On December 15, 1987, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, a producer at Tatsunoko Production, established IG Tatsunoko Ltd., the predecessor of Production IG, with Takayuki Goto, who had organized Studio Chime.
Takashi Nakamura,
Kōichi Mashimo, Takayuki Goto (later Production I.G board member),
Hiroyuki Okiura and
Kazuchika Kise (later Production I.G board member) who were at Anime R and Mu in
Osaka at the time, as well as Mizuho Nishikubo and Mamoru Oshii helped in the production.
Kyoto Animation also participated in the production. Hideaki Hatta, President and CEO of Kyoto Animation, who encouraged Ishikawa to become president, supported him in establishing the company and even invested in it. in 2015 After becoming independent, I.G's work was mainly subcontracted to other studios for a while. Traditionally, it has been common knowledge that once an animation studio produces and delivers a work and receives payment for it, its relationship with the work ends, and any further profits are monopolized by the publishing company, television station, or advertising agency that has invested in the work and holds the copyrights. Suzuki's power made possible a large-scale advertising campaign that I.G. would not have been able to carry out alone, but it also created some difficulties. The company co-developed and co-produced the television series IGPX, directed by
Mitsuru Hongo, with
Cartoon Network in 2005. This was the first collaboration between an American cable network and a Japanese anime studio. Production I.G was recapitalized and became a
joint-stock company from a limited company in April 1998, and merged with Ing in September 2000. In 2005, Production I.G. Inc. went public on the
JASDAQ stock exchange. The norm in the animation industry is for anime studios to obtain permission from major publishers such as
Shueisha, Kodansha,
Shogakukan, and
Kadokawa to adapt popular manga into anime, and then produce anime adaptations based on the original manga. On June 1, 2012,
Wit Studio, I.G's subsidiary animation studio, was founded, with the studio's first project being
Attack on Titan, which I.G assisted in producing. IG Port invested 66.6%, while George Wada and Tetsuya Nakatake who were in the planning section of Production I.G invested 21.6% and 10.0%, respectively. In 2017, IG Port created Lingua Franca, an electronic distribution service company, as a wholly owned subsidiary, with Kyohei Shinpuku as its president. On June 5, 2017, Production I.G launched Tate Anime (vertical anime), an anime distribution app optimized for viewing on smartphones. It was completely renewed in 2018 and replaced with a new app, Anime Beans, with expanded functions, including the ability to deliver Yoko anime (horizontal anime), and more content available for viewing. The service was launched on December 18 worldwide except for
China. The app ended service on March 31, 2023. In 2018, Production I.G and Wit Studio entered into a comprehensive business partnership with
Netflix for anime productions. On November 20, 2018, IG Port sold Xebec to
Sunrise. Prior to that, Xebeczwei, a subsidiary of Xebec, was transferred to Production I.G on January 12, 2018, becoming a subsidiary and changing its name to IGzwei accordingly. On August 30, 2022, George Wada, who founded Wit Studio, was promoted from Executive Vice President of Production I.G to CEO, while Ishikawa resigned as CEO to become Chairman. Wada also continued to serve as president of Wit Studio. ==Works==