|
Ashi Productions Co., Ltd. (known as Production Reed from 2007 to 2019) is a Tokyo based anime studio first established in 1975 by former employees of Tatsunoko Production. They are known mostly for their Mecha and Magical Girl anime.
Their early works were co-productions with other companies such as Nippon Animation and Movie International, with GoShogun being the studio's first complete original work. The studio was a subsidiary of Bandai from 2001 to 2005. Perhaps their most famous alumnus is Kunihiko Yuyama, who directed both Minky Momo series and would go on to direct Pokemon.
For a full, comprehensive list of their work; check out here and here
Anime Produced by Ashi (among others)[]
- Space Warrior Baldios (TV Series; coproduction with Movie International Co.)
- GoShogun (Macekre'd into part of Macron 1 in the U.S.; Ashi's first completely in-house production)
- Beast Wars II
- Beast Wars Neo
- Dancougar
- Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos
- Machine Robo: Battlehackers
- Cyber Team in Akihabara
- Blue Seed (With Production I.G)
- F-Zero Falcon Densetsu
- Magical Angel Sweet Mint
- Ultra Maniac
- Magical Princess Minky Momo
- Idol Densetsu Eriko
- Macross 7
- Tekken Chinmi
- All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants
American Projects by Ashi Production[]
- Diabolik (TV Series, along with Saerom)
- Dennis The Menace (1980s series, Key Animation)
- MASK (With KK C and D Asia, Hanho Heung Up and others)
- Mega Man
- Skysurfer Strike Force
Other projects by Production Reed (Amongst others)[]
- Agent Aika (In-Between Animation)
- Amagami SS (Key Animation)
- Another (In-Between Animation)
- Batman: Gotham Knight (In-Between Animation)
- The Big O (In-Between Animation)
- Bleach (Animation)
- Dragonball Z (Production Cooperation with Toei for movies 11, 12 & 13)
- Durarara (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two. (2nd Key Animation)
- Eureka Seven (In-Between Animation)
- éX-Driver (Negative Cutting; Production)
- Fairy Tail (2nd Key, Finish & In-Between Animation; Production Assistance)
- Genesis of Aquarion (Digital Paint; In-Between Animation)
- Gravitation (In-Between Animation)
- Hand Maid May (In-Between Animation)
- Macross Frontier (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (Key Animation)
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (Key Animation)
- Murder Princess (Key Animation)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (In-Between Animation)
- Noein (Digital Paint; In-Between Animation)
- Pokémon (Finish & In-Between Animation)
- Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (In-Between Animation)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2nd Key Animation; Production Assistance)
- Rurouni Kenshin (Final Line; In-Between Animation)
- Sailor Moon (Production Association for the S and Super S movies)
- Samurai Champloo (In-Between Animation)
- Skip Beat (2nd Key Animation)
- Slayers (Production assistance for The Movie; In-Between Animation for Premium)
- Star Driver (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Steel Angel Kurumi (Animation)
- Tiger and Bunny (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2nd Key & In-Between Animation)
- You're Under Arrest (In-Between Animation)
Tropes Associated with Production Reed[]
- Animated Adaptation: Most of their early ('80s) shows were original stories, a notable exception being Tekken Chinmi.
- Animation Bump: Like All Studios
- Cash Cow Franchise: Several of their shows.
- Conspicuous CG: F-Zero has this.
- Merchandise-Driven: Beast Wars II & Neo, the Machine Robo franchise, M.A.S.K. & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants are prime examples.
- Names to Know in Anime: Kunihiko Yuyama, later co-founder of OLM and director of Pokemon, worked with Ashi on series like GoShogun and Minky Momo in the early '80s.
- Off-Model