Do you remember ‘Eromanga-sensei’ and ‘My little sister can’t be this cute’ (with 2 seasons by the way)? Darker but impressive times in A-1 Pictures and Aniplex history; they were able to adapt incest light novels without the show turning into hentai… I think that takes talent. This post is not for ragging on A-1 Pictures or Aniplex at all, in fact I want to take the next month or so exploring their animation history. After watching AnoHana and really enjoying the show, I became interested in what else has A-1 done? I knew about the big stuff like Sword Art Online, Fate, and AnoHana of course but I wasn’t familiar with much else. Honestly you guys, I’m new to anime; I was one of those people that watched Naruto and thought I was the biggest anime fan ever… Now I know the truth (no disrespect to Naruto fans, the show is awesome in my opinion).
My plans for this project is to review the shows A-1 Pictures has done over the years to get a sense of who they were, are, and going to be in the future and I want to share with you guys; my journey.
A Brief Look at their History
A-1 Pictures was created in 2005 by ex Sunrise producer Mikihiro Iwata; becoming a subsidiary of Aniplex so that they could animate their own shows. The original plan for A-1 Pictures was to oversee the family oriented animations; their first co-creation was a Zenmai Zamurai, a childrens that has a weird plot… Check it out if you’re into a “hero” shooting dumplings at the bad guys; fast forward a year A-1 starts broadcasting their own production; Ōkiku Furikabutte. Since 2007 the studio has been involved in a wide range of media, anime, and other activities; in fact almost two months ago A-1 Pictures re branded their Koenji Studio, CloverWorks. CloverWorks will have it’s own unique identity apart from A-1 Pictures; they’re the studio that’s producing Persona 5: The Animation.
To kick off the journey I will be starting with Ōkiku Furikabutte; the Big Windup. I hope you guys enjoy this journey with me as much I’m going to enjoy sharing it.
Love always, Miki 