Tatsunoko Evangelion Production Company
Tatsunoko Productions is a Japanese animation company located in Tokyo Japan, founded in 1962 by Tatsuo Yoshida and his brothers Kenji and Ippei (also known as Ippei Kuru). The studio has a long history and is said to be one of the anime pioneers with works including Japanese household classics such as Speed Racer, Yatterman and Time Bokkan. Tatsunoko Production was also one of the supporting production companies that helped Hideaki Anno and the Evangelion anime series to air under a strict deadline.
First Anime Series
The studio's first production was the 1965 TV anime series ‘Space Ace’. This anime was based originally on a manga written by Tatsuo Yoshida, the founder of Tatsunoko Productions that was serialized in Shueisha's Shonen Book magazine from June 1964 to May 1966. The anime adaptation was aired on TV from May 1965 to April 1966.
The story is about Space Ace, a young alien boy who had crash-landed on earth. After befriending a friendly scientist, Dr. Tatsunoko, he goes on missions and adventures to protect Earth from threatening alien invaders.
Famous Tatsunoko Productions
Tatsunoko Productions has an extensive history in not only the Japanese anime market, but also the American market. Anime series that were released were swiftly made available in the U.S and grew in popularity from a global audience very quickly. Creating Japanese anime that were become household names globally such as Speed Racer and Samurai Pizza Cats.
Here are some famous and noteworthy classic series that Tatsunoko Productions is famous for.
- Mach Go Go Go (AKA Speed Racer)
- Gatchaman
- Samurai Pizza Cats
- Teknoman
- Yatterman
- Macross
Evangelion TV Series
In addition to household classics, Tatsunoko Productions played a major role in the release of the Evangelion anime series. During the production of series, Director Hideaki Anno and studio GAINAX were under tremendous pressure. Due to time constraints, lack of funds and strain in resources, the anime series went through drastic changes before airing of the show.
From the 13th episode, the story had changed multiple times, deviating from the originally planned plot. The original script was abandoned and the first planned 28 Angels were cut down to just more than half, 17 Angels. To make the deadline of airing, many of the later episodes in the series were rewritten using abstract animation, story flashbacks, photographs and images with voice-over dialogues. And this is said to be the reason for the character mind-focused ending of the series.
Anno revealed that at the time of production there were only three employees working continuously on the series at GAINAX. Therefore the majority of the production work of the series was actually made at Tatsunoko Production.
Collaboration with the US Market
Tatsunoko Productions is one of the few production companies to actively have projects with American comics entertainment companies. In 2005-2006, Tatsunoko Production became a subsidiary of the Toy Giant, Takara Tomy. Takara had an agreement with Marvel comics to start collaborations domestically and internationally sharing the use of each companies iconics super heroes.
Tatsunoko Production heroes include, Gatchaman, Speed Racer, Yatterman, Time Boka and Zendaman. Whereas, for Marvel, heroes include Captain America, Thor, Spiderman, Iron Man, the X-Men and so on. They were planning on creating manga, live-action movies and anime series with featuring each productions characters.
History and Works
Here are some of the most recent works from Tatsunoko Productions
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (2010)
- Hutch the Honeybee: Yuki no Melody (2010)
- Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi (2010) *Co-Produced
- Princess Resurrection (2010)
- [C]: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (2011)
- Sket Dance (2011–2012)
- Pretty Rhythm: Aurora Dream (2011)
- Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future (2012)
- Ippatsu-Hicchuu! Devander (2012)
- Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san (2013)
- Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live (2013)
- Gatchaman Crowds (2013)
- Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta/Yozakura Quartet: Tsuki ni Naku (2013)
- Triple Combination: Transformers Go! (2013)
- Robotech: Love Live Alive (2013)
- Wake Up, Girls! (2014) *Co-Produced
- Ping Pong (2014)
- PriPara (2014–2017) *Co-Produced
- Psycho-Pass 2 (2014)
- Yatterman Night (2015)
- Gatchaman Crowds insight (2015)
- PriPara Mi~nna no Akogare Let's Go PriPari (2016)
- Transformers: Combiner Wars (2016) *Co-Produced
- Time Bokan 24 (2016-2017) *Co-Produced
- Infini-T Force (2017) *Co-Produced
- Idol Time PriPara (2017-2018) *Co-Produced
- Transformers: Titans Return (2017-2018) *Co-Produced
- Transformers: Power of the Primes (2018) *Co-Produced
- Kiratto Pri Chan (TV Tokyo) (2018) *Co-Produced
- The Price of Smiles (2019)
- King of Prism: Shiny Seven Stars (2019)
- Hakushon Daimaō 2020 (YTV) (2020)