TopCraft

TopCraft (トップクラフト, Toppukurafuto, also written as "Top Craft") was an animation studio established on February 1, 1972 by former Toei Animation producer Toru Hara, and located in Tokyo, Japan. Hara would later become Studio Ghibli's first manager.

Address
In English
 * 7th Sky Building 2F, 1-18-6 Minami Asagaya, Suginami-ku, Tokyo

In Japanese
 * 東京都杉並区阿佐ヶ谷南1-18-6　第7スカイビル2F

Business Activities

 * 1. Planning and production work and sales of movies, television, promotional films, commercial films, and videos
 * 2. Animation-related work

Representatives

 * Toru Hara (Representative Director)
 * Kiyoshi Sakai (Production Producer)
 * Minoru Nishida, Ichisuke Yoshihara, Mitsuru Kawano (Art)
 * Katsuhisa Yamada, Koichi Sasaki (Directors)

Background
Topcraft was famous for the production of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and for doing animation for hand-drawn animation titles by Rankin/Bass Productions (New York City, USA). The studio went bankrupt and dissolved on June 15, 1985, essentially splitting the studio in half. Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata bought the studio while laying off most of its animation staff, changing its name to Studio Ghibli.[citation needed].

Topcraft's animators later formed another studio, called Pacific Animation Corporation, to continue working with Rankin/Bass on television shows like ThunderCats and Silverhawks, but eventually joined Ghibli once Pacific Animation was bought out by The Walt Disney Company and became Walt Disney Animation Japan. Some animators, like Tsuguyuki Kubo, went to work for other studios, such as Studio Pierrot, working on Naruto and Bleach for them. In the end the buy out of Topcraft made the studio into the birth of Studio Ghibli. Topcraft's founder, Toru Hara, became Studio Ghibli's first manager.

Movies

 * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Navigation
Topcraft