Madhouse (company)

MADHOUSE Ltd.
株式会社マッドハウス
Type	Business corporation
Founded	October 17, 1972
Headquarters	Ogikubo, Suginami, Tokyo
Key people	Jungo Maruta, President
Industry	Animation studio and production enterprise
Owner(s)	Index Holdings (majority shareholder); Nippon Television; Dentsu; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Hakuhodo DY; WOWOW
Website	http://www.madhouse.co.jp/

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MADHOUSE Ltd. (株式会社マッドハウス, Kabushiki-gaisha Maddohausu^?) is a Japanese animation studio, founded in 1972 by ex–Mushi Pro animators including Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It has created and helped to produce many well known shows, starting with TV anime series Ace o Nerae! in 1973, and including western favourites Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Trigun and Di Gi Charat. Madhouse produced animation in OVA format in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but unlike studios founded at this time such as AIC and J.C.Staff, their strength was in TV shows and theatrical features. They were also responsible for the first Beyblade anime series as well as the Dragon Drive anime.

Another close tie to the studio is mangaka Naoki Urasawa. Madhouse has made adaptations of three of his manga: Yawara!, Master Keaton and Monster. They have also animated some of CLAMP's catalogue: Tokyo Babylon, two versions of X, Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits.

[edit] Business

Madhouse's main studio is located in the Ogikubo suburb of Tokyo, in the American Express office tower.^[1] The studio employs approximately 80 full-time employees, with employment levels varying depending on the number of productions currently underway. Additionally, the company owns controlling interest in the Korean subsidiary studio DR Movie, which employs approximately 350 staff.^[2]

[edit] Films

Their theatrical work includes assistance on the Barefoot Gen films, an anime movie based on the space opera Lensman series by pulp science fiction legend E.E. "Doc" Smith, animating the Osamu Tezuka version of Metropolis as well as two feature-length films for Sanrio starring Tezuka's unicorn character Unico, and producing all four (to date) of Satoshi Kon's films: Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika and his TV series Paranoia Agent. Madhouse produced the 2003 anime film, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, which was adapted from the seinen manga Nasu by Iou Kuroda and directed by Studio Ghibli veteran Kitaro Kosaka.