Osteology - A study of Bones

Written by A. H. on 20 Oct 2009

Ask most hardcore anime fans to name some top production studios off the top of their heads, and you'll most likely be presented with the usual suspects, with Gainax and Production I.G. topping the list I would wager.  However, in more recent terms, and certainly throughout the 21st century so far, there's a new big-hitter to add to that list - Bones.

In celebration of the visit of Bones, in the form of the studio's president Masahiko Minami, to the London MCM Expo this weekend, we've taken a look at the origins and output of Bones since its foundation in late 1998 - A journey which takes us through a number of seminal anime series, which only serves to underscore their importance in the industry as it stands.

Origins

As we've just mentioned, it was late 1998 which saw the birth of Bones as an animation studio in their own right, founded as it was by a trio of staff members from another studio, Sunrise, who had just enjoyed tremendous success themselves at that time in the form of Cowboy Bebop.

The trio in question were Masahiko Minami, a producer at Sunrise at the time who took up a position as the new studio's president; Hiroshi Ōsaka, a character designer and animator responsible for designs for a couple of Gundam series and animation director on the aforementioned Cowboy Bebop as just some of the highlight of his prolific output; and Toshihiro Kawamoto, responsible for Cowboy Bebop's character designs as well as working on key animation for the likes of Escaflowne and Blood: The Last Vampire before taking up the role of director for Bones.

Ironically, one of Bones' first projects was actually in collaboration with their former employers Sunrise, in the form of the feature-length Cowboy Bebop movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door - A movie which grossed over $3 million worldwide amidst much of the critical acclaim afforded the original TV anime, and allowing all two of Bones' founder members to reprise their roles from the original series while Masahiko Minami took the reins as the film's producer.

Before even this project, Bones kicked off their TV anime legacy via Karakuri Kiden Hiwou Senki (or Hiwou War Chronicles in English), a series which ran between October 2000 and May 2001 and set within Japan's Meiji period.  While this series didn't really generate any interest outside of Asia, it was only to be the start of a run of outstanding success that would cement Bones' early reputation as purveyors of quality in the TV anime sphere, both inside of Japan and out.