80. Tatsunoko Production
This Japanese animation studio gained its fame decades ago when its Mach GoGoGo jumped the Pacific and took America by storm with the name Speed Racer. Since then they’ve had many high and low career moments, and in 2013 and 2014 they have kept busy with their work on anime projects such as Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san, Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live, Gatchaman Crowds, Yozakura Quartet Hana no Uta, Yozakura Quartet Tsuki ni Naku, Triple Combination: Transformers Go!, Wake Up, Girls!, Ping Pong, PriPara, and the one that’s most exciting: Psycho-Pass 2! They’re also working on a revival of Shurato with a 2015 movie and 2016 series planned.
79. J.C. Staff
This Tokyo studio is no stranger to influential anime series; it’s worked on several since its inception in 1986. While their recent work may not be popular in America, they’ve seen plenty of success in Japan with releases such as A Certain Scientific Railgun S, Futari wa Milky Holmes, Little Busters! Refrain, Golden Time, Witch Craft Works, Fuun Ishin Dai Shogun, Selector Infected WIXOSS, Majimoji Rurumo, Love Stage!!, Selector Spread WIXOSS, and Little Busters! EX.
78. Studio Deen
When you’re an anime studio that’s been in business since 1975, it’s no surprise that you’re responsible for creating over 100 influential animations over the decades. So they earned a spot on our Top 100 Most Influential Animation Studios of All Time list, but what about their recent work? In 2013 and this year combined, they’ve worked on Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East, Meganebu!, Hetalia: The Beautiful World, Rozen Maiden: Zuruckspulen, Pupa, Sakura Trick, Bakumatsu Rock, and Log Horizon 2nd Season. With some of their anime being based on New York Times bestselling manga series, they’ve no doubt continued to reach wide audiences.
This independent VFX company is located in Auckland, New Zealand, and has created dozens of TV commercials for high profile clients like Volkswagen and Smirnoff. They also helped bring the Spartacus Starz series to life in 2011, and have contributed to every season since then including the recent final season.
76. Fresh TV
This Canadian company is a full service studio that’s been responsible for several recent hits on the Teletoon animation channel. They’re comparable to a younger version of Nickelodeon Animation Studios as they continue to gather and aid the works of small animation studios under a single flag, such as Elliott Animation and Neptoon Studios. Their 6teen show came to a conclusion a few years ago, but over the past two years they’ve worked on Total Drama, Stoked, and Grojband.
75. Digital Frontier
This Japanese motion picture production company began in 2000 and has grown to employ over 250 artists with various CG specialties for film, television, and gaming scenes. Some of the notable projects they were involved with early in their studio history were Appleseed, Death Note, and Rogue Galaxy. As time went on they continued their high quality standards by working on famous releases like Summer Wars and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Lately they’ve worked on Ryu ga Gotoku 5, Resident Evil: Damnation, Jellyfish Eyes, Tabidachi no Shimauta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and are currently working on a TV anime series for the highly anticipated Might No. 9 game!
74. Cantina Creative
One of the newest studios in the business, this company was founded in 2010 by Sean Cushing and Stephen Lawes. The two of them combined had worked on highly influential projects such as Avatar, Iron Man, Iron Man II, Matrix Revolutions, Superman Returns, the Departed, Speed Racer, and Shutter Island. What have they done since the studio opened though? If you were mesmerized by the numerous HUDs in front of Robert Downey Jr.’s face in Iron Man 3, then you have them to thank for their 100+ shots for the movie! Even more impressive was that their ten artist studio completed about 1,000 visual effects shots for the film Need For Speed in just six months!
73. Prana Studios
This is the group that placed the $30 million winning bankruptcy auction bid for Rhythm & Studios (look for them later in the list!). Prana Studios is an American VFX company with a wholly owned subsidiary in Mumbai, India, which results in an interesting balance of releases. Not only have they worked on DisneyToon Studios’ Planes and Planes: Fire & Rescue, but also Bollywood productions such as Koochie Koochie Hota Hai.
72. Base FX
This company was founded in 2006 and has offices in Beijing, China as well as Los Angeles, California. They’ve completed projects for over fifty films since then, making them one of the largest studios in Asia in recent years. The industry noticed the splash they were making and in 2012 they struck a strategic agreement with Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to work exclusively on the projects Endangered, Pain & Gain, Black Sails, and a little, tiny, sort of successful box office movie called Pacific Rim. You and a billion others have probably heard of it?
71. Mirada Studios
Helping Katy Perry create the special effects for her Dark Horse music video that received over half a billion views is reason enough to make the list, but Mirada’s influence goes much deeper than that. They sparingly work on high profile commercials and promotional videos, such as their pseudo live action Mario Kart 8 Wii U video, but their main bragging right is that they were formed by Guillermo del Toro back in 2010. His plan paid off well; last year they worked with him and Mathew Cullen to design, create, shoot, edit, and execute more than 80 VFX shots for the prologue of Pacific Rim!