 | |
 Mushi Production headquarters in Tokyo | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Japanese animation |
| Founded | 1961 (original company) November 26, 1977 (revived company) |
| Founder | Osamu Tezuka |
| Defunct | 1973 (original company) |
| Headquarters | Fujimidai, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan |
| Website | www |
Mushi Production (虫プロダクション, Mushi Purodakushon, "Bug Production") or Mushi Pro[a] for short, is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Fujimidai, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan.[1] It previously had a headquarters elsewhere in Nerima.
The studio was headed by manga artist Osamu Tezuka.[2] Tezuka started it as a rivalry with Toei Animation, his former employer, after Tezuka's contract with Toei expired in 1961.[citation needed] The studio pioneered TV animation in Japan, and was responsible for many successful anime television series, such as Astro Boy, Gokū no Daibōken, Princess Knight, Kimba the White Lion, Dororo and Ashita no Joe, as well as more adult-oriented feature films such as A Thousand and One Nights, Cleopatra (the first Japanese X-rated animated film) and Belladonna of Sadness.
In addition to doing their anime productions, Mushi was best known for its overseas work on five traditionally animated TV projects from Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass' Videocraft International (now Rankin/Bass Productions) in New York, New York, including the Christmas special Frosty the Snowman, with the production artwork being done by Paul Coker, Jr., along with the animation supervision by Yusaku "Steve" Nakagawa.
Morisawa argues that Tezuka "proposed an unrealistically suppressed production budget... in an attempt to outbid his competitors", a budget that contributed to the Studio's (and industry at the time) low profitability.[2] Mushi, plagued by financial difficulties, declared bankruptcy in 1973 and its assets were divided.[2] Tezuka had already left the company by then, having stepped down as acting director in 1968 and formed a new animation studio, Tezuka Productions (which made such works as Marvelous Melmo and Unico). The company was later reestablished on November 26, 1977, and has continued to operate as "legacy company".
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- ^ Home. Mushi Production. Retrieved on March 15, 2012. "〒177-0034 東京都練馬区 富士見台2-30-5"
- ^ a b c Morisawa, T. (19 August 2014). "Managing the unmanageable: Emotional labour and creative hierarchy in the Japanese animation industry". Ethnography. 16 (2): 262–284. doi:10.1177/1466138114547624. S2CID 147049529.