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Anime Studio Production Reed Changes Name Back to Ashi Productions
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Anime studio Production Reed announced on February 12 that it is changing its name back to Ashi Productions Co., Ltd. Toshihiko Satō, the company's president, stated in the announcement that the company is returning to its original founding name "with the intention of pushing forward with new feelings and a theme of 'let's make something interesting' and 'let's make something fun.'"
Ashi Productions was founded in 1975. The company was responsible for such popular anime classics as Magical Princess Minky Momo, Dancougar, and Sengoku Majin Goshōgun in the 1980s.
The studio became a subsidiary of the toy company Bandai in 2001, but it split from the Bandai Group in 2005. The company then became a consolidated subsidiary of toy developer and producer Wiz in August 2006, and changed its name to Production Reed in November 2007. ("Ashi" is Japanese for "reed.") Wiz then sold the company to Toshihiko Satō in May 2009. The company then became more than 95% employee owned.
Production Reed most recently worked on the 12-episode Cutie Honey Universe television anime series, which premiered in April 2018. The company has also recently produced the In Another World With My Smartphone and Onsen Yōsei Hakone-chan anime series.
Sources: Ashi Productions, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)
