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Posted by tatsunokofan on 03-06-2010 at 17:42:

Production I.G Purchasing Partial Ownership of Tatsunoko

Hi all!

An interesting bit of news regarding Tatsunoko. Production I.G is going to be purchasing 11.2% of Takara's ownership of Tatsunoko. Production I.G shares a history with Tatsunoko, as the two founders of the studio, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Takayuki Goto, originally worked at Tatsunoko. When their studio was founded in 1987, it was originally called I.G Tatsunoko (The I.G standing for Ishikawa and Goto), and did a lot of work for the studio, and their studio is located literally a few blocks away from Tatsunoko.

How this purchase will affect both studios remains to be seen, but it will likely lead to closer collaborations between the two, as well as allowing Production I.G access to Tatsunoko's characters. Also, through Tatsunoko, Production I.G will now have access to the toy industry (Something Production I.G. currently lacks) thanks to the co-ownership of the studio with Takara.

It shoulkd also be noted that Mr. Ishikawa's wife, Michiru, is a daughter of Tatsunoko founder and Gatchaman creator Tatsuo Yoshida. The Yoshida family sold the controlling interest in the studio to Takara in 2005. So, in an indirect manner, the Yoshdia family is regaining more control over their family's studio.

James

Posted by lborgia88 on 03-06-2010 at 18:04:

RE: Production I.G Purchasing Partial Ownership of Tatsunoko

quote:

Originally posted by tatsunokofan

How this purchase will affect both studios remains to be seen, but it will likely lead to closer collaborations between the two, as well as allowing Production I.G access to Tatsunoko's characters. Also, through Tatsunoko, Production I.G will now have access to the toy industry (Something Production I.G. currently lacks) thanks to the co-ownership of the studio with Takara.

This sounds interesting! I wonder if I.G. will make use of the Gatchaman characters. I looked at their site, and they certainly seem to do a lot of anime.

http://www.productionig.com/

Thanks for posting this, James!

Posted by gatchamarie on 03-06-2010 at 18:41:

Thanks for the info, James! It would be rather interesting to see what will happen eventually!

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Posted by BirdLover on 03-06-2010 at 18:54:

Thank you for this information James.

With such a notable past and the close connections to the Gatchaman world maybe something will come of the movie.

Posted by Transmute Jun on 03-06-2010 at 19:49:

Ah, so this is what it is... thanks for the information, James! I appreciate the heads up!

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Posted by Cain Highwind on 04-06-2010 at 19:43:

Nice to hear some extra insight into this. I heard the story at ANN. Karas was done with significant help from IG, and with that it looked so good. I KINDA hope this means that upcoming Marvel x Tatsunoko Anime could have some input from them and we can get something of Karas quality (animation-wise). Though from hearing you talk James, makes it sound like we might get more series similar to Casshern SINS only done by IG instead of Madhouse.

BTW while we're talking "family", who exactly is Shoichi Yoshida? I noticed his name on a lot of 90s Tatsunoko work, and he's credited as the main supervisor in Tatsunoko vs Capcom. I just can't seem to find much info on him.

Posted by tatsunokofan on 05-06-2010 at 01:21:

Hi all!

quote:

BTW while we're talking "family", who exactly is Shoichi Yoshida? I noticed his name on a lot of 90s Tatsunoko work, and he's credited as the main supervisor in Tatsunoko vs Capcom. I just can't seem to find much info on him.

Unfortunately, I can't help too much with that. The information on Shoichi Yoshida I've been able to dig up is minimal at best. I can tell you that he seems to have started working in the animation industry in the 1980s at Anime Friend. The earliest credit I've been able to find for him is as a Production Assistant on the 1986 Outlanders OAV (As a subcontractor from Anime Friend). By 1989 he was working directly for Tatsunoko as a Production Supervisor on the remake of Honeybee Hutch. He has remained with Tatsunoko since then, mostly as a Producer.

While it is likely that he is a member of the Yoshida family that started Tatsunoko (As opposed to one of the millions of other Yoshida families in Japan), I could not find anything that said exactly who he is related to, only that he is not Tatsuo Yoshida's son. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd speculate that he is Ippei Kuri's son, mostly because of his work at Anime Friend, which was a studio created by Ippei Kuri. In case you were unaware, Ippei Kuri is a pen name, and his real name is Toyoharu Yoshida.

Sorry I can't be more help.

James