Your favourite animation studio?

[Fantastische Hure]

Based on their catologue or what-directing style or art-style or faith-fullness to manga if it's an adapatation or what-ever you want to decide that by.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Probably Madhouse in terms of a greater percentage of their work being stand-outs in both quality and quantity - Monster, Hunter X Hunter 2011, Death Note (at least the L Arc), Perfect Blue, The Tatami Galaxy, Kaiji and (most of all) Legend of the Galactic Heroes' first season being some of the good works they've produced.

In terms of animation and production values, probably Production I.G. (especially considering they seem to be the only studio outside of Sunrise to blend 2D and 3D animation well), though the only works I'd cite from them as stand-outs overall are the original Ghost in the Shell movie, Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 and Vinland Saga.

Tokyo Movie Shinsha also get a mention in those departments during Dezaki's tenure at the studio for works such as Rose of Versailles, Takarajima and (most of all) Ashita no Joe 2.

David Productions gets an honourable mention for showing more passion for their main works than other studios in how they handled many aspects of the JoJo anime, as well as showing love for more older titles such as animating Level E. Really hope that in the future, they collaborate with North Stars Pictures for a Hokuto no Ken remake, or at least do an adaption of Kongo Bancho.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Kongo Bancho?

Also I like how Mad-House slightly changes the chronology of manga events. Currently I'm watching Death-Note for something and they changed a-lot of the order and sometimes other things but they did that because it made more sense for the anime medium, instead of a 1:1 adaptation. The director had his own style I think I think.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Kongo Bancho?

An obscure Battle Shonen from the 00s made by the creator of Nanatsu no Taizai. Its plot is nothing special, but it works well as a love letter to 80s Shonen like Hokuto no Ken, Kinnikuman, Sakigake! Otokojuku and Dragon Ball and is at least more entertaining and to the point than ongoing Shonen nowadays, essentially being Toriko done right.

Also I like how Mad-House slightly changes the chronology of manga events. Currently I'm watching Death-Note for something and they changed a-lot of the order and sometimes other things but they did that because it made more sense for the anime medium, instead of a 1:1 adaptation. The director had his own style I think I think.

That's actually fairly common of many studios, with it mainly depending on the skill of the director in how they structure the story. For instance, Production I.G.'s adaption of Vinland Saga has it told in chronological order rather than having some of the events as flashbacks so certain character deaths hold more weight, or how Toei's first arc of Hokuto no Ken had most of the threats be ones associated with Shin in order to make the plot events feel more focused and help build up a character who the manga later treat as fairly relevant to the plot despite his short tenure in it (this did have the problem of making Kenshiro VS Shin feel quite anticlimactic in the anime, but I can appreciate what they were going for).
Madhouse does probably execute this element of direction and structure better than most other studios though. For example, Season 1 of the OVA version of Legend of the Galactic Heroes is told in a far better way to the novels, which infodump a whole lot of information throughout the first 40 or so pages, plus it expands on several plot details that were only given a short summary in the first 2 books despite their importance such as Kircheis putting down the Castrop Rebellion.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I'd also say Studio-Ghibli.

What about Bones? I heard good things about them.

Also how do studios even work do they assign free-lance directors and crew or do they have in-house people (or maybe just people they associate with a-lot)? I find that hard to find-out about that.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I'd also say Studio-Ghibli.

Studio Ghibli certainly are great in terms of animation, though have a bit less variety than other high-budget studios due to each of their works featuring the typical Miyazaki art style.

What about Bones? I heard good things about them.

In terms of animation, yes. In terms of producing quality series, however, the only stand-out work they have under their belt is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Also how do studios even work do they assign free-lance directors and crew or do they have in-house people (or maybe just people they associate with a-lot)? I find that hard to find-out about that.

Most of the time, they have consistent staff members and workers to produce their animation, though some studios outsource certain episodes or scenes to studios in South Korea or even more western countries on occasion.
Most of the time, studios will have episodes be produced by a variety of studios working under them on the work, which can often result in drastic changes in art style due to different directors or studios, Dragon Ball and Hokuto no Ken being notable examples of this.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

So you mean like a sub-division of people working for the studio or other studios entirely?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Usually the latter, with studios that have multiple projects outsourcing some to studios they have a partnership with.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

So if Toei was doing a show, they could be working with Mad-House too? Wouldn't that be hard to tell then which studios are actually good and good people working with the studio?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

In Toei's case, it wouldn't be someone like Madhouse. They mainly outsourced series like DB/Z to less expensive studios for a cheaper product but were still in charge of any creative decisions made with their property.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Isn't that Shueisha? When I see anime openings normally it seems to show the heads of Shueisha/Weekly-Shōnen-Jump aa the executive producers or something.

What would be the worst studio? Studio Pierrot?

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Also what about composers? Do they assign them to work on the series from different places and sort-of composer-for-hire or do they mainly work for the studio?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Isn't that Shueisha? When I see anime openings normally it seems to show the heads of Shueisha/Weekly-Shōnen-Jump aa the executive producers or something.

Shueisha publish the manga within Jump, thus holding some rights to all their anime adaptions.

What would be the worst studio? Studio Pierrot?

Pierrot has at least produced some good series in the past such as the Area 88 OVAs and GTO and their animation isn't terrible.

If talking about in terms of quality, Studio Wit, Ufotable, PA Works and GoHands have yet to produce even 1 decent series. In terms of purely animation and budget though, Wit and Ufotable are quite good and PA Works can be fine, with GoHands having nothing to give it credit for.

Whilst people tend to rag on studios such as Toei and Deen, at least they could produce some good titles and had exceptions to the animation rule such as the 1986 Hokuto no Ken movie and Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal respectively.

Also what about composers? Do they assign them to work on the series from different places and sort-of composer-for-hire or do they mainly work for the studio?

It can depend on their contract. Typically, most composers will be able to work for multiple studios such as Hiroyuki Sawano doing scores for works from A-1 Pictures, Sunrise, Studio Trigger, Wit, etc. Studios may often try and hire the same composer for their series, such as Shunsuke Kikuchi doing a lot of Toei scores in the 80s (Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, Otokojuku, etc.) though they're still free to work with other studios.
Contracts are far stricter for singers though due to factors such as record label contracts and the like, a main reason why Kageyama hasn't created or sang a new song for the DB franchise since Raging Blast 2 despite his openness to produce new DB songs.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

So Mad-House is undoubtedly the best?

 

[SSJ2]

:toei

 

[Let's Go Fearless!]

:toei DBS EP5