Tatsunoko Production

Background

Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio and rights company founded in October 1962 by manga author Tatsuo Yoshida alongside his brothers Kenji and Ippei Kuri. The studio is best known for a number of works including Speed Racer, The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee, Time Bokan, The Littl' Bits, The Genie Family/Bob in a Bottle, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman among many others. Following his death in 1977, Kenji Yoshida took over the studio and later in 1987 by Kuri. In 2005, toy company Takara purchased a 88% stake in Tatsunoko, making the studio a subsidiary of Takara until it merged with Tomy a year later. In 2013, Horipro purchased 13.5% of the company's shares and renamed its Japanese name to TatsunokoPro (タツノコプロ). The following year, Nippon Television purchased 54.3% of Tatsunoko's shares from Tomy, making the studio a subsidiary of NTV. In 2019, Tatsunoko introduced the Bakken Record label meant for several productions.

"Tatsunoko" has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu no ko" ("Child of Tatsu", Tatsu being the nickname for founder Tatsuo Yoshida) and "Tatsuno" ("seahorse"), the seahorse became its logo.

Logo (May 8, 1965?-)

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• File:Tatsunoko Pro - Fuji TV (1969 - Judo Boy, Closing).jpg
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Visuals: An in-credit logo featuring a seahorse logo with the words "タツノコプロ" in a cubic script to the right of it.

Variants:

• Around 1973, the wordmark gained its more familiar appearance with the wordmark no longer being in italics.
• On most shows, such as Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato, the seahorse is removed, beginning with Dementan Croaker, The Boy Frog however, said show used the previous wordmark on the closing credits.
• Beginning in 2016, the seahorse and wordmark were modernized. This was first seen in Time Bokan 24.

Technique: Superimposed animation. Cel animation during its earliest appearances.

Audio: The opening or closing theme of the show.

Availability: Can be seen on television series produced and/or animated by them, such as Speed Racer.