Astral really seemed to have it in for Pierrot for a particular episode of the Mahou Shoujo Ore collab a while back. In order to find out why that would be the case, I decided to do some investigation…
Ever since I first came up with a list of potential studios I could cover in this series of posts, two particular studios have scared me for the amount of hatred I could get through covering them – Pierrot and A-1 (and then there are studios that scare me for the opposite reason, namely Trigger and KyoAni). Well, unlike A-1, which has a patchy reputation because it’s responsible for a bunch of similar anime or anime with less-than-stellar reputations, curiosity got the better of me in regards to Studio Pierrot, so I do apologise if suddenly you have to deal with a bunch of spam comments on the Spellbook…
Pierrot doesn’t seem to have done anything wrong from a business prespective, in fact they seem quite proud of their legacy that goes all the way back to 1979 (Anime News Network n.d.) and the chairman Yuji Nunokawa seems to have his heart in the right place when he says the studio “[imbues] any stories with [the] magic that is animation” (Pierrot 2012)…so I went to Reddit (2017), and it turns out no one agrees on why, although popular reasons seem to be Naruto’s and Bleach’s infamous filler hells, plus stuffing up Tokyo Ghoul, specifically Root A. You probably know more about this than I do, since I haven’t dealt with the anime of any of these shows in depth precisely because they’re such Shonen Jump monoliths. Then again, when I look at what Studio Pierrot works I have on my list…Divine Gate, Dynamic Chord and Konbini Kareshi, to name a few…I think I get why it has the reputation it does.
There’s also the mystery of Pierrot Plus (also known as “Studio Kikan”). Nobody seems to know what relation it has with the actual studio Pierrot – nope, not even AniDB (n.d.) – but if they’re not related, then it looks awful suspicious. If the Plus studio is a subsidiary of the original though, then that would make sense.
Well, if Pierrot Plus counts, then my favourite show of theirs is Mahou Shoujo Ore – you can see why in the Spellbooks and Horoscopes collab. If not…well, it’s my post and my rules, so I’m going to say I don’t have a favourite Pierrot show, even though my chart would tell you my highest-ranking Pierrot work is probably Osomatsu-san. It was alright, but could hardly be called a favourite because of the nature of dramadies making it extremely hit-or-miss for me.
If Pierrot exists now, that means someone must’ve liked their work. So is there anyone out there who’s willing to defend this studio and/or its works? Does anyone have a favourite show from either Pierrot or Pierrot Plus?
References
AniDB n.d. Pierrot Plus. Available from: https://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=creator&creatorid=17916
Anime News Network n.d. Pierrot. Available from: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=118
Anime News Network n.d. Pierrot Plus. Available from: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=8368
Pierrot 2012. Message from Chairman Yuji Nunokawa. Available from: http://en.pierrot.jp/company.html#co_001
Reddit 2017. Is there actually a reason why Studio Pierrot is so god-damn awful? Available from: https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/7dznui/is_there_actually_a_reason_why_studio_pierrot_is/
The Animanga Spellbook 
Pierrot does get crap and some of it is valid, but they’ve made some anime I’ve liked. I know they don’t have the highest quality of animation out there, but they can be good when they try. One series that gets overlooked partially because they animated it is Key the Metal Idol. That’s one of their better series in my opinion.
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Ah, Key the Metal Idol. I’ve ben trying to finish that for ages, but the increasing length of the episodes and prioritising of other shows means I never get to it…I didn’t know that was a Pierrot show.
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It’s certainly a good watch. The last two episodes are movie length, but the final episode more than makes up for everything. It certainly is more experimental than several other Pierrot shows.
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I’ve been waiting for you to cover Pierrot!
I think the main reason the studio gets so much crap is the reputation they’ve built up of taking popular franchises and, as you said, “stuffing them up”, and just making lackluster series in general. Most of what I’ve seen come out of Pierrot either has a butchered or poorly handled story, or is just chock-full of painfully bad animation. Sometimes both (Dynamic Chord cough cough).
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