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Knack Productions
, formerly known as or simply until August 2008, is a Japanese anime and film production company. History Knack Productions was founded on September 25, 1967, by a group of former employees of Toei Animation and Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production, including illustrator Seiichi Hayashi, animator/director Sadao Tsukioka, former Mushi producer Sakuro Koyanagi, and Seiichi Nishino, who would become the principal planner of most of the studio's works. From its early days the studio concentrated on TV production. The studio's first work, the TV series ''Granny Mischief'' (''Ijiwaru Baasan''), based on a manga by Sazae-san creator Machiko Hasegawa), premiered in 1970. In the late 1980s the company moved away from TV production and into OVA, finding success in the growing market for soft-core direct-to-video pornography anime. Since the late 1990s, Knack (renamed ICHI Corporation in August 2008) has focused chiefly on live-action production. The company's most recent animation work, in 19 ...
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Anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of the English word ''animation'') describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. Animation produced outside of Japan with similar style to Japanese animation is commonly referred to as anime-influenced animation. The earliest commercial Japanese animations date to 1917. A characteristic art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of cartoonist Osamu Tezuka and spread in following decades, developing a large domestic audience. Anime is distributed theatrically, through television broadcasts, Original video animation, directly to home media, and Original net animation, over the Internet. In addition to original works, anime are often adaptations of Japanese comics (manga), light novels, ...
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Masayuki Kojima
is a Japanese animator, storyboard artist, and director, best known for directing the acclaimed anime series ''Monster'' and ''Made in Abyss''. He was born on March 11, 1961 in Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan. Career Kojima first got his start in the animation business in the 1980s, where he worked primarily project-to-project for a number of different companies, including Knack Productions and Tatsunoko Production. During this time, his involvement was in television products mostly as an episode director. After joining Madhouse in the 1990s, he took part in dozens of productions as an animator, as well as helming several TV series, two movies, a theatrical short, and a TV special. He has since left the studio and joined Kinema Citrus in 2011. Style Since coming to work for Madhouse, Kojima has been primarily a drama director, and one who specializes in lengthy series. He has directed two adaptations of Naoki Urasawa's manga, ''Master Keaton'' and ''Monster'', both of which have rec ...
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Groizer X
is an anime series aired from 1976 to 1977. There were 36 episodes. It is also referred to as ''Gloyzer X'' and ''Gloizer X''. Story The Gaira aliens, hidden in the Arctic, plan to conquer Earth. Captured and forced to work for the aliens, Dr. Yan creates the ultimate weapon, a transformable aerial robot called Groizer X. Groizer X was 100 meters tall and weighed 1200 tons. Entrusted to his daughter Rita, Groizer X escapes the clutches of the Gaira and lands in Japan, where pilot Joe Kaisaka meets a wounded Rita. Taking up the controls of Groizer X, Jo and Rita fight against the Gaira invasion. Concept The anime was created by Go Nagai and Gosaku Ota as a side project during the time they were busy with the various Mazinger series, Groizer X nevertheless managed to be converted into a TV series. The robot transforms into a jet, while the show included intense battle sequences and aerial combat, it remained a secondary super robot series. Characters Merchandise The origi ...
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Dame Oyaji
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Furuya. It was serialized by Shogakukan in '' Shōnen Sunday'' from September 23, 1970 (issue 43) to July 28, 1982 (issue 30). ''Dame Oyaji'' received the 1979 Shogakukan Manga Award for '' shōnen'' manga. The manga was compiled in thirty-nine ''tankōbon'' volumes, with Akebono Shuppan publishing the first 21 volumes under their Akebono Comics label and Shogakukan publishing the final 18 volumes under their Shōnen Sunday Comics label. All 39 volumes are available in eBook format via eBook Japan, the Shogakukan volumes (starting with volume 4) subtitled as the "My Way" arc. ''Dame Oyaji'' tells the story of Damesuke Amano, a hapless office worker who faces a tremendous amount of bullying on the job and especially at home, where he has (contrary to traditional Japanese notions of family) absolutely no power or say in the runnings of the household whatsoever. Amano lives with his wife, Onibaba, his beautiful ...
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Astroganger
is a Japanese Super Robot anime series created by Knack Productions. It consisted of 26 episodes and originally aired from October 4, 1972, to March 28, 1973. Plot An alien woman named Maya crash-lands on Earth. Her homeworld was destroyed by the Blasters, a cruel alien race who steals the natural resources from other planets. She falls in love with a scientist and gives birth to a human boy named Kantaro. When the Blasters invade the Earth, Kantaro must defeat them by fighting with Astroganger, a robot made from living metal. Production This was the first Super Robot show in color, beating ''Mazinger Z'' to the air by two months. Astroganger is very different from most of the robots of the genre. He is a sentient being who can talk, think, and feel pain. He has no special abilities and must rely on his strength to win battles. Staff * Series composition: Tatsuo Tamura * Script: Tatsuo Tamura, Mitsuru Majima, Reiko Imano, Toyohiro Ando, Hiromichi Mogaki * Storyboards: Taku Su ...
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Moonlight Mask
(a.k.a. ''The Moonbeam Man'') is a superhero appearing in Japanese tokusatsu and anime television shows and movies since his TV debut in 1958. The six theatrical films were made (between 1958-1959) in black and white/ToeiScope format. Created by writer Kōhan Kawauchi, Moonlight Mask is best described as Japan's answer to The Lone Ranger, Batman and Zorro. Moonlight Mask's popularity resulted in the appearance of several other Japanese superhero characters soon thereafter, including ''Iron Sharp'' a.k.a. ''Space Chief'' (from 1961's '' Invasion of the Neptune Men''). and the ''Planet Prince'' TV series (1958) Kawauchi followed-up the success of ''Moonlight Mask'' with the tokusatsu superhero shows ''Seven Color Mask'' (1959) and '' Messenger of Allah'' (1960), both starring a young Sonny Chiba. Japan's first TV superhero Whereas Super Giant (Starman) is Japan's first celluloid superhero, debuting in movies in 1957,Galbraith, Stuart (1994). ''Japanese Fantasy, Science Fiction a ...
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Granny Mischief
Granny is a term and nickname for a grandmother, a female grandparent, and may refer to: Characters * Granny (Beverly Hillbillies character), a character on ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' television series, played by Irene Ryan * Granny (Looney Tunes), a ''Looney Tunes'' character * Granny Goodness, a Superman villainess * George "Granny" Grantham, a character from the Stephen King novella ''Blockade Billy'' * Granny character created by cartoonist Buck Brown for ''Playboy'' Fictional works * ''Granny'' (film), a 2003 Russian drama film * ''Granny'' (video game), a 2017 survival horror video game * '' The Granny'', a 1995 American horror comedy film * ''Granny'', a spin-off from the ''Cuddles and Dimples'' strip in the British Dandy comic * ''Granny'', a 1994 novel by Anthony Horowitz People * Granny Alston or Hallam Newton Egerton Alston (1908–1985), English cricketer * Grantland Rice (1880–1954), American sportswriter * Granny D or Doris Haddock (1910–2010), American pol ...
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Chargeman Ken!
is a science fiction anime series created by Tetsuji Suzukawa and Eiji Tanaka and animated by Knack Productions (now ICHI Corporation). It was directed by Noboru Miura and written by Masaaki Wakuda, Toyohiro Andō and Yoshio Tamado, with the characters designed by Tanaka. A total of 65 episodes were broadcast in syndication on TBS from April 1 to June 28, 1974, in 10-minute slots from 5:30 to 5:40 PM, Monday through Friday. Each episode of the series is a self-contained story. Discotek Media currently licenses the series outside Japan. Plot The story takes place in the year 2074, in a futuristic city where science has developed by leaps and bounds, and the Juralian aliens are planning to invade Earth. The protagonist, Ken Izumi, disguises himself as Chargeman and struggles to protect the Earth from the threat of the Juralians. Characters Humans ; :voiced by Setsuko Takemoto : The protagonist of the franchise, a 10-year-old boy at Yoi primary school, somewhere in Japan. K ...
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Cybot Robotchi
, known in the United States as ''Robby the Rascal'', is a 39-episode anime television series created by Ken Ishikawa and produced by Knack animation studio. The series aired on TV Tokyo in Japan from October 1982 to June 1983. The series featured contributions from Tetsuro Amino as a storyboard artist and Masayuki Kojima as an episode director. A feature-length English-dubbed version comprising several episodes edited together into a movie, titled ''Robby the Rascal'', was produced by Jim Terry's (''Force Five'') Kidpix Productions and released on home video in the United States in 1985. (The same American distributors had previously adapted the same animation studio's 1979–1980 TV series ''Manga Sarutobi Sasuke'', which used much of the same production team, into a similar feature-length work titled ''Ninja the Wonder Boy''.) However, the English version deleted much of the risque humor that, while not uncommon in children's animation in Japan, would be considered unaccep ...
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Manga Sarutobi Sasuke
is a 24-episode anime series about the young Sarutobi Sasuke, a legendary ninja. It was first aired from October 9, 1979, to April 29, 1980, on Tokyo 12 Channel (now TV Tokyo), and was later dubbed in several languages. The whole 24-episode run was aired in many European and Arabic countries. It is best known to the American fans as ''Ninja, The Wonder Boy'': a highly edited, highly condensed feature-length version of this series. This version, dubbed in English, was produced by Jim Terry Productions of ''Force Five ''Force Five'' is an American adaptation of five different anime television series. In the United States, this series was primarily shown only in New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, though it did make brief appearances in other markets, s ...'' fame. The names of several characters were changed, with Sarutobi Sasuke becoming "Duke Hayakawa", his female companion Sakura being changed to "Blossom", and the villain Devilman became "Dragon." See also *'' Sh ...
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Attacker You!
is a 1984 Japanese manga series by Jun Makimura and Shizuo Koizumi published by Kodansha. An anime series, consisting of 58 episodes of 24 minutes each, was produced by Knack Productions and broadcast by TV Tokyo from April 13, 1984, to June 21, 1985. The DVD version was released in Japan on August 20, 2004. The ''Attacker You!'' anime, despite mediocre ratings in Japan, achieved a strong level of popularity in several European countries, including Italy (''Mila e Shiro, due cuori nella pallavolo''), France (''Jeanne et Serge''), Spain (called both ''Dos fuera de serie'' and ''Juana y Sergio''), Portugal (''Joana e Sérgio, O Desafio dos Anjos'') and Poland (''Pojedynek Aniołów''). The anime has been rerun several times in Italy since its original broadcast there, and the manga was also released in Italy. As of summer 2020, no incarnation of the anime has been licensed in North America. Plot ''Attacker You!'' is the story of ambitious and energetic thirteen-year-old juni ...
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The Adventures Of The Little Prince (TV Series)
''The Adventures of the Little Prince'' is an anime series based on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Made by the animation studio Knack Productions, the series, originally titled , aired in Japan on the TV Asahi network from July 1978 to March 1979. Dubbed into English, the series premiered in the United States in 1985 on Nickelodeon and was rerun through June 1, 1985 to December 29, 1989. It was also broadcast on TVOntario throughout the 1980s beginning in 1985, a station that would later pick up the dub of the 2010 French adaptation. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, of ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' fame, was involved in this series as a director. In total there were 26 episodes aired in English, with 39 episodes made for the original Japanese run. On July 17, 2017, it was announced that Discotek Media has picked up the North American license for the anime. In May and December of that same year, Discotek Media has uploaded a Japanese language with English subtitles of the first episode ...
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