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Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd. (株式会社手塚プロダクション, Kabushiki-gaisha Tezuka Purodakushon) is a Japanese mass media company founded by Osamu Tezuka in 1968, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company is known for managing, supervising and licensing the intellectual property of Tezuka's works through various business areas such as publishing, animation, films, toys, video games among others. Aside from its licensing business, the company also handles an animation studio in Tezuka's former studio office in Niiza, Saitama and has produced notable works such as Marvelous Melmo, the 1980 and 2003 Astro Boy series, and Black Jack among others.

Astro Boy, the titular character of the media franchise of the same name serves as the company's mascot.

^ 会社概要・組織図 [About Us - Organizational Chart] (in Japanese). Tezuka Productions. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Facilities". TezukaOsamu. Archived from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
^ "株式会社手塚プロダクション◆手塚治虫の作品・キャラクターグッズを世界中に発信中！いつまでも手塚治虫の心を大切に、より広く子どもたちに「命の尊さ」を伝えていきます". Archived from the original on 29 April 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2026.

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History

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In 1961, Osamu Tezuka established Osamu Tezuka Mushi Production as a video and animation production unit. It was officially incorporated as Mushi Productions, the following year.^[1] Tezuka served as acting director of the company until 1968, when he left to start another animation studio, Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd., as a spun-off division of Mushi Productions dedicated to manga production and copyright management.^[1]

In 1970, Tezuka moved the headquarters of Tezuka Productions to the second and third floors of a cafe business across from Fujimidai Station in Nerima.^[2] The second floor was reserved for employee offices and production assistants, while the third floor was Tezuka's own workspace and office.^[2] For the first few years, the studio took sub-contracted animation work from Mushi Production, which included a variety of animated shorts and a full television series, Fushigi na Merumo (Marvelous Melmo), which was broadcast by TBS for 26 episodes from October 1971 to March 1972.^[3]^[4] After Mushi Production filed for bankruptcy in 1973, Tezuka Productions took on animation production full-time along with its manga and copyright businesses and began growing rapidly as an animation studio.^[3] In 1976, Tezuka Productions relocated again to the Takadanobaba Seven Building (高田馬場のセブンビル, Takadanobaba no Sebun Biru) in Takadanobaba, Shinjuku.^[2]

From 1980 to 1981, Tezuka Productions produced a remake for Astro Boy that ran for 52 episodes on Nippon Television. Tezuka had been dissatisfied with the first Astro Boy series produced at Mushi Production, and had wanted to create a remake for the series since 1974.^[5]

In 2007, Tezuka Productions began a multi-year project to digitize and color all of Tezuka's published manga series, comprising over 150,000 pages.^[6] Tezuka's former personal assistants reproduced the color charts that they originally used for all-color pieces while Tezuka was still producing series, in order to ensure that the new coloring process remained faithful to the colors used in Tezuka's time.^[6]

In 2008, Tezuka's son, Makoto, announced that he would complete Legend of the Forest, his father's final unfinished work, at Tezuka Productions.^[7] The film was completed in 2014, premiering at the 2014 Hiroshima International Animation Festival in August, and in North America at the Japan Society in New York City on February 21, 2015.^[8]^[9]

^ ^a ^b 手塚治虫と手塚プロダクションの変遷 [Evolution of Osamu Tezuka and Tezuka Productions] (in Japanese). Tezuka Productions. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c 虫ん坊 2010年02月号 (in Japanese). Tezuka Productions. February 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ ^a ^b Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia. Stone Bridge Press. p. 433. ISBN 978-1933330105.
^ "Marvelous Melmo (Merumo) - ふしぎなメルモ". Viki. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ Osamu Tezuka (1979). ぼくはマンガ家手塚治虫自伝・1. Daiwa Shobo. p. 193. ASIN B000J8ID1G.
^ ^a ^b "Tezuka's Company to Digitize, Colorize All His Manga". Anime News Network. 14 September 2007. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ "Tezuka's Final Unfinished Anime To Be Completed by Son". Anime News Network. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ "Special Screening: Legend of the Forest, Parts 1 & 2". Japan Society. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
^ "Japan Society in NY to Hold N. American Premiere of Tezuka's Completed Legend of the Forest Film". Anime News Network. 25 January 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.

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