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Founded in 1972 by Toru Hara after he left Toei Animation, after many Toei staffers were thinking that the studio was jumping the shark. The studio is primarily known for its outsourcing work for other producers, both anime and Western Animation.
In the early 1970s, Topcraft was one of the earliest Japanese animation studios to handle outsourced production work for Western (mostly American) producers, well before Toei and TMS started to do the same. With the bankruptcy of Mushi Productions (Osamu Tezuka's former studio) in 1973, Rankin/Bass began using Topcraft as their go-to overseas animation studio for non-stop-motion work, and would utilize Topcraft's services on The Last Unicorn, The Flight of Dragons and The Hobbit, as well as TV specials such as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Stingiest Man in Town. They also animated the first half of Doctor Snuggles.
In between all the outsourced work, Topcraft worked on a few genuine anime series as well, though again, most of it was outsourcing work for bigger production companies, including Toei (including the studio's first credited work, on Mazinger Z[1]), TMS and Tatsunoko. Their other anime work includes several episodes of the second Lupin III series, Macross, Time Bokan, and Adventures of the Little Koala (a staple of early Nick Jr), but their biggest moment was undoubtedly animating Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in 1984.
Topcraft's most famous alumnus is probably Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno, who worked on Macross and Nausicaa before he co-founded Gainax. Other notables who have worked with Topcraft include Kazuo Komatsubara (character designer on Nausicaa), Kazuyuki Kobayashi, Hidekazu Ohara, Katsuhisa Yamada, Yoshinori Kanemori, and Fumihiko Takayama (future director of Gundam 0080).
By the time they made Little Koala in late 1984, Topcraft was already falling apart. Ironically, its success with Nausicaa was probably largely to blame for this, as Hayao Miyazaki hired away over two-thirds of its staff (including Toru Hara) to found Studio Ghibli. Another one-fifth went to work for Pacific Animation Corp. and continued to work with Rankin/Bass on Thundercats and Silverhawks, until Disney bought that studio in 1988 and eventually turned it into Motoyoshi Tokunaga's Walt Disney Animation Japan. Anno, of course, left right after Nausicaa, co-founding Studio Gainax in December 1984. Topcraft officially dissolved in June 1985, with its final production, a Sanrio collaboration called Button Nose, released posthumously. In any event, Topcraft will forever be remembered as a footnote in the history of animation and for Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa.
See also Studio Ghibli where most of their staff members went to work for after Topcraft went out of business, and Pacific Animation Corp. which later became Walt Disney Animation Japan.
Anime:
- Mazinger Z (1972-1974) - subcontractor for Toei Animation
- Gatchaman (1972-1974) - subcontractor for Tatsunoko Production
- Time Bokan (1975-1976) - production cooperation with Tatsunoko
- Maya the Bee (1975-1976) - subcontractor for Nippon Animation
- Paul's Great Miracle Operation (1976-1977) - production cooperation with Tatsunoko
- Lupin III (2nd series, 1979-1980) - subcontractor for TMS Entertainment
- The Wizard of Oz (1982) - coproduction with Toho (although released in the U.S. first and not in Japan until 1986); not related to the 1986 TV series
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) - production cooperation with Tokuma Shoten and Hakuhodo
- Sherlock Hound (1984) - subcontractor for TMS
- Adventures of the Little Koala (1984-1985) - production cooperation with Hakuhodo
- Button Nose (1985-1986) - the studio's final production; production cooperation with Sanrio
Collaborations with Rankin-Bass:
- The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (1972-1973, episodes "Willie Mays and the Say Hey Kid," "The Red Baron," and "That Girl in Wonderland")
- Kid Power (1972)
- Festival of Family Classics (1972-1973, episodes "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Tom Sawyer")
- 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)
- The First Easter Rabbit (1975)
- Frosty's Winter Wonderland (1976)
- The Hobbit (1977)
- The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
- The Return of the King (1980)
- The Last Unicorn (1982)
- The Flight of Dragons (1982)
Collaborations with Other Western Producers:
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1972) - coproduction with Hanna-Barbera
- Barbapapa (1974-1975) - coproduction with Polygram (not broadcast in Japan until 1977)
- Doctor Snuggles (1977) - Dutch/UK coproduction
- Easter Fever (1980) - Canadian coproduction with Nelvana