Bones is a Tokyo studio founded in 1998 by Masahiko Minami, Hiroshi Ōsaka, and Toshihiro Kawamoto, all ex-Sunrise. The studio is known for high-budget, technically ambitious action animation; its output includes Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka Seven, Mob Psycho 100, and My Hero Academia.
Founding and house style
Bones was set up around the experience of Cowboy Bebop production. Its founders had been Sunrise key staff; the new studio retained the action-heavy approach of late-1990s Sunrise work but operated with more creative autonomy and higher per-second budgets.
Across its catalogue, Bones is consistent in two things: action animation is treated as central rather than peripheral to production, and the studio is willing to assign its veterans to character animation in shows that would otherwise have been outsourced.
Selected works
- Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001).
- Wolf's Rain (2003), Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009).
- Eureka Seven (2005), Darker than Black (2007).
- Space Dandy (2014).
- Mob Psycho 100 (2016, 2019, 2022).
- My Hero Academia (2016 onward).