Topic: Bee Train Staff (Revised again)

[AlexShadow]

This is a thread dedicated to Bee Train staff members.  These busy bees help Mashimo's dreams be realized and help make the anime's we all love so much.   While of course it would be impossible for me to name every staff member that's ever worked and is currently working at BT Japan I want to at least give some recognition to some principal staff because with out them, we wouldn't have anything!  Sadly because information is scarce I can't speak heavily about everyone, just some of the more notables but I try to give recognition all around.    

Starting of course with:

Company Heads:

Koichi Mashimo - The founder CEO lead on-staff director and storyboard artist

Kenji Horikawa - Operations Director (at least I assume so) JapanWiki and AniDB says he co-founded the studio along side Mashimo.  Horikawa also runs P.A. Works.  Produced some of the earlier series for the studio.

Mitsuhisa Ishikwa - No longer with the company but the CEO of Production I.G who helped get the studio started and ran things more from behind the scenes.  Left when the companies split.

Directors/Storyboard

Koichi Mashimo - Lead (obviously)

Hiroshi Morioka - Bee Train's director and storyboard artist having been on board since .hack and coming majorly onto the scene as Tsubasa's Second Season Co-Director and being entrusted to BT's Batman Segment, likely he will continue to lead BT's future as director.

Koji Sawai - Bee Train's leading storyboard artist and director and a long time Mashimo partner.  

Yuuki Arie - Director and Artist (left the studio?)

Tomoyuki Kurokawa -  Director and Artist chief director for Psychic Detective Yakumo, starting to work outside the studio now

Shinya Kawamo (Director/Storyboard artist  (He appears to be working at Silver Link now)

Tsuyoshi/(Takeshi) Yoshimoto (collaborator?)

Tomoaki Ohta

Yutaka Hirata

Hideyo Yamamoto (collab)

Takaaki Ishiyama (freelance old colleague of Mashimo from Tatsunoko)

Character Designers/Animation Staff/Artists/Technical Staff

Satoshi Oshawa - Bee Train's principal character designer and artist having designed all of .hack and all of the Girl's With Guns  I haven't seen him work on anything since .hack//Roots and G.U. Returner so his status is unknown to me.

Minako Shiba -  Principal Character designer and Animation director

Yoshimitsu Yamashita - Character designer, animator

Yoshiaki Tsubata - Character designer, animator

Mutsumi Sasaki - Character designer, animator (Left)

Yoko Kikuchi - Desginer for Noir, El Cazador, and Phantom.  Collaborator but I don't think she works for the studio, probably freelance.

Tomoaki Kado- Character designer, animator (Left?)

Yuko Iwaoka - Character designer, animator

Yukiko Ban - Character designer, animator (Supposedly left)

Manamu Amasaki - Character designer, animator

Kenji Teraoka - BT's principal  special effects (or mechanical animation) creator.  He's done just about everything they've done since Wild ARMS.  (I believe he is freelance)

Yasuhiro Saiki - Mechanical Animation Director

Makiko Kojima - Color designer, ink and paint artist. (STUDIO ROAD)

Sayuri Yoshida - Color designer/Setter (STUDIO ROAD)

Masayuki Kurosawa - Editor, Cinematographer, Mechanical Designer, Director and Storyboard artist

Tomoaki Ohta - Concept Artist

Yuichi Mari - Concept Artist

Tomoaki Kado - Character designer, animator, concept artist (Left?)

Misaki Horiuchi - Cinematographer

Mutsumi Sasaki - Animator (Left)
Effects Artists

Ayumi Kamo - Digital painter and Special Effects Artist and Effects animator

Masahiro Murakami - Freelance but does a vast majority of Special Effects for Bee Train, Production I.G and P.A. Works

Eri Ohtsuka - Effects and CG

Yasuyo YAEGASHI - Effects and CG

Kazu Sato - Digital Artist

Producers and Production Staff

Hideaki Muraoka - Mentioned in my post of the Blade of the Immortal interview he is the animation producer for the studio.  Also does Production Management

Ryoji Maru - Also animation producer and production manager; also chairs C-Station

Kuninori Egawa - Animation producer and production manager (No longer working?)

Katsuhiro Kurmoto-Production manager

Kenichiro Tanaka - Production manager

Tatsuya Hamamoto - Production manager and coordinator

Ryouske Ugajin - New production manager

Seiya Yamamoto - New production manager

Sub Studios:

BEE TRAIN DIGITAL (Defunct)
Studio Road: Digital Paint/Finish Studio (I assume it still belongs to Bee Train anyway)
C-Station: Animation division.  Does hefty amount of assistance work outside.
D-Station: Digital effects, editing and photography.  Also does work outside the studio.
(DEFUNCT?)


From Other Studios:

Bee Train hires out for it's Background Art and Cinematography services.  As most if not all studios do.  Though now they may be doing their own cinematography internally now.

Production AI

Yoshimi Umino- The Primary Art Director; works for Production AI an art studio, done most of the art direction for Bee Train's Works.

Toshihisa Koyama - Second most common art director for the studio and is the CEO of AI

Studio Twinkle

Kenji Teraoka - Cinematographer

Katsuaki Kamata - Cinematographer

Shinichi Igrashi - Cinematographer

Half HP Studio

Toru Nakano - Sound director

M.S.J Musashino Production
Megumi Sugawa - used to be a painter at Studio Road now does Inbetween checking at MSJ (BACK AT C-STATION NOW?)

Hangzhou Flying Dragon Cartoon (China)[/c]

[Koveras]

Hmmm. Does this information come from a particular source? ^^

[AlexShadow]

Why you think I'm making this up?  I'm crushed, no kidding, most of it has been gathered through closing credits on various Bee Train animes and other sites such as Anime News Network.   And I've also been actively going to the Blade of the Immortal sight to see which staff members have worked on what.

[Koveras]

I'm not saying you've made that up. I just wondered where those infos come from.

[AlexShadow]

The Head count:  people who don't work for studios but come back for projects on a frequent basis.



Writers

Writers aren't usually associated  with one studio but these are the share few that come back time and time again

Hiroyuki Kawasaki (7)
Kenichi Kanemaki (2)
Yosuke Kuroda (2)


Composers

Like writers Composers are not bound to studio but labels. (Victor, Flying Dog, Lantis etc)
need I say I say who the first one is?

Yuki Kajiura (9) (flying Dog/Victor JVC and Sony Music Entertainment for Kalafina)

Given the idea Mashimo likes working with those he's worked with before I'm including some of the others:

Hikaru Nanase (1) (Lantis)
Tatsuya Oka (2) (Lantis)
Ali Project (4) (flying Dog/Victor)
Ko Otani (3) (Pony Canyon? or he's unassigned with any label)

That's really all I've got.  Just take a little time to appreciate these people they all play an important part in bringing anime to life.

[AlexShadow]

On more thing:  I suspect Bee Train has added two divisions called C and D-Station.  It seems like it belongs to them because it has most of their usual animation staff.  C-Station does mostly animation work and D-Station does digital works.

Yep D-Station and C-Station are Bee Train subdivisions.

[AlexShadow]

Animator Profile: Yoshimitsu Yamashita who is scheduled to appear at AnimeFest in Dallas this year.



Born February 15th, 1974 in Okayama Prefecture, Yoshimitsu Yamashita graduated from Kokugakuin University with a Major in History. Yamashita first started out in the Anime industry in 1997 working in Production Management at JCF. Amazingly, he has never been formally trained in art. His talent for drawing was first discovered through various doodles and sketches he would make on company paperwork.

Yamashita’s first project as an animator was Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo The Movie 2. He continued to work at JCF for several years, and then made the leap to becoming a freelance animator. Samurai Champloo was the first project he worked on freelance. Around 2006, Yamashita joined BeeTrain and started work as Character Designer and Animation Director on the TV show Ginyuu Mokushiroku Meine Liebe wieder. A short while later, the Animation Department at BeeTrain was spun off into new company, C-Station, and Yamashita moved with it. Today Yamashita retains a seat at C-Station, but regularly contracts out to work on various external projects.

Yamashita is the Chief Animation Director for Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon), a TV series directed by Shinichiro Watanabe with music by Yoko Kanno, and airing on Fuji TV’s popular noitaminA block.

Very nice profile and spot for an animator as they don't often get the recognition they deserve sometimes.  Also very nice for a Con to host an animator when they generally go for directors, actors and musicians.

[AlexShadow]

oh yes, C-Station now has their own page

They also have a Twitter which you can go to by the main page seeing as my linking to others never seem to work.  Surprise surprise they're hiring for 2013.  Guess that's good news if they want to take on more staff    still can't help but wonder if they're going to be a support studio from now on and ending their production house     scary thought

just me being a negative nelly I haven't seen anything to really suggest that.