Ask John: How Influential is Madhouse Studio?

Question:
With Wicked City, Gunnm, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust as some of my all-time favorite anime movies/OVAs, I am a major fan of Madhouse Productions. Can you comment on their impact on anime and how they compare with Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and other production houses?

Answer:
For being one of the largest and most influential animation production companies in the world, it’s both surprising how little is known about Madhouse Studios, and surprising that so many anime fans know of only one side of Madhouse’s output. This largely has to do with the fact that Madhouse is one of the only Japanese animation companies that does not have a web presence or internet homepage.

Madhouse Studios first entered the anime industry with the 1976 TV series Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi (Animated Legends of Japan) featuring episodes directed by Rintaro (X, Metropolis) and Gisaburo Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad, Street Fighter II movie). Little known to fans, Madhouse actually produced or was involved in the production of numerous major anime productions in the late 1970s and early 1980s including Unico, Aim for the Ace, Rose of Versailles, Time Stranger, Harmegeddon (featuring character designs by then unknown Katsuhiro Otomo), and Dagger of Kamui. It was Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s seminal 1987 movie Yoju Toshi (Supernatural Beast City), though, that largely brought Madhouse Studios the recognition and fame it holds now. The dark, mature and sophisticated film, based on a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, was certainly influenced by previous horror anime including the 1985 Vampire Hunter D movie also adapted from Kikuchi’s fiction. But Yoju Toshi set a new standard for production quality in horror anime, and epitomized the melding of noirish style, sexuality, violence and mature storytelling that later became known as the “Madhouse Style.”

Virtually instantly Wicked City created its own genre, over the years followed by films including Kujaku-oh, Maki Toshi Shinjuku (Demon City Shinjuku), Midnight Eye Goku, Cyber City Odeo 808, Bio-hunter and Twilight of the Dark Master. However, these wonderful but overwhelming films largely overshadowed a tremendous amount of output in totally different fields. Perhaps more so than any other anime studio in Japan, the strength of Madhouse Studios is in its diversity, ranging from horror to Osamu Tezuka and CLAMP adaptations to comedy to shoujo and even yaoi.

While many fans now know that Madhouse Studios produced the feature film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis, Madhouse actually has a long history of animating Tezuka manga including the Unico movies in 1981 and 1983, and Hino Tori (Phoenix) movie and OAVs in 1986 and 1987, and the Hidamari no Ki TV series from 2000. Madhouse is also the animation studio behind nearly all of the anime adaptations of CLAMP manga including Tokyo Babylon, all of the X and Card Captor Sakura animation, CLAMP in Wonderland, Clover, and Wish.

But the diversity of Madhouse’s work reaches far beyond this. Madhouse has produced comedies including the Urusei Yatsura OAVs & the final Lum motion picture, Jubei-chan: Secret of Lovely Eyepatch, Di-Gi-Charat and the Galaxy Angel anime TV series; shoujo anime including the 1995 Anne of Green Gables movie, OAVs such as the 1990 drama Nineteen, and TV series such as Fashionable Judo Girl Yawara, Azuki-chan, DNA²and Super Doll Licca-chan; action and drama animation including Trigun, Kaze Makase Tsukikage Ran, Master Keaton, the Lodoss War OAV series, Gakuen Senki Muryo, and Manie Manie; and even yaoi anime including the Zetsuai and Bronze anime OAVs.

Not limited to only Japan, Madhouse has also worked with American artist Peter Cheung to create the 13 episode Alexander Senki OAV series, produced the short Satanika music video for Glenn Danzig, produced the opening animation for Todd MacFarlane’s Spawn animated series and is currently working on short animated Matrix films for Warner Bros.

While certainly Madhouse doesn’t have the massive catalog of productions that older and bigger studios like Sunrise and Toei can boast, relative to other companies limited to mainly animation production including AIC, Gainax, Ghibli, and Production IG and its subsidiaries, there are few companies that can match the creative diversity of work produced by Madhouse, or the consistent quality produced by Madhouse. The mere fact that Madhouse has created or been requested to assist in the production of anime ranging from children’s programs like B-Beadman to shoujo anime like Card Captor Sakura to popular mainstream family programs like Hajime no Ippo to adult oriented horror including Vampire Hunter D 2000 to esoteric “art film” anime such as Boogiepop Phantom should suggest the influence and respect Madhouse has in the Japanese industry.