News

Anime Studio Artland Closes Down

The corporate credit research and market research company Teikoku Databank reported on Friday that animation studio Artland ceased operations as of June 30, and the company has hired a lawyer to handle its post-operation affairs. The company lists Artland's debt at 298 million yen (about US$2.62 million) as of the end of December 2016.

Late anime director Noboru Ishiguro established Artland in 1978. The studio produced such iconic anime as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Megazone 23, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Mushishi. The company incorporated in 2006 and became a subsidiary of Marvelous. At this time, it produced such anime as Mushishi and Katekyo Hitman Reborn!. In 2010, Marvelous split Artland into a rights holding company and the actual animation studio. The studio recently worked on 2015's Komori-san Can't Decline series.

Artland was working on the currently airing Seven Mortal Sins anime. Seven Mortal Sins is slated to have 12 episodes. The show's 10th episode aired on June 23, and a recap episode 10.5 aired on June 30. The show's 11th episode is slated for Friday.

Teikoku Databank listed that the company's annual income as of November 2013 was about 260 million yen (about US$2.29 million), but by December 2016 the annual income was 21 million yen (about US$184,000). Teikoku Databank explained that even though the company continued to make popular works such as Mushishi, Artland's outsourcing costs comprised almost 90% of its production costs, and the company continued to accrue debt.

Emon Animation Company announced in June 2016 that it was investing in the studio for the purpose of strengthening its anime production capacity. Emon Animation Company had bought 51% of the stock in Artland, and planned to restructure the company. Emon is the Japanese branch of Haoliners, an animation brand based in Shanghai and a subsidiary of Shanghai Haoliners Cultures Media Co., Ltd.

Update: Added information on Seven Mortal Sins.

[Via Anime Seiyu]