Production I.G., Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社プロダクション・アイジー, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Purodakushon Ai Jī) is a Japanese animation studio. Headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Production I.G was founded on December 15, 1987, by producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and character designer Takayuki Goto as I.G Tatsunoko, a branch studio of the animation giant Tatsunoko Production, changing its name to the current Production I.G in September 1993. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders.
Since 2007, Production I.G is a subsidiary of the IG Port holding company, causing a restructuring which led to the second incarnation of the studio being formed. Ishikawa was president and CEO of the studio until August 2022 when that position was given to George Wada with Ishikawa remaining as chairman of the company.
Production I.G went through a number of structural changes, not only stepping up from subcontractor to prime contractor to financier of animation production, but also changing the very scheme of the animation business in Japan. The studio has implemented a series of measures that break with industry norms, such as investing in productions that are unprecedented for an animation studio, entering the copyright business, establishing a finance company, establishing overseas subsidiaries, and negotiating directly with major Hollywood movie studios. The studio established a holding company, IG Port, which owns Production I.G itself as well as animation studios Wit Studio. And the studio has continued to change and expand its business format, merging with publisher Mag Garden, establishing electronic content distribution company Lingua Franca, and forming a comprehensive business alliance with Netflix.
Since its inception, Production I.G has produced many of Japan's leading creators, including Mamoru Oshii and Kenji Kamiyama. It has also produced a number of acclaimed feature films, television series, OVAs (Original Video Animations), ONAs (Original Net Animations), and video games. Its representative works include the Ghost in the Shell series, the Psycho-Pass series, Blood: The Last Vampire and its derivative works such as Blood+, the animation sequences of Kill Bill Vol. 1, Eden of the East, Guilty Crown, Kuroko's Basketball, and Haikyu!! It is also known in the video game industry for developing intros, cut-scenes and artwork for games such as Bandai Namco's Tales series. Furthermore, it has also spawned such influential animation studios as Wit Studio and Signal.MD, and its influence on the Japanese animation industry is immeasurable.
Production I.G's works have received critical acclaim outside of Japan, with Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell reaching #1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Video Sales Charts in 1996, and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence was the first Japanese animation film to be nominated in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Hiroyuki Okiura's Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and Hiroyuki Kitakubo's Blood: The Last Vampire have also been highly acclaimed. Those works have also influenced famous Hollywood creators. As a result, it was decided that The Matrix, directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, would be produced, and Production I.G produced the animation sequences for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1. When pitching the idea for The Matrix to producer Joel Silver, The Wachowskis showed him Ghost in the Shell and told him they wanted to make a similar film. Tarantino liked Blood: The Last Vampire so much that he himself visited the studio and asked I.G to participate in the production of the film. However, I.G was preoccupied and in no condition to accept, so Ishikawa initially declined. Tarantino then began sending unsolicited drafts of screenplays to the studio one after another. As Ishikawa read them, he gradually became interested and eventually accepted the request.
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History
On December 15, 1987, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, a producer at Tatsunoko Production, established IG Tatsunoko Ltd., the predecessor of Production IG, with Takayuki Goto, who had organized Studio Chime. It was in the form of an independent Tatsunoko production branch led by the staff who participated in the Tatsunoko-produced TV series Zillion. Japan was experiencing a booming economy at that time thanks to the economic bubble, but it was a difficult time for the animation industry to create new anime. Original animation projects that may or may not be successful were particularly difficult to pass, and there were few opportunities for young talent to demonstrate their abilities. Ishikawa therefore planned Zillion to provide them with a place to play an active role. Ishikawa, already a freelancer, was entrusted with the work as a Tatsunoko Production branch separated from the company.
Takashi Nakamura, Kōichi Mashimo, Takayuki Goto (later Production I.G board member), Hiroyuki Okiura and Kazuchika Kise (later Production I.G board member) who were at Anime R and Mu in Osaka at the time, as well as Mizuho Nishikubo and Mamoru Oshii helped in the production. Kyoto Animation also participated in the production. After Zillion, he could have disbanded the team, but he sensed that everyone wanted to continue working together with this group, so he started I.G Tatsunoko. The company was formed by merging the Zillion production team and Studio Chime, which was run by Takayuki Goto, who designed its characters, with the cooperation of Kyoto Animation.
Animator Kazuchika Kise also joined the studio early on. Hideaki Hatta, President and CEO of Kyoto Animation, who encouraged Ishikawa to become president, supported him in establishing the company and even invested in it. The company name "I.G" was named by Takayuki Goto, after the initials "I" of Ishikawa, the head of the production team, and "G" of Goto, the head of the animation studio. It was Ishikawa's idea to put Tatsunoko in the company name because he thought it would make it easier to get work and out of consideration for Tatsunoko, which had trained him. The company name was changed to Production I.G in 1993.
After becoming independent, I.G's work was mainly subcontracted to other studios for a while. Soon after becoming independent, I.G received an offer from Studio Deen to subcontract the production of Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor OVA and the movie, and with these hits, I.G solidified its position in the industry. However, Ishikawa began to feel dissatisfied with the fact that even though his company, a subcontractor, actually produced the works, it was only credited as a production partner in the end credits, while the name of the main contractor came to the forefront, and he also began to think that the studio would not be able to survive on low-budget subcontract work in the future. Ishikawa therefore founded Ing Co., Ltd. in 1990, a planning and production company that handles copyright business. In the anime industry, studios cannot make a profit if they only subcontract production. Ishikawa therefore established Ing with the idea of earning income not only from anime production but also from copyrights, and the studio invested in its works. During his time at Tatsunoko Productions, Ishikawa had seen how the company generate revenue through the operation of the copyrights for original works, so he decided to follow suit. However, he chose a name that was as unobtrusive as possible and not reminiscent of I.G, so as not to alarm the large companies that were already in the copyright business. For Patlabor, Production I.G was a subcontractor for the first film in 1989, but was promoted to prime company for the second film in 1993, and even invested in the film. After that, Ishikawa continued to use Ing as a company responsible for matters related to contracts and funding, and invested in I.G works under the Ing name. Neon Genesis Evangelion was the only non-I.G studio's work that Ing invested in, and Ishikawa said that investing in this blockbuster work turned out to be a very good result for the studio.
Works
Live-action series
K-tai Investigator 7 (2008–2009)
Stay Tuned! (2019)
Dragons of Wonderhatch (2023, animated scenes)
Music videos
m-flo: Quantum Leap (2000)
Linda: Chains & Rings (2003)
Mylène Farmer: Peut-être toi (2006)
Maaya Sakamoto: Universe (2007)
Re:vale: NO DOUBT (2017)
Valorant: 二律背反 REFLECTIONS (2023)