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-   -   Madhouse: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=103396)

Akito Kinomoto 2011-04-15 12:28

Madhouse: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot
 
There's been a lot of talk around here regarding studios, but there wasn't anything pertaining to this particular one. So, let's check what we've watched, how well they command their shows, see where they're going, and "whatnot." Step inside the Madhouse~

To your left is the gallery of everything they've had a hand in. Naming all of them would take up some considerable space, but among those in the room are Birdy the Mighty, Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Gunslinger Girl, Monster, Paranoia Agent, Texhnolyze, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun and X TV.

To your left is where opinions on this studio are stored. Among them is a conspiracy that states that the quality of Madhouse' works are inconsistent. Though this applies to just about anything, to what extent does this go with Madhouse?

Well, that's enough with the introductions. The floor is open, so let's see what people think of the Madhouse.

Archon_Wing 2011-04-15 14:16

Trigun, Akagi, Aoi Bungaku, Paranoia Agent, and Death Note come to mind. They've made a ton of shows, and they seem to be experts in making the mundane exciting. Very well rounded with works like Sakura. They even made nonsense like High School of the Dead watchable... kinda.

They also provide animation for the Boondocks. No wonder why it looks like an anime.

Overall, I'd say good job. Then sometimes you have stinkers like Chaos;head, and you go "you bastards!" They would be probably with Sunrise in for being "top" studios. That is, in being the most reliable in churning out decent entertainment.

One thing Madhouse cannot do, is do western superhero adaptations. Stop!

SeijiSensei 2011-04-15 16:09

For reference, the Wikipedia article for Madhouse has an extensive list of the productions with which the studio has been involved.

Kameruka 2011-04-15 18:06

I wonder did they did they have deals with Marvel. Adapting Supernatural only to milk money from teenage American girls than anyone else.

DonQuigleone 2011-04-15 18:12

Madhouse is good. They're not particularly distinctive, but do a good job of adapting a work. They tend to also do darker grittier ambiences quite well.

Westlo 2011-04-15 18:17

There's so many different parts and studios to Madhouse it's very hard to discuss them.... Unless you know what Studio A has been constantly doing or whatever.... Hosoda's stuff is godlike though.. they better keep him...

DonQuigleone 2011-04-15 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westlo (Post 3572396)
There's so many different parts and studios to Madhouse it's very hard to discuss them.... Unless you know what Studio A has been constantly doing or whatever.... Hosoda's stuff is godlike though.. they better keep him...

Forgot about Hosoda! Yeah Madhouse is one of the bigger studios, so it's more dififcult to comment on then, say, SHAFT.

Pocari_Sweat 2011-04-15 20:45

Great, solid studio overall. When it comes to consistency and diversity in genres, it is probably unmatched. However, they tend to stay away from heavy moe related material, but I did hear that they got blacklisted from doing these kind of series. Not sure what the story is there.

Favourites include:

Beck
Death Note
Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Gunslinger Girl
Nana
Paradise Kiss
Rainbow
Summer Wars

totoum 2011-04-15 21:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westlo (Post 3572396)
There's so many different parts and studios to Madhouse it's very hard to discuss them.... Unless you know what Studio A has been constantly doing or whatever.... Hosoda's stuff is godlike though.. they better keep him...

Yeah,agreed,they're so big that when I see "madhouse" attached to a project I wait to se the exact staff to see "which" madhouse is doing the project.

They do however like to support artists that have talent,like Mamoru Hosoda (the girl who leapt through time,summer wars),Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue,Millenium actress,Tokyo Godfathers,Paprika,Paranoia Agent) ,Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba,the tatami galaxi) or Mitsuo Iso (who tried for years to get Dennou Coil off the ground before a producer at Madhouse finaly took notice)

There's a team that does "gambling" sttuff like Akagi,Kaiji,One outs I really hope they do "liar game" one day.
There's a team that has done a lot of clamp stuff like "Chobits", "Card Raptor Sakura","X" (and most of that staff did "Gunslinger Girl" for some reason)

And so on.


Right now I'm looking forward to the movie "Redline"...and that's about it.

TJR 2011-04-15 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westlo (Post 3572396)
There's so many different parts and studios to Madhouse it's very hard to discuss them.... Unless you know what Studio A has been constantly doing or whatever.... Hosoda's stuff is godlike though.. they better keep him...

Is there a reason why they've been losing their directorial talent? Over the past year or so, people have been leaving one after another.

Taufiq91 2011-04-15 21:22

A few years ago i heard Madhouse was asked by the BBC to animate lost 1960's Doctor Who episodes. Although i haven't heard much from that since, but they would be great for Doctor Who.

I do think that madhouse's best works are usually the Sci-Fi/Urban stuff like the girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, HOTD, Chaos;Head, FFVII short stories and Redline. They are good at Sci-Fi, and their co-productions with Production IG and Gainax are well-deserved.

I think some of their adaptations of Western materials are unimpressive to say the least. Iron Man & Wolverine is meh to say the least, and both could have been better if they were side stories to the movies instead (How hard is it to get Robert Downey Jr. and Hugh Jackson to voice animes? I don't think it's that hard)

rtgun 2011-04-28 13:12

First time I got into liking Madhouse because they did anime that are "western" (Back then I was someone who is new to anime and prefer something that has a western element in it)

But then I know that's just one of their many styles. They're actually a big studio with a many kind of staff with different style.

Personally I like most of their shows, except for the Iron Man anime (Haven't watched the other Marvel adaptation thanks to this one) and in general, their shows that use so many CGs like Rideback. (In my opinion their CGs aren't so good, and their works that don't use much CGs are well-animated)

Maybe if they did Iron Man like they did the trailer I would like it.

Honoakari 2011-04-29 00:28

The first show I ever watched from Madhouse was Chaos;Head...

...And then I stopped watching Madhouse shows.

I was never fond of seeing western themes in anime, anyway.

Reckoner 2011-04-29 02:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by O.D. (Post 3591877)
The first show I ever watched from Madhouse was Chaos;Head...

...And then I stopped watching Madhouse shows.

I was never fond of seeing western themes in anime, anyway.

I wouldn't take chaos;head as representative of the whole studio... Try watching something like a Satoshi Kon film and say the same thing.

Sheba 2011-04-29 04:04

You have:
Satoshi Kon's movies, Paranoia Agent, Monster, Gungrave, Death Note, Black Lagoon, Beck, and if you want to go back further in time, Ninja Scroll animated movie and Cyber City Oedo 808.

Then you have the guilty pleasures like Kamen no Maid Guy or Strawberry Panic.

And you have the subpar (to be polite) releases like Iron Man.

If anything, diversity is something that come in mind when it comes to Madhouse.

I have been eager for their releases since I got into Kawajiri's works like Ninja Scroll and Cyber City. But as the years passed, I have come to understand they cannot always come up with gold. But it did not matter to me in the end as most of my favorites ARE by this studio.

Reckoner 2011-04-29 04:15

Yeah if there's anything I admire about Madhouse above all else, is that they are certainly diverse. They hold a lot of my favorite anime works too.

It's funny to think to me that the same studio made Summer Wars, Milennium Actress, Claymore, Nana, Black Lagoon, Monster, and something even like Strawberry Panic.

Westlo 2011-04-29 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by O.D. (Post 3591877)
The first show I ever watched from Madhouse was Chaos;Head...

...And then I stopped watching Madhouse shows.

That's like saying "I had McDonalds... wasn't impressed, never eating fast food again."

Malkuth 2011-05-02 18:22

You think chaos;head was crap? They also did Kamen no Maid Guy, Kaibutsu Oujo TV, Okusama wa Joshikousei, Ninja Scroll TV, and probably more atrocities before I begun to watch a lot of anime.

And by the way, I really hate their american adaptions, despite really liking some the originals.

Arabesque 2011-07-31 11:36

http://bayoab.info/live/live2.php?panel=32
Quote:

10:15:56 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> Q: Status of tibetan dog? Info about new company? I didn't know you left madhouse. And 3rd, it's been a year how are you doing?
10:16:45 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> A: As for tibetan dog, this was released in china, and i hear it was recieved well, but there hasn't been a japanese release, there likely will be a release by the end of this year
10:16:55 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> In other words, the film is completed
10:17:35 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> And betwene last year and this year, it has been the most transitionary year for me
10:17:40 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> my 50 year career in the industry...
10:18:16 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> and that relates to the second question
10:18:17 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> And there are certain details of the world that prohibit me from going into details
10:18:45 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> My work at madhouse does continue,a nd i'm working for two titles that are set for broadcast in japan this october
10:19:53 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> However, the financial situation in madhouse has changed, and there are now certain projects that are now more difficult to do, and that's why i started by own studio ,and the idea is for the two companies to complement eachother
10:19:58 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> the name of the new studio is (can't hear)
10:20:12 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> the big picture is that i'm still doing what i've always been doing
10:20:29 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> Q: Status of dreaming machine by Satoshi Kon? Anything you'd like to say about it?
10:21:10 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> A: Well, that question was one of the reasons was one of the reasons i was reluctant to return, but i knew it was a question i would have to answer so i gathred my courage to come here and answer it
10:21:22 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> To be blunt, the project is on hiatus
10:21:43 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> But I do want to go ahead with Dreaming machine, that's why I have my new studio now
10:22:13 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> And the biggest reason why dreaming machine is on hiatus is there isn't enough financing for the title
10:22:27 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> i don't care how many years it's going to take, i will get the financing required to complete the title
10:22:36 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> And currently, about 600 cuts of the film has been done
10:22:40 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> But there's still about 900 cuts to go
10:22:46 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> so most of the film hasn't been produced
10:23:08 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> And I haven't really talked about what he film is about but I think I can talk about it today
10:23:39 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> There's a tsunami scene at the very beginning ,and a whole town perishes... and the robot starts its journey seeking a seeking energy
10:23:45 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> this is an original story that satoshi kon came up with it 2 years ago
10:24:05 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> and reality has finally caught up to the visions of satoshi knon and it happen in japan this year
10:24:22 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> I'm starting to think that certain creators do have the ability to see what's coming in the future
10:25:05 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> And so, Kon's film is how a town recovers from a tsunami disaster
10:25:29 <bay|Ota|Maruyama> I think it would be a loss to not finish this film, but no matter how many years it will take, i will seek full financing for the film and deliver it to an audience
Well ... shit.

I sort of expected that the studio had been having financial problems, what with the schedule slips, drop in quality and production of shows, and the purchase but it seems like Madhouse might just be on it's way out ...

Last Sinner 2011-07-31 13:10

Madhouse have made a reasonable number of good titles over time.

Their problem is financial success does not come their way that often.

Madhouse were formed in the 70s, a couple of years before Sunrise. While Sunrise quickly established major titles, Madhouse has not. In fact, Madhouse's only big selling title from before 2000 - and still is their highest-selling title - is Cardcaptor Sakura. From 2000 onwards, they only had two titles above 10k per volume - Death Note and Chobits. They've supported Satoshi Kon big time, with great quality results, but Kon was always a maverick in the industry - he wasn't a big seller. Redline was a major financial disaster for them after the time and money put into that - as good a movie as it is, it's not aimed to the Japanese audience at all. Takeshi certainly got a lot of exposure outside Japan for the film, but in Japan they couldn't even fill one cinema for it. Summer Wars sold quite well as well as decent box office results, but the money from that is what's keeping them alive - barely. They've done the Marvel deal out of necessity. Marvel pays them to make stuff - it's cost effective but it's existing at present.

As for Murayama, he was one of Madhouse's founders and was ex-Mushi staff. I.e. He worked in Tezuka's studio before it split. Murayama has always believed in quality, content and promoting young staff to learn the ropes. He isn't that sales-oriented. Which is admirable in a way - but in the industry today, sales are paramount. So hopefully Murayama can keep Madhouse afloat somehow. I'd hate to think Madhouse would go under - there are a good source of alternate/not-so-mainstream content in general.


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