A-1 Pictures: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot.

[Westlo]

I was going to post an excerpt from an interview with A-1's president Masuo Ueda at Anime Expo, but we didn't have an A-1 thread, so here it is.

A-1 History from Wiki

The studio was established by SMEJ's animation production division, Aniplex, on May 9, 2005, to animate its anime series and productions. In 2006, it co-produced the original production Zenmai Zamurai, and in October of the same year, established a studio in Asagaya. In the following year, 2007, the studio produced its first series, Ōkiku Furikabutte.

Originally established to oversee the production of only a few of Aniplex's family-oriented series, the studio has since grown and expanded as a full fledged studio involved in the production of a wide range of media and anime productions and other activities, which it has overseen.

Selected works from A-1 Pictures

2007

Ōkiku Furikabutte

2008

Persona: Trinity Soul
Birdy the Mighty: Decode
Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens
Kuroshitsuji

2009

Birdy the Mighty: Decode 2
Valkyria Chronicles
Fairy Tail

2010

Working!!
Sora no Oto
Ōkiku Furikabutte ~Natsu no Taikai-hen~
Senkou no Night Raid
Kuroshitsuji II
Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
Togainu no Chi
Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW (Movie)

2011

Fractale
Blue Exorcist
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%
THE IDOLM@STER
Working'!!

2012

Space Brothers
Tsuritama
Sword Art Online
Shinsekai yori
Chō Soku Henkei Gyrozetter
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

2013

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru
Vividred Operation
OreNo 2
Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 2000%
Saint☆Young Men (Movie)
Servant x Service
Silver Spoon
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day Movie
Galileo Donna
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic 2

2014

Silver Spoon 2
Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda
THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE
Fairy Tail 2014
Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin
Sword Art Online II
Aldonah Zero
Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus
Persona 4 The Golden Animation
Space Brothers: Number Zero (Movie)
Kuroshitsuji: Book of Murder (OVA)
Magic Kaito 1412
Nanatsu no Taizai
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (April Is Your Lie)

2015

Aldnoah.Zero Pt 2
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls
Denpa Kyoushi TV
Gunslinger Stratos The Animation
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid
Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love Revolutions
GATE (Summer)
Working!!! (Summer)
Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls Second Series (Summer)
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk (Fall)
Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider (Fall)
Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai (Movie)
Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda (Movie)

2016

Boku dake ga Inai Machi (Winter)
Doukyuusei (Movie)
Uta no Prince-sama S4 (TBA)
Granblue Fantasy (TBA)

Discuss.

[Westlo]

Masuo Ueda the president of A-1 Pictures was at Anime Expo, did an interview, looks like Aniplex/A-1 want to take a shot @ that Gundam money.

Rivera: What's the strongest combination?

Ueda: We formed the strongest party around with Aniplex and A-1 Pictures.

Rivera: What's the next stage?

Ueda: The next stage of our development is to make something that would supersede Gundam. I think we need digital technology to achieve that. At A-1 we've experimented with a couple of 3D animation technologies. Let's take a look at a couple of those.

Rivera: These are original clips.

[Clips of 3D objects and action scenes are shown]

Ueda: Thank you. 3D needs to be prominent but the most important thing is a good story and plot. I hope we'll be able to show our new original robot animation as soon as possible. Please look forward to it.

Full Interview

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/conv.../anime-expo/21

More mecha is always welcome in my eyes, looks like they have high ambitions but I guess with AGE dropping the ball there is a gap in the market.

[Dextro]

The problem with discussing A-1 is that the studio is nowhere near consistent. If I'm not mistaken they setup the teams on a per-project basis so there's not much continuity related to the studio itself.

[Tougarashi]

I like A-1 pictures. Shin Sekai Yori, Sword Art Online ,Vidvid red operation are my favourites series from A-1. Aniplex had failures in "Anime no Chikara" experiments but they used that experiences to make break though animes like Anohana and SAO. A-1 was unable to generate profits in the first few years but later they did well enough that A-1 couldn't even accept the works from the Aniplex anymore sometimes because they also accepted the works from third party productions. I'm glad that finally someone make a thread regarding A-1 picture.

[AbZeroNow]

I think A-1's reputation has slightly suffered due to how much Magi diverged from the manga and how Alibaba had way more angst and he basically stole the spotlight from Aladdin.

A-1's best is Space Brothers. I recently went from being 10+ episodes behind to only 4 episodes behind(and the Comeback Competition arc was quite good). But of course, Sword Art Online would probably be everyone's go-to example even though SAO is an average show with really good fighting scenes.

[Pocari_Sweat]

When I think of A-1 Pictures, I think of them as JC Staff V2.0. Large studio, backed up by a huge sponsor (Aniplex), very high volume of output and quality ranging from mediocre to great. Production qualities also vary quite a lot. On the whole, in terms of "commercialized" studios goes, I can't say I'm not happy with A-1 on the whole. For every "cash-cow" or popular source material adaptation they have something different.

[SeijiSensei]

A-1's output seems to have fallen off considerably in the past year or two. Anyone know why?

[CptChaos]

^ Probably because a part of it got rebranded into CloverWorks in 2018.