The story
1975–1984: Early sub-contracting work
Shaft was founded as a yūgen-gaisha on September 1, 1975, by ex-Mushi Production employee Hiroshi Wakao. Much of the company's early work was sub-contracting work for larger animation studios, which includes credits to cel painting and color coordination work, such as with Brave Raideen (1975–76), and occasionally credits as an assistant production studio for projects including Pierrot's Urusei Yatsura: Only You (1983). A large portion of the company's early painting work was contracted under Sunrise productions.
1984–2004: Move to animation production
In 1984, Shaft was sub-contracted by studio Zuiyo to animate the Elves of the Forest television series, marking the company's first project as a primary animation studio. Not until 1987, however, with the release of the Yume kara, Samenai original video animation (OVA), did the studio release its first wholly-original production. In the same year, the studio produced the first episode of the Taiman Blues: Naoto Shimizu-hen OVA series.
For the next several years, the company returned to sub-contracting work based on animation production services rather than its painting services, such as with the Mushi Production film Ushiro no Shoumen Daare (1991). In 1995, the studio moved to producing full-length series, starting with Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger. By this time, several directors and animators had joined the studio, such as Toshimasa Suzuki and Kenji Yasuda; however, one of the most important series in the company's early history was an outsourcing contract they took on in 1996: Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring, which began the studio's relationship with director Ryūtarō Nakamura and studio Triangle Staff. The second episode of the OVA series was outsourced to Shaft, and both Nakamura and Triangle Staff's president (Yoshimi Asari) visited Shaft while delivering the episode's storyboard. Mitsutoshi Kubota, a studio color designer turned production manager at the time, met with the two, and from then they would collaborate on several more projects together, such as Shaft producing an episode of Nakamura and Triangle Staff's Kino's Journey television series, and Nakamura later directing a television series and Kino's Journey film at the studio.
In 1998, Radix produced a 26-episode adaptation of Kia Asamiya's manga Silent Möbius; and although produced as a Radix production, Shaft was contracted as an outsourcing company for the entire series, and according to Kubota served as the production site for the series (rather than Radix). Shaft was also responsible for selecting the staff, and chief director Hideki Tonokatsu worked from the studio. Nobuyuki Takeuchi left Studio Giants in the early 90s, and Shaft offered him a seat at the studio as a freelancing animator; and for Silent Möbius, he took on the role of "animation director" (not referring to the correction of drawings). Kubota felt that Takeuchi would eventually play a central role in Shaft's works succeeding the series, and he eventually became an integral part of many of the productions made with Shinbo.
Shaft entered co-operations with studios Gainax and TNK around 2000. The first of the productions under these co-operations was Mahoromatic (2001) and its sequel Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful (2002–03), both with Gainax and under the direction of Hiroyuki Yamaga. 2002 was also the release of the studio's production with TNK, G-On Riders. In 2003 and 2004, the studio produced an adaptation of the visual novel Popotan, and later This Ugly yet Beautiful World, an original series co-produced with Gainax and director Shouji Saeki. The development of This Ugly yet Beautiful World began when members of Mahoromatic said that they wanted to do another work with the team, which included both the voice actors and staff members. While searching for scriptwriting and directing staff to work on the project, Saeki and Gainax producer Hiroki Satou mentioned that it would involve much of the Mahoromatic staff to those they invited, such as director Shin Itagaki and writer Sumio Uetake.
2004–2016: Kubota and Team Shinbo era
In 2004, Wakao was succeeded as Shaft's representative director by Kubota, though he remained a chairman on the studio's board. After watching The SoulTaker (2001) and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (2004), both works directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, Kubota decided that he wanted to work with Shinbo to create a uniquely identifiable brand for the studio. In October 2004, the studio animated its first production with Shinbo as director, Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase, and he began serving as an executive director and mentor to the studio's staff.
Shaft's final co-production with Gainax came in 2005 with He Is My Master. The same year saw the first animated production under the influence of "Team Shinbo", a director trio consisting of Shinbo, Shin Oonuma, and Tatsuya Oishi, who played a vital role in the studio's early stylistic decisions. Shinbo had invited both Oonuma and Oishi to direct episodes under him having seen their work under him on previous projects outside of Shaft. The next two years also saw the release of Rec (2006) and Kino's Journey: Country of Illness -For You- (2007), the aforementioned series directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura, which would be the last series produced by Shaft not to feature any involvement by Shinbo for more than a decade.
During the mid-to-late 2000s, the studio brought on a number of new directors and creators, including Ryouki Kamitsubo, Naoyuki Tatsuwa, Kenichi Ishikura, Yukihiro Miyamoto, Shinichi Omata, Tomoyuki Itamura, and Gekidan Inu Curry. Kamitsubo and Oonuma, however, left by the end of the decade, with the latter joining Silver Link where he established himself in a similar role to Shinbo's.
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In 2009, Shinbo and Oishi directed Bakemonogatari, which was later characterized as a hallmark of the studio's unique aesthetics. It gained a cult-like following among fans in both Japan and the West for its narrative and "visually striking" animation and artistic qualities. Polygon named it as the series that "pushed studio Shaft into the spotlight", and the series was chosen as the "best anime series of 2009" by the Tokyo Anime Award Festival in 2017. Following Bakemonogatari, the studio produced yet another critical and financial hit two years later with Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Madoka Magica is regarded by several publications and critics as one of the greatest anime productions of all time, and the series' financial and critical success spawned a franchise consisting of several films, television series, and games produced in part or in whole by Shaft. Along with the Monogatari series, Madoka Magica is considered to be one of the most financially successful anime products in Japan, with both series maintaining the highest average sales of DVDs, Blu-Rays, and re-releases in Japan. In 2012, the studio returned to animating the Monogatari series with Nisemonogatari, albeit with director Tomoyuki Itamura in place of Oishi. Itamura and Shinbo produced a subsequent Monogatari season every year up until Zoku Owarimonogatari (2018), which is the only Monogatari season to feature Shinbo as the sole director.
The early-to-mid 2010s brought more changes to the studio's creative staff and the studio itself. For one, 2015 was the year Shaft reorganized from a yūgen-gaisha to a kabushiki-gaisha. Several directors also ended up leaving around this time, such as Kenichi Ishikura after serving as assistant director on Mahō Sensei Negima! Anime Final in 2011, Shinichi Omata around 2012, and Naoyuki Tatsuwa after he directed Gourmet Girl Graffiti in 2015. A number of other notable directors were brought into the studio around this time, however, such as directors Yuki Yase, Kenjirou Okada, Hajime Ootani, and Midori Yoshizawa. Tatsuya Oishi disappeared from the public spotlight in the early 2010s after he began production on the Kizumonogatari film trilogy, which was released in 2016 and 2017. Shaft's animation work on the trilogy has been praised as being uniquely experimental with 2D and CG effects, which some reviewers described as not always mixing well, but has nonetheless been called "gorgeous."
In the late 2010s, a number of other creative staff left the studio. Yuki Yase left after directing The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer (2016–17), and moved with animation producer Kousuke Matsunaga to David Production where he directed the first season of Fire Force (2019). CG director Shinya Takano and at-the-time production assistants Reo Honjouya, Shou Sugawara, and Kenichirou Yano also transferred to David Production with Matsunaga; though, Yase has continued to contribute as a storyboard artist to Shaft works into the 2020s. Tomoyuki Itamura, who directed the rest of the Monogatari series after Oishi's commitment to Kizumonogatari, left the studio after the production of Owarimonogatari II (2017) and took Izumi Takizawa, a color designer with the studio since the late 90s, with him.
2016–present: Post-Team Shinbo
In 2016 and 2017, directors Kenjirou Okada and Nobuyuki Takeuchi directed their debuts as series/film directors with March Comes In like a Lion (2016–18) and Fireworks (2017), and the studio produced Fate/Extra Last Encore with Miyamoto as series directing in 2018. The film version of Zoku Owarimonogatari was also released in 2018, solely directed by Shinbo; and its televised version was the studio's only official major production in 2019. The studio was, however, outsourced to for an episode of Tezuka Productions' adaptation of The Quintessential Quintuplets (2019). The entirety of the episode was produced at Shaft, with Midori Yoshizawa as episode director and a majority of the Shaft production team working on the episode, including the studio's colorists, animators, and photographers (the episode is also the only episode to feature a separate photography director, that being Shaft's Rei Egami). One version of the story that led to Shaft's involvement with the work was that TBS producer Junichirou Tanaka met CEO Kubota at a dinner party once and had asked on his knees for Shaft's help in producing the first half of the series' 11th episode, but during conversation Kubota noted that he knew of the issues with the production and decided that Shaft would be capable of producing the entire episode. Alternatively, in another interview, Tanaka said that Tezuka Productions hadn't received enough time to produce the series, so he tried phoning a number of production companies and eventually landed on Shaft (who animated Hidamari Sketch, another TBS-produced anime) and Kubota accepted the offer to contribute key animation only for the A-part (first half) of the episode. Later, Tanaka asked Kubota if Shaft could produce the entire episode, and since the two companies had history, and Kubota was on friendly terms with producer Hiroshi Oosawa form Tezuka Productions, Shaft eventually agreed to produce the entire episode. Series director Satoshi Kuwabara drew the episode's storyboards but left the production of the episode entirely up to Yoshizawa and Shaft.
In 2020, Shaft returned to producing full-length series with Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, an adaptation of a spin-off mobile game series based on the studio's Madoka Magica franchise. It was the first series since 2007 not to be directed in part by Akiyuki Shinbo (although he served as an animation supervisor), and was instead chief directed by Doroinu of Gekidan Inu Curry, one of the original series' alternate space designers. Shaft's second and final project of the year, Assault Lily Bouquet, was also the first time since 2007 that Shinbo had not been involved with one of the studio's main projects entirely. Bouquet was instead directed by former Gainax member Shouji Saeki and Shaft member Hajime Ootani.
Shinbo returned to the director's chair in 2021 with his adaptation of Pretty Boy Detective Club, which he co-directed alongside Ootani. The series served as the debut for Shaft's CGI animation division, as well as the Umegumi division. The second season of Magia record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story later that year also debuted the company's background art division, albeit listed under Digital@Shaft, before being given their own department name in the third season of the series in early 2022. The company opened a branch studio in Shizuoka (which is also the first animation studio in Shizuoka Prefecture), with a few of the staff members from the head office moving to the city in order to establish operations and train new staff. Veteran color designer Yasuko Watanabe, who joined the company in 2000, became the branch studio's chief. In 2021, a fourth Madoka Magica film titled Walpurgisnacht: Rising was announced to be in production.
At the end of 2021, and following into 2022, the studio produced a short series based on the Assault Lily franchise entitled Assault Lily Fruits; and in March of that year, completed the Magia Record series with a four-episode finale. In July of that year, the studio produced Luminous Witches and RWBY: Ice Queendom jointly. In 2023, a special based on The Quintessential Quintuplets was announced to be produced at the studio. Prior to the release of the 2022 film, the show's producers had no intention of making another anime based on the project; however, they changed their minds upon seeing the positive reception towards the film. The reason to produce the new project at Shaft was mainly due to the popularity of the first season's 11th episode, which Shaft produced as a gross outsource.
2023 saw no new releases from the studio aside from the Quintuplets special. However, while the studio did not produce its own works, it was busy assisting other companies with theirs. Of those, the most notable collaboration happened between Shaft and Bug Films. The studio was producing its first series, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, and Shaft was asked to assist with part of the production of the series at the start of the third episode (and ending with the fifth episode), according to Bug Films CEO Hiroaki Kojima.
Noticeably, Shinbo's involvement at the studio lessened following the turn of the decade. Whereas he had previously been involved in every major production since 2004 (with the exception of their co-productions with Gainax and the two works directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura), various other affiliated directors began to take up the mantle—most notably Miyamoto and Saeki. Animator Kazuya Shiotsuki, who joined just before Shinbo was invited to Shaft, noted that many of the staff from that time period became the "Children of Shinbo" (新房チルドレン) in that his influence extended further than just to the directors, and that the team as a whole (including animators such as himself) were broadly influenced by the values he displayed. With the new generation of staff members joining in the early 2020s, as Shinbo had decreased his overall output, many of the staff at the studio were instead being influenced by Saeki and, according to Shiotsuki, Yasuomi Umetsu, who has been working on a project at the studio for several years.
In early 2024, a new adaptation of the Monogatari series, specifically the Off and Monster Season series of novels, was announced with much of the series core staff returning and a July release date. Pre-production of the series started in fall of 2022 following the end of Luminous Witches and RWBY: Ice Queendom when Aniplex producer Tatsuya Ishikawa approached the studio about continuing the adaptation. Agreeing, studio president Kubota selected Midori Yoshizawa, who had been directing at Shaft for nearly a decade by that point, as the new series director under Shinbo. The series was released as an original net animation as opposed to a standard television series, much like Koyomimonogatari in 2016. Having only directed individual OVAs without Shinbo's supervision, Miyamoto made his solo-directing debut in 2025 with the release of A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof.
That year, the studio also released the first installment in the Virgin Punk series co-created and directed by Umetsu. Umetsu's connection to Shaft existed through his decades-old friendship with Shinbo, which extended back to 1996. Shinbo asked Umetsu to direct openings and endings for Shaft projects in the 2000s at several points, but Umetsu's schedule was always busy. It wasn't until And Yet the Town Moves in 2010 that the two were able to collaborate, and it was this project that Umetsu first felt interested in working with Shaft. According to him, the studio's coloring and cinematographic strengths were appealing; however, while he had ideas for a project with the studio, he was in the midst of directing Galilei Donna (2013) and Wizard Barristers (2014) at two other studios, so he opted to wait to approach the company. When Wizard Barristers ended, Umetsu approached Kubota with three project ideas. Kubota approved of the one Umetsu had titled Vespa, later renamed Virgin Punk, and Kubota took the idea to Aniplex CEO Atsuhiro Iwakami, and the two companies greenlight the project. Pre-production began in 2015 when scriptwriter Yuuya Takahashi joined the project (and finished the script that year). Umetsu also directed the opening for Shinbo and Tatsuwa's Gourmet Girl Graffiti, which led to him meeting with production assistant Ryuusuke Suzuki, whom Umetsu selected to be the animation producer for Virgin Punk. Umetsu, technically still affiliated with studio Arms, continued to direct openings and endings at several other studios (including his home studio), and by 2017 he had a position at both Pierrot Plus (which had absorbed much of Arms' staff as its sister company) and Shaft. By 2018, however, he fully transferred to Shaft and the early animation work on Virgin Punk started.
From Wikipedia’s article on Shaft (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4