Bandai Namco Pictures

Bandai Namco Pictures Inc., also known as BN Pictures, is a Japanese animation studio and production company. It is a spinoff of Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly known as Sunrise), a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. The company was formed as a part of the medium-term management plan of Bandai Namco Holdings on restructuring itself. All the anime intellectual property and production divisions of Sunrise that aims at children and family were transferred to Bandai Namco Pictures. The company began its operations in April 2015.
==History==
On February 12, 2015, Bandai Namco Holdings announced plans to restructure itself through the usage of a three-year medium-management plan. The company sought to focus its resources on creating new intellectual properties (IPs) and marketable characters, and required faster planning and development time to satisfy these demands. Bandai Namco executives also believed it was necessary for its IP Creation content area to strengthen ties with its Toy and Hobby area, as it would lead to both strong relationships between the two divisions and allow for future product collaborations.
As part of its efforts to fulfill these obligations, Bandai Namco Pictures was established in April 2015 in Nerima, Tokyo. Headed by Masayuki Ozaki, the representative director of animation studio Sunrise, the company was to lead its parent's "Strengthen IP Creation Output" project and focus on the creation of new characters and franchises, specifically those targeted towards children and families. Bandai Namco Pictures would also work together with the Toy and Hobby division of Bandai Namco Holdings to strengthen the linkage between the two areas of the latter company. Pictures absorbed Sunrise's production departments relating to children-oriented IPs, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunrise and part of Bandai Namco's IP Creation department.
The company's first project was Aikatsu!, an anime based on the Bandai trading card arcade game of the same name which had been produced by Sunrise until that point. In addition to working on pre-established franchises, Bandai Namco Pictures would produce several original projects, such as the stop-motion animation series Milpom! Pictures focused primarily on series and characters targeted towards children and families, though some, such as Tiger & Bunny and the Gintama series, were aimed at older audiences. The company regularly collaborates with other subsidiaries within Bandai Namco Holdings; in 2016, it partnered with Bandai Namco Entertainment to produce Dream Festival!, a multimedia franchise centered around video games and original net animations.
In August 2018, Bandai Namco Pictures opened a division in Osaka, the Bandai Namco Pictures Osaka Studio, for the purpose of digitally transferring animation to decrease production times. The company hoped the success and productivity from the Osaka Studio could allow for additional offices to be opened in Japan and eventually overseas. A year later in October, Pictures absorbed Studio Dub, an animation subcontractor established by former Sunrise animators. The acquisition renamed the company Bandai Namco Pictures Iwaki, though it continues using the name Studio Dub for its projects.
==Works==
===Television series===
Title 	Director(s) 	First runstart date	First runend date 	Eps.	 	Ref.
Battle Spirits: Burning Soul 	Kunihisa Sugishima	April 1, 2015 	March 30, 2016 	51 	 	
Aikatsu! 	Ryūichi Kimura 	April 2, 2015 	March 31, 2016 	52 	 	
Jose The Hedgehog: Sonic The Hedgehog Side Story (Season 3)	Chizuru Miyawaki 	April 4, 2015 	March 26, 2016 	51 	Co-produced with Signal.MD and Brain's Base	
Tribe Cool Crew 	Masaya Fujimori 	April 5, 2015 	October 4, 2015 	26 	 	
Gintama° 	Chizuru Miyawaki 	April 8, 2015 	March 30, 2016 	51 	 	
Brave Beats 	Yūta Murano 	October 6, 2015 	March 27, 2016 	22 	 	
Battle Spirits: Double Drive 	Kunihisa Sugishima	April 6, 2016 	March 29, 2017 	51 	 	
Aikatsu Stars! 	Teruo Satō 	April 7, 2016 	March 29, 2018 	100 	 	
Heybot! 	Shinji Ishihira 	September 18, 2016 	September 24, 2017	50 	 	
Gintama. 	Chizuru Miyawaki 	January 8, 2017 	March 26, 2017 	13 	 	
Gintama. Porori-hen 	Chizuru Miyawaki 	October 1, 2017 	December 24, 2017 	13 	 	
Gintama. Shirogane no Tamashii-hen 	Chizuru Miyawaki 	January 7, 2018 	October 7, 2018 	26 	 	
Aikatsu Friends! 	Shishō Igarashi 	April 5, 2018 	September 26, 2019	76 	 	
B-PROJECT～Zecchō＊Emotion～ 	Makoto Moriwaki 	January 11, 2019 	March 29, 2019 	12 	 	
Aikatsu on Parade! 	Shishō Igarashi 	October 5, 2019 	March 28, 2020 	25 	 	
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 	Makoto Moriwaki 	October 5, 2019 	March 7, 2020 	23 	 	
Motto! Majime ni Fumajime Kaiketsu Zorori 	Takahide Ogata 	April 5, 2020 	November 8, 2020 	25 	 	
Saikyō Kamizmode 	Mitsutoshi Satō 	October 9, 2020 	April 9, 2021 	26 	 	
Aikatsu Planet! 	Ryūichi Kimura 	January 10, 2021 	June 27, 2021 	25 	 	
Motto! Majime ni Fumajime Kaiketsu Zorori 2nd Season 	Takahide Ogata 	April 2, 2021 	October 22, 2021 	25 	 	
Cestvs: The Roman Fighter 	
*Toshifumi Kawase
*Kazuya Monma	April 15, 2021 	June 24, 2021 	11 	 	
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 2 	Makoto Moriwaki 	April 17, 2021 	September 11, 2021	21 	 	
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story 	Takayuki Inagaki 	April 6, 2022 	June 29, 2022 	13 	 	
Motto! Majime ni Fumajime Kaiketsu Zorori 3rd Season 	Takahide Ogata 	April 6, 2022 	TBA 	TBA 	 	
Raven of the Inner Palace 	Chizuru Miyawaki 	October 1, 2022 	December 24, 2022 	13 	 	
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 3 	Makoto Moriwaki 	October 8, 2022 	March 4, 2023 	21 	 	
Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari 	Ryūichi Kimura 	January 10, 2023 	TBA 	TBA 	 	
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 	Takayuki Inagaki 	April 8, 2023 	June 24, 2023 	12 	 	
Saikyō Kamizmode V 	Mitsutoshi Satō 	November, 6 2023 	TBA 	TBA 	 	
===Films===
Title 	Director(s) 	Release date 	Notes
Kaiketsu Zorori: Uchū no Yūsha-tachi 	Tomoko Iwasaki 	September 12, 2015	Co-produced with Ajia-do Animation Works
Aikatsu! Music Awards - The Show Where Everyone Gets an Award!	Shinya Watada 	August 22, 2015 	
Aikatsu Stars! The Movie 	Shinya Watada 	August 13, 2016 	
Aikatsu! The Targeted Magical Aikatsu Card 	Ryūichi Kimura 	August 13, 2016 	Double-billed with Aikatsu Stars! The Movie
Kaiketsu Zorori: ZZ no Himitsu 	Masaya Fujimori 	November 22, 2017 	Co-produced with Ajia-do Animation Works
Gintama: The Very Final 	Chizuru Miyawaki	January 8, 2021 	
Hula Fulla Dance 	
*Seiji Mizushima
*Shinya Watada	December 3, 2021 	
Aikatsu Planet! The Movie 	Ryūichi Kimura 	July 15, 2022 	
Aikatsu! 10th Story ~Starway to the Future~ 	Ryūichi Kimura 	July 15, 2022 (short film)
January 20, 2023 (feature film)	The short-film version was double-billed with Aikatsu Planet! The Movie
Kaiketsu Zorori: Lalala Star Tanjō 	Takahide Ogata 	December 9, 2022 	Co-produced with Ajia-do Animation Works
===OVA/ONAs===
Title 	Director(s) 	First run
start date	First run
end date	Eps.	Notes
Milpom! (Pilot) 	N/A 	March 20, 2015 	N/A 	1 	
Milpom! 	N/A 	September 5, 2015 	September 29, 2017	6 	
Dream Festival! 	Yūta Murano 	September 23, 2016	December 16, 2016 	12 	Co-produced with Ajia-do Animation Works
Gintama°: Love Incense Arc 	Chizuru Miyawaki
Youichi Fujita	April 8, 2015 	March 30, 2016 	2 	
Dream Festival! R 	Yūta Murano 	August 23, 2017 	November 8, 2017 	12 	Co-produced with Ajia-do Animation Works
Gintama: Monster Strike-hen 	N/A 	August 29, 2019 	September 4, 2019 	2 	
Fight League: Gear Gadget Generators	Daisuke Nakajima	February 14, 2019 	August 8, 2019 	26 	Co-Produced by XFLAG
Battle Spirits: Kakumei no Galette 	Masaki Watanabe 	August 28, 2020 	April 23, 2021 	5 	
Aikatsu on Parade! Dream Story 	Shishō Igarashi 	March 28, 2020 	July 11, 2020 	6 	
Tiger & Bunny 2 	Mitsuko Kase 	April 8, 2022 	October 7, 2022 	25