Bee Train Production

BEE TRAIN Production Inc.
Native name	ビィートレイン kabushiki gaisha
Company type	Kabushiki kaisha; Animation studio
Industry	Animation(Anime)
Genre	various
Founded	Tokyo,JapanJune 5, 1997
Founder	Kōichi Mashimo
Headquarters	Kichijōji,Musashino, Tokyo, Japan
Number of locations	3(Kokubunji,Kichijōji,Karuizawa)
Key people	Kōichi Mashimo,CEO; Kenji Horikawa,Director;
Products	Arc the Lad(1999); Noir(2001); .hack//Sign(2002); Madlax(2004); Tsubasa Chronicle(2005–06); .hack//Roots(2006); El Cazador de la Bruja(2007);
Total equity	¥10,000,000
Number of employees	70 (April 2007)
Parent	Production I.G(1997–2006)
Divisions	Bee Train Digital(defunct); Studio Road; C-Station(2009–12); D-Station(defunct);

Bee Train Production(ビィートレイン kabushiki gaisha,Biītorein Kabushikigaisha),commonly referred to simply asBee Train,is a Japaneseanimation studiofounded byKōichi Mashimoin 1997. Since their involvement withNoir,.hack//Sign,andMadlax(among other series) they have a strong following in theyurifandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively ambiguous relationships.^[3]

History

The studio Bee Train was founded on June 5, 1997, byKōichi Mashimo,who was previously adirectoratTatsunoko Productionsand the founder of Mashimo Jimusho, a small freelance staff working for other studios. Originally, Bee Train was a subsidiary ofProduction I.Galong withXebecbut 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 andartisticquality of production rather than incorporatestrategies and profit. This studio-as-hospitalapproach was allegedly invented by Mashimo during his prolonged stay in anintensive careunit (after a severeskiingaccident) and has been Bee Train's official strategy ever since.^[4]

The first projects published by the studio in 1999 were anime adaptations ofvideo game franchisespopular in Japan:PoPoLoCrois,Arc the Lad,Wild Arms: Twilight Venom,andMedabots.Later,Bandai Visualjoined forces with Bee Train to produce an animeOVAbased 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//Signand is among Bee Train's most famous works. The OVA became known as.hack//Liminalityand 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 aspiritual successortoSign.

Bee Train's first independent project wasNoir.Aired in 2001, the series was produced at the same time asSignand became the first installment of Bee Train's "girls-with-guns" trilogy.^[4]AfterNoirhad become widely successful in Japan, France, the United States, Germany, and other Western countries, the second series,Madlax,was produced in 2004 and the third,El Cazador de la Bruja,^[5]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 commonexecutive producer Shigeru Kitayama.^[4]

From 1997 on, the studio's headquarters were located inKokubunji, Tokyo,although in 2001, it moved to another part of the city. Two more studio locations were acquired in 2004 (inKaruizawa, Nagano) and 2006 (Kichijōji,Musashino, Tokyo).^[1]

The company has been dormant since 2012 due to Kōichi Mashimo's retirement from the anime industry. The official website was removed in 2024.

Style

One frequent technique that Mashimo uses as part of his studio-as-hospital strategy isbrainstormingnew anime concepts with his colleagues in the state ofalcohol intoxication.For example, according to him, that is how the idea of the supernatural connection between the two female leads ofMadlaxwas born.^[4]

Another typical Bee Train gesture is to invite Japanesevoice actorswho have already worked on some of their projects to voice the characters similar to the ones they voiced before. For example, this list includesHōko Kuwashima(Kirika Yuumura inNoir,Margaret BurtoninMadlax),Aya Hisakawa(Chloe,Limelda Jorg,Jodie Hayward inEl Cazador de la Bruja), andKaori Nazuka(Subaruin.hack//Sign,Shino in.hack//Roots).

The famous Japanesecomposerandmusic producer Yuki Kajiurahas created musical scores for multiple projects by Bee Train sinceNoir(whose appeal lay to a large degree in itssoundtrack). Kajiura has provided music forSign,Liminality,Madlax(as part ofFictionJunction Yuuka),Tsubasa Chronicle,and recentlyEl 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".^[4]Another frequent collaboration is that between Bee Train and the musical duoAli Project(Noir,Avenger,.hack//Roots). Generally, the music plays a just as important role in Bee Train's works as visuals and dialogue do,^[4]sometimes even drowning the latter (heard, for example, in.hack//Sign,Avenger,andMadlax).

Works

In the works

Year	Title	Type	Eps	Director	Writer	Composer
1999	Popolocrois Monogatari	TV	25	Kōichi Mashimo	Aya Matsui	Kow Otani
1999	Arc the Lad	TV	26	Itsuro Kawasaki	Akemi Omode	Michiru Oshima
1999	Wild Arms: Twilight Venom	TV	22	Itsuro Kawasaki	Hideki Mitsui Itsuro Kawasaki Aya Matsui Akemi Omode Chinatsu Houjou Hideki Mitsui Kenji Kamiyama	Kow Otani
1999	Medabots(first season)	TV	52	Tensai Okamura	Ryōta Yamaguchi	Osamu Tezuka
2001	Noir	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Ryoe Tsukimura	Yuki Kajiura
2001	Captain Kuppa Desert Pirate	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Kōichi Mashimo	Hayato Matsuo
2002	.hack//Sign	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Kazunori Ito Hiroaki Jinno Kōichi Mashimo Kirin Mori Akemi Omode Mitsuhiko Sawamura Michiko Yokote	Yuki Kajiura
2002	.hack//Liminality	OVA	4	Kōichi Mashimo	Kazunori Ito	Yuki Kajiura
2002	.hack//Gift	OVA	1	Kōichi Mashimo	Kazunori Ito	Yuki Kajiura
2003	Avenger	TV	13	Kōichi Mashimo	Hidefumi Kimura	Ali Project
2003	.hack//Legend of the Twilight	TV	12	Kōichi Mashimo Koji Sawai	Akatsuki Yamatoya Satoru Nishizono	Yuji Yoshino Yoko Ueno
2003	Immortal Grand Prix	TV	5	Kōichi Mashimo	Kōichi Mashimo Yuki Arie	Fat Jon
2004	Madlax	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Yōsuke Kuroda	Yuki Kajiura
2004	Meine Liebe	TV	13	Kōichi Mashimo	Akemi Omode	Yoshihisa Hirano
2005	Tsubasa Chronicle(first season)	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Hiroyuki Kawasaki	Yuki Kajiura
2006	Meine Liebe wieder	TV	13	Shinya Kawamo	Akemi Omode	Yutaka Minobe
2006	.hack//Roots	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Kazunori Ito Miu Kawasaki	Ali Project
2006	Spider Riders	TV	52	Kōichi Mashimo Takaaki Ishiyama	Yōsuke Kuroda	Fumitaka Anzai Nobuhiko Nakayama
2006	Tsubasa Chronicle(second season)	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo Hiroshi Morioka	Hiroyuki Kawasaki	Yuki Kajiura
2007	Murder Princess	OVA	6	Tomoyuki Kurokawa	Tatsuhiko Urahata	Yasufumi Fukuda
2007	El Cazador de la Bruja	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Kenichi Kanemaki	Yuki Kajiura
2007	Spider Riders: Yomigaeru Taiyou	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Yōsuke Kuroda	Fumitaka Anzai Nobuhiko Nakayama
2008	Blade of the Immortal	TV	13	Kōichi Mashimo	Hiroyuki Kawasaki	Kow Otani
2008	Batman Gotham Knight: Field Test	Video	1	Hiroshi Morioka	Jordan Goldberg	Christopher Drake
2009	Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~	TV	26	Kōichi Mashimo	Gen Urobuchi Yōsuke Kuroda Hideki Shirane Noboru Kimura Tatsuya Takahashi Yukihito Nonaka	Hikaru Nanase
2010	Halo Legends: Homecoming	OVA/ONA	1	Koji Sawai	Hiroyuki Kawasaki	Martin O'Donnell
2010	Psychic Detective Yakumo	TV	13	Tomoyuki Kurokawa	Hiroyuki Kawasaki	R・O・N
2011	Hyouge Mono	TV	39	Koichi Mashimo	Hiroyuki Kawasaki	Kow Otani

Other divisions

Bee Train Digitalwas Bee Train's small special effects and other works area that has mostly provided additional production support to projects such as effects, finishing and photography work for.hack//SIGN,.hack//Liminality,Avenger,andMurder Princess.It also created the special effects forToaru Majutsu no Indexand 2D works in ending theme ofCanaan.Studio Road,which resides within the studio's offices, provides animation finishing services for Bee Train and several other studios. Through the 2009-2010 year, two new divisions were added.C-StationDepartment, which served as its animation design department andD-StationDepartment, which was reorganized from Bee Train Digital, is the digital production and digital photography works. In 2012, C-Station broke away from Bee Train becoming independent and D-Station has since been delisted by the company.

References

^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f"About Bee Train"(in Japanese). Bee Train.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-06-25.Retrieved2012-02-27.
^"FY 2010 Application Guidelines produced"(in Japanese). Bee Train.Retrieved2009-09-09.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^Friedman, Erica (2004-06-28)."Yuri Anime: Bee Train does it again".Archivedfrom the original on 11 April 2017.Retrieved2007-06-06.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^fWong, Amos (March 2005). "Inside Bee Train".Newtype USA:8–15.
^"January 3–10 News".Anime News Service. 2007-01-06. Archived fromthe originalon 3 February 2007.Retrieved2007-01-19.Following Noir and Madlax, [El Cazador] was the third [sic] installment in a series of what Director Koichi Mashimo has referred to as his girls-with-guns genre trilogy.

Yuki, Masahiro. "The Official Art of.hack//Roots". (May 2007)Newtype USA.pp. 101–107.

External links

Bee Train ProductionatAnime News Network's encyclopedia

[aboutBT-1] "About Bee Train"(in Japanese). Bee Train.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-06-25.Retrieved2012-02-27.

[2] "FY 2010 Application Guidelines produced"(in Japanese). Bee Train.Retrieved2009-09-09.^{[permanent dead link‍]}

[yuri-3] Friedman, Erica (2004-06-28)."Yuri Anime: Bee Train does it again".Archivedfrom the original on 11 April 2017.Retrieved2007-06-06.

[Wong-4] Wong, Amos (March 2005). "Inside Bee Train".Newtype USA:8–15.

[elcaz-5] "January 3–10 News".Anime News Service. 2007-01-06. Archived fromthe originalon 3 February 2007.Retrieved2007-01-19.Following Noir and Madlax, [El Cazador] was the third [sic] installment in a series of what Director Koichi Mashimo has referred to as his girls-with-guns genre trilogy.

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