Bones (studio) explained

Bones Inc.
Native Name:	株式会社ボンズ
Native Name Lang:	ja
Romanized Name:	Kabushiki-gaisha Bonzu
Type:	Kabushiki gaisha
Location:	3-8-3 Igusa, Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Key People:	Masahiko Minami Hiroshi Ōsaka Toshihiro Kawamoto
Industry:	Japanese animation
Num Employees:	91 (as of February 2023)^[1]
Homepage:	bones.co.jp

is a Japanese animation studio. It has produced numerous series, including RahXephon, No. 6, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess, Eureka Seven, Angelic Layer, Darker than Black, Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club, both the 2003 and 2009 adaptations of Fullmetal Alchemist, Star Driver, Gosick, Mob Psycho 100, Space Dandy, Noragami, Bungo Stray Dogs, and My Hero Academia. Its headquarters are located in Igusa, Suginami, Tokyo.^[2]

History

Bones was founded by Sunrise staff members Masahiko Minami, Hiroshi Ōsaka and Toshihiro Kawamoto in October 1998. One of their first projects was collaborating with Sunrise on , a feature film based on the Cowboy Bebop anime series.

In 2007, the studio suffered the loss of co-founder Hiroshi Ōsaka, well known for his works as character designer on series such as Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Mobile Fighter G Gundam and The Mars Daybreak. Ōsaka had been battling with cancer, and died from the disease on September 24, 2007. He was 44 years old.^[3]

After the death of Ōsaka, two new additions have been made to the studio's board of directors: Makoto Watanabe and Takahiro Komori. Komori is well known as a character designer and animator who has been with the studio since its inception. His previous works as designer consist of Angelic Layer, Scrapped Princess, and Darker than Black.^[4]

Studios

Like studio Sunrise, where some of its founders previously worked, Bones is divided into smaller studios which are focused on their own anime projects.

• Studio A: Led by producer Naoki Amano and mainly known for Gosick, Wolf's Rain, Angelic Layer, Hiwou War Chronicles, Noragami and Carole & Tuesday.
• Studio B: Mainly known for Eureka Seven, RahXephon, Space Dandy, and Mob Psycho 100.
• Studio C: Led by producer Yoshihiro Oyabu; It's known for Fullmetal Alchemist, , Soul Eater and Ouran High School Host Club. It's currently working exclusively on My Hero Academia.
• Studio D: Led by Mari Suzuki and mainly known for and No. 6. Since 2015, it works on Bungo Stray Dogs.
• Studio E: The newest studio, led by Makoto Watanabe and mainly known for the Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution trilogy and Metallic Rouge.^{[5] [6] [7]}

Productions

Anime television series

Year	Title	Director(s)		Studio	Note(s)
2000–2001	Hiwou War Chronicles		26	A	align=left	Original work.
2001	Angelic Layer: Battle Doll		26	A	align=left	Based on a manga by CLAMP.
2002	RahXephon	Yutaka Izubuchi	26	B	align=left	Original work.
2003	Wolf's Rain		30	A	align=left	Original work.
	Scrapped Princess	Sōichi Masui	24	B	align=left	Based on a light novel by Ichirō Sakaki.
2003–2004	Fullmetal Alchemist		51	C	align=left	Based on a manga by Hiromu Arakawa. Features a partially anime original storyline.
2004	Mars Daybreak	Kunihiro Mori	26	B	align=left	Original work.
	Kurau Phantom Memory		24	A	align=left	Original work.
2005–2006	Eureka Seven		51	B	align=left	Original work.
2006	Ouran High School Host Club		26	C	align=left	Based on a manga by Bisco Hatori.
	Jyu-Oh-Sei	Hiroshi Nishikiori	11	A	align=left	Based on a manga by Natsumi Itsuki.
2006–2007	Ghost Slayers Ayashi	Hiroshi Nishikiori Yoshikazu Miyao	25	A	align=left	Original work.
2007	Darker than Black: The Black Contractor	Tensai Okamura	25	C	align=left	Original work.
	Skull Man		13	B	align=left	Based on a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori.
2008–2009	Soul Eater	Takuya Igarashi	51	C	align=left	Based on a manga by Atsushi Ōkubo.
2008	Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief	Nobuo Tomisawa	22	N/A	align=left	Based on a manga by Shinji Ohara (co-production with Telecom Animation Film).
2009–2010		Yasuhiro Irie	64	D	align=left	Second adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist manga.
2009	Tokyo Magnitude 8.0	Masaki Tachibana	11	N/A	align=left	Original work (co-production with Kinema Citrus).
	Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor	Tensai Okamura	12	C	align=left	Sequel to Darker Than Black.
2010	Heroman		26	A	align=left	Original work in collaboration with Stan Lee.
2010–2011	Star Driver	Takuya Igarashi	25	C	align=left	Original work.
2011	Gosick	Hitoshi Nanba	24	A	align=left	Based on a light novel by Kazuki Sakuraba.
	No. 6		11	D	align=left	Based on the novels by Atsuko Asano.
	Un-Go	Seiji Mizushima	12	C	align=left	Based on the works of Ango Sakaguchi.
2012		Tomoki Kyoda	24	A/B	align=left	Sequel to Eureka Seven.
2012–2013	Blast of Tempest	Masahiro Andō	24	D	align=left	Based on a manga by Kyō Shirodaira.
2013	Otona Joshi no Anime Time: Life's Best 10	Miura You	1	B	align=left	Episode 3 of Otona Joshi no Anime Time television specials.
2013–2014	Tenkai Knights	Mitsuru Hongo	52	C	align=left	Original work. First run in United States, on Cartoon Network.
2014	Space Dandy		13	B	align=left	Original work. First run in United States, on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block.
	Noragami	Kotaro Tamura	12	A	align=left	Based on the manga by Adachitoka.
	Captain Earth	Takuya Igarashi	24	C	align=left	Original work.
	Soul Eater Not!	Masakazu Hashimoto	12	A	align=left	Based on a manga by Atsushi Ōkubo Spin-off to Soul Eater.
	Chaika - The Coffin Princess	Soichi Masui	12	D	align=left	Based on a light novel by Ichirō Sakaki.
	Space Dandy 2	Shinichirō Watanabe Shingo Natsume	13	B	align=left	First run in United States, on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block.
	Chaika - The Coffin Princess: Avenging Battle	Soichi Masui	10	D	align=left
2015	Blood Blockade Battlefront		12	A/C	align=left	Based on the manga by Yasuhiro Nightow
	Show by Rock!!	Takahiro Ikezoe	12	D	align=left	Based on a video game by Geechs and Sanrio.
	Snow White with the Red Hair	Masahiro Andō	12	B	align=left	Based on the manga by Sorata Akizuki.
	Noragami Aragoto	Kotaro Tamura	13	A
	Concrete Revolutio	Seiji Mizushima	13	C	align=left	Original work.
2016	Snow White with the Red Hair 2	Masahiro Andō	12	B	align=left
	Concrete Revolutio: The Last Song	Seiji Mizushima	11	C	align=left
	My Hero Academia		13	A	align=left	Based on the manga by Kōhei Horikoshi.
	Bungo Stray Dogs	Takuya Igarashi	12	D	align=left	Based on the manga by Kafka Asagiri.
	Show by Rock!! Short!!	Takahiro Ikezoe	12	D	align=left	Short anime based on Show by Rock!	.
	Mob Psycho 100		12	B	align=left	Based on the manga by One.
	Show by Rock 2!!	Takahiro Ikezoe	12	D	align=left
	Bungo Stray Dogs 2	Takuya Igarashi	12	D	align=left
2017	My Hero Academia 2	Kenji Nagasaki	25	C	align=left
	Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond		12	B	align=left
2018	My Hero Academia 3	Kenji Nagasaki	25	C	align=left
		Shinji Higuchi Hiroshi Kobayashi	12	A	align=left	Original work.
2019	Mob Psycho 100 II	Yuzuru Tachikawa	13	B	align=left
	Carole & Tuesday	Shinichirō Watanabe Motonobu Hori	24	A	align=left	Original work.
	Bungo Stray Dogs 3	Takuya Igarashi	12	D	align=left
2019–2020	My Hero Academia 4	Kenji Nagasaki Masahiro Mukai	25	C	align=left
2021	SK8 the Infinity		12	D	Original work.
	Bungo Stray Dogs Wan!	Satonobu Kikuchi	12	N/A	Based on the spin-off manga of Bungo Stray Dogs by Kafka Asagiri. (co-production with Nomad)
	My Hero Academia 5	Kenji Nagasaki Masahiro Mukai	25	C
	Godzilla Singular Point	Atsushi Takahashi	13	A	Original work in the Godzilla franchise (co-production with Orange).
2021–2022	The Case Study of Vanitas		24	A	align=left	Based on the manga by Jun Mochizuki.
2022–2023	My Hero Academia 6	Kenji Nagasaki Masahiro Mukai	25	C
2022	Mob Psycho 100 III	Yuzuru Tachikawa Takahiro Hasui	12	B	align=left
2023	Bungo Stray Dogs 4	Takuya Igarashi	13	D	align=left
	Bungo Stray Dogs 5	Takuya Igarashi	11	D	align=left
2024	Metallic Rouge	Motonobu Hori	13	E	align=left	Original work.
	My Hero Academia 7	Kenji Nagasaki Naomi Nakayama	21^[8]	C
	The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies	Akiyo Ohashi	12		Based on the manga by Cocoa Fujiwara.^[9]
2025	Gachiakuta	Fumihiko Suganuma			Based on the manga by Kei Urana.^[10]
TBA	SK8 the Infinity 2	Hiroko Utsumi		D

Anime films

Year	Title	Director(s)		Studio	Note(s)
2000	Escaflowne	Kazuki Akane	98m	A	align=left
2001		Shinichirō Watanabe	115m	A	align=left
2003		Tomoki Kyoda	115m	B	align=left
2005		Seiji Mizushima	105m	C	align=left
2007	Sword of the Stranger	Masahiro Andō	102m	B	align=left
2009	Eureka Seven Pocket Full Of Rainbows	Tomoki Kyoda Hiroshi Haraguchi	115m	N/A	align=left	Co-production with Kinema Citrus.
2011	Towa no Quon: The Ephemeral Petals	Umanosuke Iida Takeshi Mori	48m	B	align=left
		Kazuya Murata	111m	D	align=left
	Towa no Quon: Dancing Orchid in Chaos	Umanosuke Iida Takeshi Mori	48m	B	align=left
	Towa no Quon: The Complicity of Dreams	Umanosuke Iida Takeshi Mori	48m	B	align=left
	Towa no Quon: The Roaring Anxiety	Umanosuke Iida Takeshi Mori	48m	B	align=left
	Towa no Quon: The Return of the Invincible	Umanosuke Iida Takeshi Mori	48m	B	align=left
	Un-Go: Chapter of Inga	Seiji Mizushima	48m	C	align=left
	Towa no Quon: Eternal Quon	Umanosuke Iida Takeshi Mori	48m	B	align=left
2013	Star Driver: The Movie	Takuya Igarashi	150m	C	align=left
2017	Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution 1	Tomoki Kyoda Hisatoshi Shimizu	93m	E	align=left
2018		Takuya Igarashi	90m	D	align=left
		Kenji Nagasaki	96m	C	align=left
	Anemone - Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution	Tomoki Kyoda	94m	E	align=left
2019		Kenji Nagasaki	104m	C	align=left
2020	Josee, the Tiger and the Fish	Kotaro Tamura	98m	D	align=left
2021		Kenji Nagasaki	104m	C	align=left
	Eureka - Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution	Tomoki Kyoda	116m	E	align=left
2024		Tensai Okamura		C	align=left

Original net animation

Year	Title	Director(s)		Studio	Note(s)
2008–2009		Masayuki Miyaji	26	B	align=left	PlayStation Network Original work
2018	A.I.C.O. -Incarnation-	Kazuya Murata	12	A	align=left	Netflix Original work
2021	Super Crooks	Motonobu Hori	13	B	align=left	Netflix Based on the comic book series by Mark Millar
2024	Time Patrol Bon	Masahiro Andō	24	A	align=left	Netflix Based on the manga series by Fujiko F. Fujio

Original video animation

• RahXephon Interlude: Her and Herself/Thatness and Thereness (August 7, 2003)
• Wolf's Rain (January 23, 2004 – February 25, 2004)
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Premium Collection (March 29, 2006)
• Ghost Slayers Ayashi: Ayashi Diving Comedy (August 22, 2007 – October 24, 2007)
• Darker than Black: Beneath the Fully Bloomed Cherry Blossoms (March 26, 2008)
• Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (August 26, 2009 – August 25, 2010)
• Prototype (part of Halo Legends) (2010)
• Darker than Black: Gaiden (January 27, 2010 – July 21, 2010)
• Eureka Seven Ao: The Flowers of Jungfrau (September 20, 2012)
• Noragami (February 17, 2014 - July 17, 2014)
• Hitsugi no Chaika (March 10, 2015)
• Noragami Aragoto (November 17, 2015 - March 17, 2016)
• Snow White with the Red Hair (January 5, 2016)
• Blood Blockade Battlefront (June 3, 2016)
• Eureka Seven Ao:Final (January 2017)
• Bungo Stray Dogs (August 31, 2017)
• Mob Psycho 100 Reigen -The Miraculous Unknown Psychic- (March 18, 2018)
• My Hero Academia - All Might: Rising (February 13, 2019)
• Mob Psycho 100: The Spirits and Such Consultation Office's First Company Outing ~A Healing Trip that Warms the Heart~ (September 25, 2019)
• SK8 the Infinity (TBA)

Video games

• Robot Alchemic Drive (Enix, November 4, 2002)
• Rahxephon Blu Sky Fantasia (Bandai, August 7, 2003)
• Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel (Square Enix, December 25, 2003)
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Stray Rondo (Bandai, March 25, 2004)
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Sonata of Memories (Bandai, July 22, 2004)
• (Square Enix, September 22, 2004)
• Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl Who Succeed God (Square Enix, July 21, 2005)
• (Bandai, October 27, 2005)
• (Bandai, May 11, 2006)
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Prince of the Dawn (Square Enix, August 13, 2009)
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Daughter of the Dusk (Square Enix, December 10, 2009)
• Liberation Maiden (Part of Guild01; Level-5, May 31, 2012)
• (Capcom/Level-5, November 29, 2012)
• (Capcom, July 25, 2013)
• (Atlus, June 25, 2015)

Music videos

• Lotte music video - Shinsekai by Bump of Chicken (December 11, 2018)
• Pokémon Special Music Video「GOTCHA！」- Acacia by BUMP OF CHICKEN (Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc., September 29, 2020)

Notes and References

1. Web site: (株)ボンズ【Bones Inc.】のインターンシップ・会社概要 | マイナビ2022. March 11, 2021. March 11, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210311072649/https://job.mynavi.jp/22/pc/search/corp110252/outline.html. dead.
2. Web site: Company info. Bones. March 10, 2010.
3. Web site: Bones Co-Founder Hiroshi Ōsaka Passes Away. Anime News Network. September 24, 2007. April 24, 2008.
4. Web site: Bones Company Info . Bones . April 24, 2008.
5. Web site: liborek . BONES' 20th Anniversary – What Lies in the Future? . Sakugablog . May 7, 2019. October 27, 2018 .
6. Web site: アニメ会社紹介（作オタ視点） - 作画@wiki.
7. Web site: BONES.
8. Web site: Burūrei & DVD Terebi Anime "Boku no Hīrō Akademia". ja. ja:BLU-RAY&DVD TVアニメ『僕のヒーローアカデミア』. Blu-ray & DVD TV Anime "My Hero Academia". heroaca.com. May 11, 2024.
9. Web site: Cayanan. Joanna. The Magical Girl and The Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies Anime Unveils Teaser Visual, Main Cast, July Debut. Anime News Network. January 18, 2024. January 18, 2024.
10. Web site: Pineda. Rafael Antonio. Kei Urana's Gachiakuta Manga Gets 2025 TV Anime by Bones. Anime News Network. June 12, 2024. June 12, 2024.