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Kitty Films Co., Ltd. (キティフィルム Kabushiki-gaisha Kiti Firumu) was a production company established in 1972 in Japan. They were a pioneer in releasing full anime television series in a single set. The sound recording work by Ken’ichi Benitani on their 1979 film, Almost Transparent Blue, was co-nominated (with Benitani’s work on another film) for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording at the 3rd Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony in 1980.

The company was first established in 1972 as Kitty Music Corporation under Hidenori Taga, producing TV drama soundtracks. Their first was for the 1972 film Hajimete no Tabi.

By 1979, the company began to branch off into live action with the films Almost Transparent Blue and Lady Oscar (a live-action adaptation of the manga The Rose of Versailles).^[1][2][3] Almost Transparent Blue received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording for Ken’ichi Benitani at the 3rd Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony in 1980 (shared nomination with Benitani’s work on The Man Who Stole the Sun).^[4]

Kitty’s entry into anime production began with the 1981 television anime series Urusei Yarsura, based on Rumiko Takahashi‘s manga of the same name. They would go on to produce most of the animated versions of Maison Ikkoku and Ranma ½, as well. The actual animation of Kitty’s works was handled by several independent anime studios. Studio Pierrot did the animation for the first half of Urusei Yatsura, Studio Deen animated the second half (except for several of the OVAs) and all of Maison Ikkoku and Ranma ½, while Madhouse handled the final Urusei Yatsura movie, some of the later Urusei Yatsura OVAs, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl!. Kitty was a pioneer in releasing complete collections of series, beginning with the limited-run 50-disc laserdisc collection of Urusei Yatsura in May 1987, which sold out quickly and led to many other companies releasing series in laserdisc and (later) DVD box sets.^[5]

Unfortunately, the company had suffered financial troubles from early on, which started to come to a head towards the end of the Ranma TV series in 1992. Hidenori Taga had in fact helped finance Kitty’s film division by spending money from their music branch, and that year was forced to step down due to an unknown scandal,^{[citation needed]} while Shigekazu Ochiai transferred to Pao House Studios (he died in 1999).^{[citation needed]} Around 1995, Kitty Enterprise was purchased by PolyGram.

Kitty continued to produce less well-known shows such as Ping Pong Club (1995), but their output shrank to almost nothing by the end of the 20th century. Rumiko Takahashi did not work with Kitty again after the last Ranma OVA was released in 1996; Sunrise handled the animation duties on Inuyasha, and TMS animated Rumic Theater.

Kitty also had a subsidiary animation studio that produced a few anime series and OVAs. The studio’s name was Kitty Film Mitaka Studio and never became as famous or successful as its parent. The studio was eventually disbanded.

Kitty Films was eventually reincorporated as Kitty Group and mainly exists as a talent agency, having sold off the rights to most of the Kitty Films library. The Kitty Records library is currently controlled by Universal Music Japan.

• 1988: What’s Michael? (TV) (co-production with Créativité et Développement (France); animation services by K.K. C&D Asia and Daume)
• 1992: The Adventures of T-Rex (co-production with Gunther-Wahl Productions (U.S.) and Créativité et Développement (France); animation services by Madhouse)

• Acres, Harley. “The Rise and Fall of Kitty Films”, March 3, 2007. Rumic World. Accessed 11 April 2007.