About the studio
Asmik Ace formed in 1997 through the merger of two predecessor companies: Asmik Corporation, a Sumitomo Corp. subsidiary founded in 1985, and Ace Pictures Inc., which split off from Nippon Herald Films in 1981. The name Asmik is itself a blend of the founding partners ASK, Sumitomo, and Kodansha. *A company literally named after an acronym of its own family tree.* Based in Minato, Tokyo, Asmik Ace primarily distributes and co-produces Japanese films, with some involvement in anime and tokusatsu titles through production committee work, though specific flagship anime credits are less documented in English-language sources than its film work. It's now a wholly owned subsidiary of Jupiter Communications/J:COM. Nearly 30 years after its formation, Asmik Ace remains more prominent in live-action Japanese cinema than in anime, but its production committee fingerprints do show up across the industry.