A-1 Pictures was founded very recently, in 2005. It was founded by the Aniplex juggernaut to animate stuff. In a few short years, it has become a fairly established studio, churning out a number of series each year with, at worst, above-average quality. Their track record is actually pretty good, despite being such a young studio and having so many projects. What's more is that the stuff they've done is pretty diverse and they haven't gotten stuck in a particular niche.
Surprisingly, the first production where they were actually in charge was the excellent Ookiku Furikabutte, a series about a newbie high school baseball team aiming for (what else?) the Koshien. In Japan, it's a pretty popular series. It's not Cross Game, being on more of the sports side of the equation, but it was still a very solid show, especially for a first production. Oofuri has two seasons animated so far, and with the sales its been doing, I'd expect a third season to be in the pipeline.
Of note in 2008 were Kuroshitsuji, which is pretty popular in its own right, and Kannagi. Kannagi was surprisingly entertaining given its premise: a guy carves a statue for his art class out of a sacred tree in his backyard and it turns into a goddess. The series is basically about hilarious shenanigans to try and increase the number of her followers and her learning about the wonders of the modern world.
In 2010, they were driving a pretty interesting project that ultimately failed. They produced three shows for Aniplex's Anime no Chikara, which was a timeslot devoted to original animation productions. What they came up with was Sora no Woto, Senkou no Night Raid, and Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin. The general response to all three ranged from below average meh to above average meh. However, their big success of the year would turn out to be the adaptation of the 4-panel strip Working!!. Other victories would include the second season of Oofuri and the release of a theatrical film by the team behind Kamichu, Welcome to the Space Show.
So overall, they're a fairly capable studio. They're not quite mindblowingly amazing just yet, but they certainly have the capability to produce something great. I haven't seen Welcome to the Space Show, but I hear it is surefine. And next season, we'll be seeing more of their handiwork in the form of Yamakan's original project, Fractale.
NEXT TIME: My anime production studio can't be this inconsistent
[SIZE="1"]「黒猫ちゃん漂白剤に浸けたら大勝利」/「そのかず」[/SIZE]
[SIZE="1"]「黒猫ちゃん漂白剤に浸けたら大勝利」/「そのかず」[/SIZE]
