of animation. However, Aniplex does not participate in the production of animation as an animation company, usually in the form of a funder and distributor to join the production committee, and if Sony Music and its subsidiaries participate in the music production of the animation, they will also participate in the name of Aniplex.
In 2005, Aniplex wanted to take on the animation production business more directly and decided to establish a stable and high-quality animation production company, and A-1 Pictures was officially established. In 2006, after the animation "Clockwork Samurai" co-produced by A1 and Noside was broadcast, it immediately went into independent production. In October of the same year, A-1 Pictures moved its headquarters to Azagaya Studio in Sugiwa-ku, Tokyo, and in 2007, the first TV anime independently produced by A-1 Pictures, "Ace Pitcher Boom booming", was broadcast.
Since 2008, A1 has formed a large-scale process production system, in October 2008 for the first time completed a season of multi-open, in the same quarter there were A1 production of "Black Deacon", "Shinho", "Absolutely Can Do Greek Mythology" three works broadcast, in just 13 years since its establishment completed the production of 90 TV animation, output capacity has been widely recognized in the industry. Such a prolific creative ability is related to the producer system of A1, which has recruited and trained a large number of star producers since its inception, and independent producers have formed animation plans and organized corresponding teams to create.
For example, Igarashi Mori, the producer of A1's first anime "Clockwork Samurai", after which he served as the producer of many works such as "Confused Restaurant", "My Girlfriend and the Tragic Shura Field of Aome Takema", "Magical Girl Naye", "Teacher Eromona", etc.; another producer, Matsuhiro, was directly linked to works such as "Goddess Tales ~ Soul of the Trinity~", "From the New World", "All Become F"; recently because "Miss Huiye wants me to confess" Kenshiro Yamada, an active A1 producer, has previously served as the producer of series of animation series such as "The Emperor's Sacred Seal Battle Record", "Seven Great Sins", and "Learning to Fight the City".
From a certain point of view, the production mode with the producer as the core determines the production style of A1. Because of the differences in each producer's personal style and the different network channels, this ultimately makes A1's works have both fantasy harem themes and detective puzzle types, and a single idol branch can not only take the male-oriented "Idol Master", but also play the female-oriented "His Highness the Prince of Song". There are also differences in the animation styles that different producers are good at producing, for example, the animation produced by Igarashi Mori is mostly a cute daily theme, and many of Yamada Kenshiro's previous works are fantasy themes.
However, the producer core system also has certain drawbacks, because the production of people and the length of the construction period are different, although A1 can ensure that more than one season, but it is difficult to ensure the quality of each work, 12 to 13 years of production of a large number of works in the emergence of a large number of painting collapse, which is also the source of the "tragic A1 animation" this animation stem.
A1 How to play with popular IP
As mentioned above, A1 is a company established by Aniplex to strengthen animation production capabilities, and its production project mainly follows the production policy of Aniplex, and Anipplex, as a well-known animation distribution company in Japan, has accumulated rich experience in creating popular IP and using IP. A1 classic IP, including "Confused Restaurant", "Idol Master", "Sword Art Online", "His Royal Highness the Prince of Song", is not only popular but also has amazing vitality.
Based on the manga of the same name (Inuyasha) magazine created by Takatsu Yanno, Confused Restaurant was released on a radio drama CD on January 27, 2007, and was released on August 9, 2009 in the "ヤングガンガ Fes. At the event of "アニメのおかげ SUMMER 2009", the decision to animate TV was announced, and the first season of the anime was released in April 2010, with disc sales reaching 26,000; the second season of "WORKING'!! Confused Restaurant began airing on October 1, 2011, with 14,600 disc sales; the third season of WORKING !!! Confused Restaurant began airing on July 5, 2015, with disc sales of 4,800 copies; the TV anime "WWW. WORKING!! Confused Restaurant began airing on October 1, 2016, with 2,700 disc sales.
"The Idol Master" is an adaptation of the game of the same name released by Bandai Namco, as part of the PROJECT IM@S 2nd Vision project, domestic fans usually refer to the abbreviation "Hermès" of IM@S, and the game is divided into main series, Cinderella girl series, million live series, SideM series, shiny COLORS series according to the protagonists. The first anime, based on the main series of the game, was broadcast in July 2011, followed by the 26th episode of the special episode on June 16, 2012, the theatrical version of "The Idol Master Theater Edition" to the other end of the glory! it was released in Japan on January 25, 2014.
The first TV anime of the anime was produced by A1, supervised by the original GANAX-born Nishiori Atsushi, and trigger, who was founded from GAINAX, also assisted in the production of this game, because the high quality of the animation set off a boom in idol animation, and since then, the peripheral products such as setting sets, music albums, and character handicrafts have achieved good sales, and the concert starring the anime voice actor is called the annual fan celebration. After this, "Idol Master Cinderella Theater" and "Idol Master SideM" have also been animated.
"Sword Art Online" is a famous Japanese light animation IP, the original work is Kawahara in order to participate in the 2002 electric shock game novel award and wrote a long novel, but because the article is too long to participate, it was serialized on the Internet in the name of Kuri Shisheng began to receive a lot of attention in 2004, the book version was published and distributed by the Electric Shock Library in April 2009, from 2012 to 2013 for two consecutive years won the first place in this light novel really powerful selection, through the popularity of the original work, in 2012 by A-1 pictures adapted it into an anime and has a certain popularity in The country, in which the protagonist Kiritani and the voice actor Matsuoka Akira also became popular because of their recognizable voices, and since then they have played voice actors of similar types of roles many times. The second part of the anime, the second tv anime, was broadcast in July 2014, the theatrical version of the anime Sword Art Online: Battle of the Sequences was released in Japan in February 2017 and introduced to China, and the third part of the anime, Sword Art Online Alicization, was broadcast in October 2108, divided into two separate stages. Because of the popularity of TV animation, related products including light novels, comics, games, and handmade have achieved good sales, and the relevant creations of the heroine Yasna in the animation have been ranked at the forefront of P station and niconico.
CloverWorks under different styles
In 2012, A1 set up Kogenji Studio in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, and on April 1, 2018, Takaenji Studio was renamed CloverWorks, and on October 1 of the same year, CloverWorks became independent from A-1 Pictures as a new brand under Aniplex, and the animation producers of several animations were changed from A-1 Pictures to CloverWorks, namely "Slow Start" and "DARLING" In the FRANXX, Persona 5 the ANIMATION and Reverse Judge Season 2, A-1 Pictures announced the move to strengthen the studio's independence. Thanks to Aniplex's deep pockets and numerous star producers, CloverWorks has dedicated 8 animation works in just two years since its establishment, all of which have different styles in style.
"DARLING in the FRANXX" that began broadcasting in January 2018 was called by domestic fans as a "national team" that can represent Japanese animation because of the luxurious production and voice actor lineup, this animation is supervised by Atsushi Nishikori, trigger jointly produced by the machine combat animation, since the beginning of the broadcast has caused great controversy, some viewers think that the love content of the work is too noisy for the aircraft combat theme, but there are also many fans because of popular roles such as 02, mold and other popular characters and support this animation. With the discussion of the plot of the animation, the "Berry Conscience" emoji produced by some fans has also become a classic animation meme.
Released in October 2018, "Young Pig-Headed Boy Won't Dream of Bunny Girl Sister" is adapted from a light novel created by Kamo Shida and published in the Electric Shock Library in 2014, which received 74.17 million views on Station B and confirmed the production of a theatrical version of the animation, which was released in the summer of 2019. The characters Azusakawa and Mai Sakurajima are both popular.
In January 2019, the new "Covenanted Neverland" is also a popular anime work produced by CloverWorks, adapted from the Japanese "Weekly Shonen Jump" serial of the same name of the juvenile manga, originally as Shirai カイウ, the manga won the Elementary School Manga Awards Junior Awards in 2017, and after the completion of the first issue, it was officially announced that the second phase of the anime would start broadcasting in 2020. Due to the high popularity of the original manga itself, the anime has received a wide audience since the decision to animate, and the 37,000 viewers who gave the anime a high score of 9.8 on the B station also proved that fans recognized the animation of the game.
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