A production company founded by Sunrise alumnus Masahiko Minami in 1998, Studio Bones
produces a wide range of different anime genres. BONES productions are noted for their consistent, high quality animation and character designs, specializing in crazy, exaggerated acting. They've also gained a fair bit of infamy as well for their frequent use of Gecko Endings.
See also TMS Entertainment, another studio that is known for consistent, high quality animation and character designs and crazy and exaggerated acting.
Productions include:
Main
- A.I.C.O. Incarnation
- Angelic Layer
- Blast of Tempest
- Blood Blockade Battlefront
- Bungo Stray Dogs
- Captain Earth
- Carole & Tuesday
- The Case Study of Vanitas
- Coffin Princess Chaika
- Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou
- Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
- Darker Than Black
- The Daughter of Twenty Faces (with Telecom Animation Film)
- Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan
- Escaflowne: The Movie
- Eureka Seven and Eureka Seven AO
- Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Ghost Slayers Ayashi
- Godzilla: Singular Point (with Orange)
- Gosick
- Halo Legends (Prototype)
- Heroman
- Josee, The Tiger, and The Fish
- Jyu-Oh-Sei
- Kurau Phantom Memory
- Mars Daybreak
- Mob Psycho 100
- My Hero Academia
- No. 6
- Noragami
- Otona Joshi no Anime Time (episode 2, with Ashi Productions and WaoWorld)
- Ouran High School Host Club
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies
- Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- RahXephon
- Scrapped Princess
- Sk8 the Infinity
- Skull Man
- Snow White with the Red Hair
- Soul Eater
- Super Crooks (2021)
- Space Dandy
- Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto
- Sword of the Stranger
- Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (In conjunction with Kinema Citrus)
- Un-Go
- Wolf's Rain
- Xam'd: Lost Memories
Sub-contractor
- Aikatsu! (Key & 2nd Key Animation)
- AKB0048 (2nd Key Animation)
- Attack on Titan (2nd Key Animation)
- Batman: Gotham Knight (In-Between Animation)
- Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (Key Animation in I and III, Photography in II)
- Blood+ (In-Between Animation)
- Burst Angel (Photography Collaboration)
- Case Closed (Key Animation)
- Dancougar Nova (Photography)
- Dead Leaves (In-Between Animation)
- Dororo (2019) (2nd Key Animation)
- Eden (Special Thanks)
- GARO: Vanishing Line (2nd Key Animation)
- HaruChika (3D Cooperation)
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Photography Cooperation for the 2012 series)
- LBX: Little Battlers eXperience (2nd Key Animation)
- Love Live! (2nd Key Animation)
- Kill la Kill (In-Between Animation)
- Kuroko's Basketball (Photography, episode 8)
- Kuromukuro (3D Cooperation)
- Michiko & Hatchin (Production Cooperation, episode three)
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (In-Between Animation)
- Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer (In-Between Animation)
- Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (Key, 2nd Key & In-Between Animation; Photography Assistance)
- Gundam: Reconguista in G (In-Between Animation)
- Moriarty the Patriot (Production Assistance)
- Overman King Gainer (Production Assistance)
- Real Drive (In-Between Animation)
- Rolling Girls (2nd Key Animation)
- Run with the Wind (2nd Key Animation)
- Tiger & Bunny (3D Graphics)
- Tokyo Ravens (In-Between Animation)
- Trickster (2nd Key Animation)
- Yowamushi Pedal (2nd Key Animation)
- Zombieland Saga (2nd Key Animation)
Tropes that recur frequently in BONES works are:
- Animation Bump: Like TMS, it's there on so many levels. In more recent years, nearly anything animated by Yutaka Nakamura instantly ends up as this.
- Author Appeal: An older male transvestite has appeared in Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, Darker Than Black, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and has an expanded role in the latter. Kurau Phantom Memory is about two women who live like a couple. Ouran High School Host Club is about a girl who dresses up as a boy.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Eureka Seven Xam'd: Lost Memories, and Star Driver among others, play this straight. Rainbows are used as symbols a lot, as well as other things. It's frequently used in explosions and blasts of energy.
- Off-Model: Due to their exaggerated animation, it can happen both deliberately and unintentionally.
- Also like most Japanese studios, bad outsourcing as well.
- Scenery Porn: To the point that they might actually rival Hayao Miyazaki films every now and then.
- Start My Own: It was founded by Masahiko Minami after he left Sunrise.
