Madhouse is a Japanese animation studio started in 1972.
The studio came around when several animators from the now defunct anime studio, Mushi Productions. The studio was headed by manga artist Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Princess Knight, Dororo and a number of other series) and was known for adapting several of his works into anime. He left in 1968 to form Tezuka Productions. Mushi Pro would file for bankruptcy in 1973 after a series of financial flops, with their last completed work being the erotic arthouse film, Belladonna of Sadness.
Madhouse was founded by Osamu Dezaki, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Shigeyuki Hayashi (better known under the alias, Rintaro) and Masao Maruyama. Their early work would be doing co animation on other studio’s work in the mid to late 70s like Aim for the Ace! and Gamba no Bouken with Studio TMS (both series directed by Osamu Dezaki).
Their first work done by the studio itself would be 1981’s The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (an adaption of an Osamu Tezuka manga). Madhouse would primarily be a anime studio specializing in film rather then television series, producing 18 films throughout the 80s. They would produce adaptions of manga titles such as Haguregumo(1982), The Dagger of Kamui(1985) as well as Barefoot Gen and it’s sequel (1983/86). Two of Madhouse’s founders would direct their own films with the company in this time, with Rintaro directing Genma Taisen/Harmageddeon(1983) and Yoshiaki Kawajiri directing Lensman(1984). Both directors would create more works in the future.
(Harmageddon would also be the first anime work of Akira mangaka/director, Katsuhiro Otomo, who would be the character designer for the film. Otomo would also direct a segment along with Rintaro and Kawajiri in Madhouse’s anthology film, Neo Tokyo, a year before he would direct Akira).
The 80s in Japan was known as the bubble period, where production companies gave anime companies more money to produce original video animations (OVA), direct to video movies and series. OVAs could either be one and done productions (from around 40 minutes to feature length or spliced into 2 parts) or if it’s a series, it can get more episodes if the sales/rentals are good. Madhouse’s first OVAs would be 2 animated adaptions based on Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix. Madhouse will continue to do films and OVAs into the 90s.
Several directors would create some famous and influential work with the studio. Kawajiri would be known for his style of directing through his use of unique composition, color scheme, fast paced action and extreme explicit content, through his directorial work on several films and OVAs in the late 80s and 90s, starting off doing adaptions of novels and manga like Demon City Shunjuku and Goku Midnight Eye, then going on to direct several original works like the cyberpunk OVA, Cyber City Odeo 808 and the chanbara action film, Ninja Scroll, which would become a cult classic and one of the first big anime films to come to the west along with Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Rintaro would direct the experimental OVAs, Take the X Train and Download, as well as an adaption of manga collective CLAMP’s X/1999, his work would showcase his expirmental style and would showcase the work of influential sakuga and key animator, Yoshinori Kanada. In the late 90s, Madhouse would produce a film by animator/director/manga artist, Satoshi Kon, entitled Perfect Blue, a psychological horror film which were propel Kon as one of anime’s most influential and beloved directors. The remainder of his work would be animated by Madhouse.
The 90s would would be the start of Madhouse producing television series, with there first show being Yawara!, an adaption of a manga by Naoki Urasawa (mangaka of Monster, another manga they would adapt later). The 90s would also produce beloved shows like Trigun and Captcaptor Sakura. The 2000s would see Madhouse collaborate with a variety of directors who would gain their own fans through their unique styles like Hiroshi Hamazaki (director of Texhnolyze and Shigurui Death Frenzy for Madhouse and later the anime for the light novel, Stein’s Gate for studio White Fox) and Maasaki Yuasa (director of Kemonozume, Kaiba and The Tatami Galaxy, co founder of studio Science SARU).
One of the best things about Madhouse was their variety. They would produce a long term series based on a popular shonen manga like Hunter x Hunter and Hajime No Ippo and at the same time allowing these directors to explore their own unique style of direction, even if it is not commercially viable.