Ask John: Has Any Country Beside Korea Ever Co-Produced Anime?

Question:
Has ever a country outside Japan ever helped work with music, animation, or anything else on an anime other then U.S. or Korea?

Answer:
To be honest, what little I know about the anime industry is primarily limited to its relation to America and Japan. While anime originates in Japan and the defining work on an anime title is produced in Japan, it’s not uncommon for supplemental production to be done by foreign studios in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, and other Asian countries. Korea is simply the best known source of supplemental animation work.

There are also numerous well known examples of major international anime co-productions between Japan and other countries that involve more than merely in-between animation produced by comission. The best known example is the 1982 anime television series Taiyo no Ko Esteban, broadcast on American television as Mysterious Cities of Gold. This show was a French co-production. Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 anime TV series Meitantei Holmes, also known as Sherlock Hound, was a Japanese and Italian co-production. If I’m not mistaken, the 1995 motion picture Ghost in the Shell was co-produced by the British company Manga Entertainment, the parent company of America’s Manga Entertainment. The 2001 anime TV series Shin Cho Kyo Ryo (Legend of the Condor Hero) was a Chinese/Japanese co-production between Nippon Animation and Hong Kong’s Jade Animation. The 2003 anime movie Interstella 5555, supervised by Leiji Matsumoto, was produced in collaboration with French pop group Daft Punk. And while I don’t know how much, if any involvement Russia will have in its production, the upcoming t.A.T.u Paragate anime movie will star the Russian pop music duo t.A.T.u.

(Thanks to Chieko Cranley for assistance with this article.)