Takara Tomy also continues to own 20% of the company’s stock, and continues to work with Tatsunoko to this day, Production I.G also owns a porcentage of their shares. On 2014, NTV bought from Takara Tomy 54.3% of Tatsunoko’s share, becoming the major shareholding on the company. On 2005, Takara Tomy, the famous toy company, acquired 88% of the studio’s stock, becoming part of the company. On 1987, the employees of that branch including Goto and Ishikawa established the limited company IG Tatsunoko, now called Production I.G, integrating both Tatsunoko Production Office and Kaneyume. Takayuki Goto, the character designer of Zillion, and his animation crew Kaneyume, also independent from Tatsunoko, was working there. Animation Producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, whose contracted had expired, was set to be disbanded with his entire production team to a new subsidary of the studio after Zillion’s completion, Tatsunoko Production Office was then founded. In 1978, they established the Tatsunoko Animation Technology Research Institute, with Koji Sugii being appointed as the director and Sadao Miyamoto and others being appointed as instructors/teachers. Between 19 they had a subsidary called Anime Friend, that was used like a workshop for mecha animators during Super Space Fortress Macross, including people like Ichiro Itano.
During that time, they develop three specially talented animators: Masami Suda, Tsuneo Ninomiya and Tomonori Kogawa, a vital part of their works on the 70’s, where they were called «Tatsunoko’s Three Wings»
Due to the influence of their president, who was a manga artist, a lot of their early series focus on high quality drawings with a very graphic novel touch to them, with bulkier, more detailed designs than the competence. In their long history, they have been producing really popular series and helped to develop a lot of talented individuals. Their first anime was «Space Ace», in 1965. It was established in 1962 by Tatsuo Yoshida. A very old anime studio that celebrated its 55th anniversary on 2017.
The Price of Smiles, 2019, Tatsunoko Pro, Dir.