Animation studios Asahi Production and Pierrot signed a business alliance agreement on October 11, 2024, for the purpose of strengthening stable production of high-quality works.
The anime industry has had an issue with overproduction and quality assurance in the past several years, especially as the number of television productions has increased and the demand for high-quality work with new technologies has risen.
Asahi Production and Pierrot have formed a partnership to utilize their particular strengths to establish a system for stable production of said high-quality works. In recent years, Asahi Production has been the prime animation contractor for various works, however the studio boasts comprehensive photography (compositing), editing, and CG animation departments which are often utilized in various productions outside of the studio, while Pierrot has maintained long-term production capabilities for longer-form animated works.
Pierrot has produced the long-running animated works Naruto, Bleach and Black Clover. The studio also owns the subsidiary Studio Signpost (formerly known as Pierrot Plus+ and Studio Kikan) and recently rebranded its 2nd production studio to Pierrot Films.
In recent years, Asahi Production has produced works such as Gushing over Magical Girls, A Galaxy Next Door, and Girls’ Frontline. The studio may be more well-known for its digital processing teams, which currently employs directors of photography such as Kentarou Waki (Tengoku Daimakyo: Heavenly Delusion) and Kazuhiro Yamada (Attack on Titan Seasons 1-3), as well as CG directors like Kazufumi Gotou (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead CG supervisor).
Many recent Pierrot works in particular have contracted Asahi Production especially for photography and CG work, such as Kingdom, Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War, and Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master.