Tama Production

The successor of Tama Production (Drop) Logo.

Tama Production (タマ・プロダクション ,Tama Purodakushon) is a Japanese animation studio used for outsourcing. This studio was involved in the production of some of the Detective Conan anime and OVA episodes.

It was founded in January 1965, by Eiji Tanaka (a former Mushi Production animator), who is Takashi Saijo's brother.

The company first began depicting animations via Mushi Production (虫プロダクション), and involved in anime like Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム) and Kimba the White Lion (ジャングル大帝), in 1965. Afterwards, the company worked under the works done by Tatsunoko Production (タツノコプロ), starting with Speed Racer (マッハGoGoGo), Tanaka's brother Saijo also got the chance to become a key animator.

In 1982, the president of Tama Production, Eiji Tanaka, passed away in his mid-40s. After that, Tanaka's younger brothers, Takaji Saijo and Juji Mizumura (水村 十司), still worked as animators, delegating Tama Productions. Later on, The position of president was taken over by Michiya Tanaka (田中 道哉), Eiji Tanaka's younger brother and Saijo's older brother.

The activity of the company in Japan ceased as of 2008, afterwards they were dedicating the outsource production to a Chinese subsidiary Golden Bell. On March 9, 2011, the Tokyo District Court ordered the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings and the company went bankrupt.

Nevertheless, the company had a successor, which appeared to be a companion studio named Drop (ドロップ ,Doroppu), and would replace them in terms of the position. Despite the studio eventually fell into the same fate as Tama in late 2018.

Related staff

• Takashi Saijo
• Akira Watanabe

Participation in Detective Conan

Number of episodes outsourced under the name of Tama Production: 6 (5 episodes + 1 OVA)

• The City Crows (Episode 363)
• Which One's Deduction Show (Episode 381 only)
• The Dissonance of the Stradivarius (Episode 386 only)
• The Mysterious Height Difference of 20cm (Episode 392)
• Big Adventure in the Eccentric Mansion (Episode 394)
• Conan, Kid, and the Crystal Mother (OVA 4)

Number of episodes outsourced under the name of Drop: 1 (1 OVA)

• Shinichi Kudo, The Case of the Mysterious Wall and the Black Lab (Magic File 2)

References

1. Wikipedia (Japanese)
2. Atwiki (Japanese)
3. TV Tropes
4. Allcinema
5. Anime News Network