History
Initially founded as "IG Tatsunoko Limited" in 1987, it was a break-off branch-studio of Tatsunoko Productions which created Zillion. Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, the producer of Zillion, founded the studio to obstruct the dispersing of the excellent staffs of the Tatsunoko branch. The members of the Tatsunoko Production annex, "鐘夢 (pronounced "chaimu" after the English "chime")", which led by Takayuki Goto joined the Ishikawa's Tatsunoko Branch that used same floor of the Goto's annex and Goto was also the character designer of Zillion. Kyoto Animation, one of the finishers of Zillion, supported Ishikawa and the "IG Tatsunoko Limited" was founded on December 15, 1987. The "IG" was named after the initials of Ishikawa and Goto. The initial shareholders of the studio were Ishikawa, Goto, Hideaki Hatta (Kyoto Animation) and Tatsunoko Production, etc.
Among Production I.G's earliest most notable works was the feature length cinematic anime adaptation of the Patlabor story, created by the group HEADGEAR. In 1993, during the final stages of the production of Patlabor 2 the company ended capital relation to Tatsunoko Production that had 20% of the stocks of I.G and changed its name to the current "Production I.G" on September 1993. Thus, the movie Patlabor 2, released on August 1993, became the last product bearing the name "IG Tatsunoko".
In early 1997 Koichi Mashimo a fellow Tatsunoko employee presented an idea of his to President Ishikawa. Mashimo had conceived the idea of a small studio that could work on small productions and "nurture" the creative spirit of its staff members. Ishikawa liked the idea and sponsored Mashimo's endeavor and studio Bee Train Animation Inc. was formed as a subsidiary company. Production I.G and Ishikawa helped supervise and produce the early productions such as Popolocrois Monogatari, Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, and Arc the Lad. Along with Xebec it was the second subsidiary company under I.G. In 2006, Bee Train became independent and Ishikawa stepped down as an executive in the company. The two studios would team up again in 2008 to work on Blade of the Immortal, Batman Gotham Knight, and again in 2010 for Halo Legends.
In 1998, the company incorporated to become "Production I.G, Inc." Following that, Production I.G merged with "ING", another production company founded by the same Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, in 2000.
It stands for two words Itsumo (always) and Genki (happy), you should ask is that true. In reality it stands for Ishikawa, and my artist collaborator’s name Takayuki Goto, the initials of our last names. But now though I am the sole president, we kept the name. But I am happy to say it means Itsumo Genki.
Taken from the Q&A Session held with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa.
On July 4, 2007, the company announced merger with Mag Garden, forming a new holding company called IG Port.
Read more about this topic: Production I.G
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