Animation studio

An animation studio is a company producing animated media, but for the purposes of this wiki, it means anime. FOr Western media, the broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals of the media produced. However in Japan, the amount of stake animation studios have in sales or rentals of the media produced can vary wildly and they may or may not make much revenue from downstream business involving their works. They also own rights over merchandising and creative rights for characters created/held by the company, much like authors holding copyrights. In Japan, they usually don't have exclusive rights, as they are often shared with members of the production committees. In some early cases, they also held patent rights over methods of animation used in certain studios that were used for boosting productivity. Overall, they are business concerns and can function as such in legal terms.

For anime specifically, Japan does not formally call them "animation studios", but rather "anime production companies".

Well-known animation studios in Japan

 * A-1 Pictures
 * Bones
 * Brain's Base
 * C-Station
 * CloverWorks
 * David Production
 * Doga Kobo
 * feel.
 * Gainax
 * Gonzo
 * J.C.Staff
 * Kyoto Animation
 * MadHouse
 * MAPPA
 * P.A. Works
 * Polygon Pictures
 * Production I.G
 * Science SARU
 * Studio Pierrot
 * Sunrise
 * Shaft
 * Studio Deen
 * Studio Ghibli
 * Studio Pierrot
 * Tatsunoko Production
 * Tezuka Productions
 * Toei Animation
 * Trigger
 * White Fox
 * Wit Studio