Hummingbird

Credits

Compiled by
NotPurpleHoodieBoi

Background

Hummingbird was a Japanese record company established in the 23th of February of 1983 by retail business Nichii with a stake of 70%. The impetus for this was that Toshimine Kobayashi, president of Nichii, and the president of Pioneer at the time were acquaintances, and one day the president of Pioneer introduced Kobayashi to the then managing director of Warner Pioneer, who was planning a new business.

When Hummingbird was first established, its sales partners and manufacturers were Victor Music Industry and AVC Japan, but when Pioneer took a stake in the company, the sales partner was changed to Pioneer LDC. Even after the transfer of sales to Pioneer LDC, JVC continued to handle CD pressing for a while. The mastering and pressing division was spun off from Victor Creative Media to JVC Kenwood Creative Media, but was later changed to Pioneer Video, which was an affiliate of Pioneer.

In 1992, due to poor business conditions, Hummingbird was liquidated and a new company, Mycal Hummingbird Inc. was established. The new company took over the music business (and continued the sales alliance with Pioneer LDC), and also consolidated the advertising and sales promotion operations within the group.

1st Logo (1988)

Visuals: On a blue background, there is a green surface. Behind it is a pink right triangle with a diagonal black bar in the middle. A pink hummingbird rapidly flies and stands still in the middle. The triangle then zooms out and stands in the middle, and the green surface lowers down, as the screen fades to footage of an ocean in a cloudy background. The hummingbird then moves to the lower right corner of the vertex of the triangle, as it pulls to reveal two more triangles, one being black and another in pink. Afterwards, the text "HUMMING BIRD CO., LTD." slides in.

Technique: Scanimation.

Audio: An echoed deep piano note in reverse, with synth twinkling sounds, followed by a choir note and a synth glissando.

Availability: Unknown. Could be seen on Laserdisc releases, such as Yui Asaka's Candid Girl.

2nd Logo (April 15, 1989)

Visuals: On a crimson background, four glowing lightning bolts strike together towards the center, leaving out a bunch striking away and diminishing sparkles. The lightning bolts together form a ball of plasma. Whilst this happens, there are more bolts striking away during the formation, and also with typing text in a stack of four:

We are HUMMING BIRD.
We are imaginative Creatures.
through Sound, Visual and Events.
Our message sets human imagination free.

Again, whilst it happens, the lightning bolts diminish onto the plasma as inside of it reveals a crude anthropomorphic drawing of a long-neck bird with a long beak, three strands of hair to the right headphones holding a microphone, standing over a thick slash which is likely to represent a hill. The plasma finally diminishes, where the bird extends it's arms, letting out a shout, with it's right arm leading the microphone closer to it's beak. The text in a stack of four let out a golden glow, in which all dissipate to let out an intense amount of glow, which reveals "HUMMING BIRD" shifts in from the glow that fades, then zooms out to settle beneath the bird shifted slightly to the right, where the logo symbol appears. The bird in the meantime moves it's current action back to the usual before and stands still.

Technique: Traditional animation.

Audio: Electrical sounds are heard throughout the sequence, with whooshes heard in the background.

Availability: Shown on Yawara!.