Bee Train

Infobox Company
company_name = nihongo|BEE TRAIN Production Inc.
|ビィートレイン株式会社
company_
company_type = Kabushiki kaisha
(joint stock company)cite web|url=http://www.beetrain.co.jp/contents/main/company/|title=About Bee Train|publisher=Bee Train|accessdate=2007-07-11|language=Japanese]
Animation studio
genre= various
foundation = Tokyo, Japan (5 June 1997)
founder = Kōichi Mashimo
location_city = Kokubunji, Tokyo
location_country = Japan
locations = 3 (Kokubunji, Kichijōji, Karuizawa)
key_people = Kōichi Mashimo, CEO
Kenji Horikawa, Director
industry = Animation (Anime)
products = Noir (2001)
.hack//Sign (2002)
Madlax (2004)
Tsubasa Chronicle (2005-06)
.hack//Roots (2006)
El Cazador de la Bruja (2007)
revenue= ¥ 10,000,000fact|date=July 2008
num_employees = 70 (April 2007)
parent = Production I.G (1997 - 2006)
homepage = [http://www.beetrain.co.jp/ www.beetrain.co.jp]
intl = yesnihongo|BEE TRAIN Production Inc.|ビィートレイン株式会社|Biītorein Kabushikigaisha, commonly referred simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with "Noir", ".hack//Sign", and "Madlax" (among other series) they have a strong following in the yuri fandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively ambiguous relationships.cite web|url=http://okazu.blogspot.com/2004/06/yuri-anime-bee-train-does-it-again.html|author=Friedman, Erica|title=Yuri Anime: Bee Train does it again|accessdate=2007-06-06|date=2004-06-28]

History

The studio Bee Train was founded on June 5 1997 by Koichi Mashimo, who was previously a director at Tatsunoko Productions and the founder of Mashimo Jimusho, a small freelance staff working for other studios. Originally, Bee Train was a subsidiary of Production I.G along with XEBEC but in February 2006, it ended its relationship and became independent.

Koichi Mashimo's goal when he founded Bee Train was to create a "hospital for animators", an animation studio interested in nurturing young talents and artistic quality of production rather than in corporate strategies and profit. This studio-as-hospital approach was allegedly invented by Mashimo during his prolonged stay in an intensive care unit (after a severe skiing accident) and has been Bee Train's official strategy ever since.cite journal|last=Wong|first=Amos|title=Inside Bee Train|journal=Newtype USA|pages=8–15|date= [http://www.newtype-usa.com/issues/index.php?itemid=71 March 2005] ]

The first projects published by the studio in 1999 were anime adaptations of video game franchises popular in Japan: "PoPoLoCrois", "Arc the Lad", "", and "Medabots". Later, Bandai Visual joined forces with Bee Train to produce an anime OVA based on the famous .hack video game series. Simultaneously, they decided to promote the games with an anime television series, that aired in 2002 as ".hack//Sign" and is among Bee Train's most famous works. The OVA became known as ".hack//Liminality" and its four episodes were added as bonus material to each of the original four games of the franchise. In 2006, Bee Train produced ".hack//Roots", a prequel anime to the ".hack//G.U." games and a spiritual successor to "Sign".

Bee Train's first independent project was "Noir". Aired in 2001, the series was produced at the same time as "Sign" and became the first installment of Bee Train's "girls-with-guns" trilogy. After "Noir" has become widely successful in Japan, USA, Germany, and other Western countries, the second series, "Madlax", has been produced in 2004 and the third, "El Cazador de la Bruja",cite web|url=http://www.animenewsservice.com/archives/janx.htm|title=January 3–10 News|accessdate=2007-01-19|date=2007-01-06|publisher="Anime News Service"|quote=Following Noir and Madlax, this [El Cazador] will be the sic|thrid installment in a series of what Director Koichi Mashimo has referred to as his girls-with-guns genre trilogy.] went on air in April 2007. Although the "girls-with-guns" series are considered Bee Train's and, particularly, Mashimo's signature works, the original idea belonged to their common executive producer Shigeru Kitayama.

Since 1997, the studio's headquarters are located in Kokubunji, Tokyo, although in 2001, it moved to another part of the city. Two more studio locations were acquired in 2004 (in Karuizawa, Nagano) and 2006 (Kichijōji, Musashino, Tokyo).

tyle

One frequent technique that Mashimo uses as part of his studio-as-hospital strategy is brainstorming new anime concepts with his colleagues in the state of alcohol intoxication. For example, according to him, that is how the idea of the supernatural connection between the two female leads of "Madlax" was born.

Another typical Bee Train gesture is to invite seiyūs who have already worked on some of their projects to voice the characters similar to the ones they voiced before. For example, this list includes Hōko Kuwashima (Kirika Yuumura in "Noir", Margaret Burton in "Madlax"),cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=281|title=Houko Kuwashima|publisher=Anime News Network|accessdate=2007-07-11] Aya Hisakawa (Chloe, Limelda Jorg, Jodie Hayward in "El Cazador de la Bruja"),cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=503|title=Aya Hisakawa|publisher=Anime News Network|accessdate=2007-07-11] and Kaori Nazuka (Subaru in ".hack//Sign", Shino in ".hack//Roots").cite web|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=439|title=Kaori Nazuka|publisher=Anime News Network|accessdate=2007-07-11]

The famous Japanese composer and music producer Yuki Kajiura has created musical scores for multiple projects by Bee Train since "Noir" (whose appeal lay to a large degree in its soundtrack). Kajiura has provided music for "Sign", "Liminality", "Madlax" (as part of FictionJunction YUUKA), "Tsubasa Chronicle", and recently "El Cazador de la Bruja". When explaining his preference for Kajiura's work, Mashimo once commented that "she's a storyteller who just happens to know how to write music". Another frequent collaboration is that between Bee Train and the musical duo Ali Project ("Noir", "Avenger", ".hack//Roots"). Generally, the music plays a just as important role in Bee Train's works as visuals and dialogue do, sometimes even drowning the latter (heard, for example, in ".hack//Sign", "Avenger", and "Madlax").

Works

Production

Other participations

Bee Train also participated in the following works as a general for hire company, handling such tasks as animation.

*".hack//Games First Quartet" participation with "Project .hack"
*".hack//G.U." participation with "Project .hack"
*"": In-Between Animation
*': ' short film production/in-between animation
*"": In-Between Animation
*"Captain Kuppa": Animation
*"": In-Between Animation
*"Gun Sword": Animation finish
*"Haibane Renmei": In-Between Animation
*"Honey and Clover": Animation
*"Immortal Grand Prix (TV series)": In-between Animation
*"Le Chevalier D'Eon": In-Between Animation
*"Mind Game": Animation
*"Professor Layton and the Curious Village": Animation Editing
*"R.O.D. The TV": In-Between Animation
*"xxxHolic Kei": 2nd Key Animation

References

External links

* [http://www.beetrain.co.jp/ Official website]
* ann company|264
* imdb company|0063458
* [http://www.beetrainfan.org/ Unofficial fan site]