Anime Studios
Here is where you start to look for anime by production studio. If you know exactly where to go from here, or you want to be able to know exactly where to go from here, you've gone way off the deep end when it comes to how much of a fucking loser you are... I say as I'm the one who sorted this page with descriptions and everything. Either way, if you are that much of a nerd, or heaven-forbid, want to be that much of a nerd, then these are some names to know in anime.
Notable for the amount of CG in their shows and is one of Sony's two studios. Likes scenery porn but still has a penchant for off-models and once again the conspicuous CGI
Bee Train
Best known for major works in the Girls with Guns genre and multiple works in the .hack series. Has a tendency to do their own thing when adapting manga, pissing more than a few people off.
Studio BONES
A big-name studio thanks to consistently high-end animation with good character design and specializing in fun, crazy, exaggerated acting and movements, so their animation is rarely boring or stagnant. Also good with scenery porn that is nearly on par with a Miyazaki film.
Brains Base
One of the better quality studios, though they do have their moments.
Studio Gainax
Famous, or infamous, studio responsible for many major anime titles. They're known for impressive visuals, gripping storylines, confusing plot points, and running out of money before finishing the series. Common terms coined after them include the Gainax Pose (arms crossed pre-asskicking), Gainax Ending (intentionally confusing endings), and Gainaxing (illogical boob physics). Nearly all the good animators have left for elsewhere these days.
Known for a progressive, or more often flamboyant, style. With a combination of amazing detail and some of the cheapest uneven animation sometimes in the same scene, was willing to sacrifice various story elements for rule of cool. Prime example of how to run a successful company into the ground.
Have produced quite a few notable series, including the only Rie Kugimiya characters anyone remembers (namely Shana and her many expies). Origins of a couple of works famous for being outright surreal.
Some of the top TV series animation out there, they're held in high regard for their impeccable eye for detail, atmosphere, and backgrounds so realistic they look like photographs. Their classic period has some of the most weeaboo of weeaboo anime. These days all their artwork looks the same from series to series, and is perhaps the single most moe studio out there, even if the work was never supposed to be moe.
Held in very high regard producing many famous and strikingly detailed anime. Every single film directed by Satoshi Kon was animated by Madhouse. They also stand out in their ability to work in western animation and it's differing demands, so if an American show looks animesque or a western work gets an anime adaptation, it's probably these guys.
Born out of two producers from Sunrise, one of the first major anime studios created in the 21st century.
A studio with a huge project list, they deal with many movies, anime, and video games. Unlike some other studios, they actually know how to use digital techniques and keep CGI inconspicuous.
One of the oldest anime studios that's still actually doing stuff. They're a prolific studio often subject to many budget restrictions. Expect off-models.
If you need to know only one animation studio, Japanese or otherwise, it's tied between this and Disney. Animation is beyond rich and incredibly fluid and subtlety emotive, attention to detail is exact, music is amazing, plots are imaginative, and Ghibli hills, the epitome of scenery porn, is called such for a reason. They're the studio that animates every single breath they take and move they make. And you'll be watching them. The top brand in Japan but with the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki, the world is wondering what's going to happen to them next.
The studio I hate. They were cool back in the 80's with very well-animated and iconic magical girl shows. Now they work mostly on shonen long-runners stuffed with fillers and lazy off models with missing limbs. Did the animation for Legend of Korra's second season, but soon left midway through the season due to the inability to maintain even a substandard quality.
They're the guys that put shout-outs in all their backgrounds. Have a tendency to be both minimalist and stylish, and producing anime that's weird even by anime standards, with more acid than what you need to experience Alice in Wonderland. You'll either love it or hate it. Recently they get distracted and are forced to rush TV episodes, so DVD and Blu-ray releases are always a better quality (this is now referred to as Shafting).
Born from the refugees from Gainax, they (literally) have same brains responsible for Gainax's last two great works (which were the only two to NOT run out of money before the ending). Despite being a very young studio they've received much attention and praise thanks to unique production methods, turning limited animation into an art form.
Outright the biggest anime makers and the unofficial father of Studio DEEN, BONES, EMUAI, Studio Dub, Studio Takurake, and Manglobe. Hold not only some of the biggest long-runners but also hyper-popular yet shorter gems. With "Sunrise Smooth" animation they're also big in the Humungous Mecha market.
Stretching back to 1946 one of the most famous anime producers in the world. Also one of the most famous animation producers outside of Japanese anime, for that matter. Home of many cash cow franchises, not only in the realm of anime but western works as well. Credited as why the Renaissance Age of Animation even happened to begin with.
Producers of many of your "Essential Anime" titles, responsible for defining the humungous mecha, space opera, shonen, and magical girl genres into the way we understand them today. Due to juggling lots of long-runners among even the long-runners, there are animation mistakes and obvious shortcuts everywhere.
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