Bee Train

Super Sunday Coupon Codes & Free Shipping - 9.28.08

ANGELA’S RUNWAY 25% Off Orders $100+ - Use code “SALE25″ at check-out for discount. Offer good through September 29, 2008. Free shipping on orders over $50 too! BENEFIT COSMETICS BLONDE 30% Off Site Wide - Use code “WELUVU” at check-out for discount. Offer good through October 2, 2008. They just got in a ton of new stuff from LTB, 12TH ST, MODERN AMUSEMENT AND MANOUSH…so what are you waiting for? Get shopping! BLUE BEE Shoe Mania Shoe Sale - Savings start at 70%! COCO’S SHOPPE Tops, bottoms, d

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Super Sunday Coupon Codes & Free Shipping - 9.28.08

ANGELA’S RUNWAY 25% Off Orders $100+ - Use code “SALE25″ at check-out for discount. Offer good through September 29, 2008. Free shipping on orders over $50 too! BENEFIT COSMETICS Free US Standard Shipping on any $50 purchase. Enter promo code PRETTY50 at checkout. BLONDE 30% Off Site Wide - Use code “WELUVU” at check-out for discount. Offer good through October 2, 2008. They just got in a ton of new stuff from LTB, 12TH ST, MODERN AMUSEMENT AND MANOUSH…so what are you waiting for? Get shoppin

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‫באטמן - האביר של גות'הם / Batman‬

‫שישה סיפורים, ושש הזדמנויות לקדם את תרבות האנימה בהוליווד. אנחנו מרוויחים בכל מקרה… לפני כחודשיים יצא לאקרנים סרט שאולי שמעתם עליו - האביר האפל. הסרט הגיע תוך ימים ספורים למקום הראשון בדירוג IMDb (ציון שמתבסס על הצבעות של אלפי משתמשים באתר) ואחרי מספר שבועות נוספים התייצב על המקום השלישי והמכובד. במקביל ליציאת הסרט, שוחרר לחנויות DVD [...]‬

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RR content (kinda) - this is realy stupid

This is really stupid... I'm not going to offer an opinion on what part.I got stung by a bee a few days ago... again... it's the second time this summer. I've figured out I'm slightly allergic. Before the fever I wasn't allergic to anything. If I don't take some benedryl, I'll get some mild hives. The bee sting was right in the web of my hand between my thumb and made it difficult to use the thumb. I have had muscle and joint aches like a mini-flu too.I had to lay off work... If I had my bos

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Deep Thought™

Bee Train produced Blade of the Immortal so I would nostagically miss El Cazador...

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BEE TRAIN Production Inc. (ビィートレイン株式会社, BEE TRAIN Production Inc. ?)
Type	Kabushiki kaisha (joint stock company)
Founded	Tokyo, Japan (5 June 1997)
Headquarters	Kokubunji, Tokyo, Japan
No. of locations	3 (Kokubunji, Kichijōji, Karuizawa)
Key people	Kōichi Mashimo, Founder and CEO Kenji Horikawa, Director
Industry	Animation (Anime)
Products	Noir (2001) .hack//Sign (2002) Madlax (2004) Tsubasa Chronicle (2005-06) .hack//Roots (2006) El Cazador de la Bruja (2007)
Employees	70 (April 2007)
Parent	Production I.G (1997 - 2006)
Website	www.beetrain.co.jp

BEE TRAIN Production Inc. (ビィートレイン株式会社, Biītorein Kabushikigaisha^?), commonly referred simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with Noir, .hack//Sign, and Madlax (among other series) they have a strong following in the yuri fandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively ambiguous relationships.

History

The studio Bee Train was founded on June 5, 1997 by Koichi Mashimo, who was previously a director at Tatsunoko Productions and the founder of Mashimo Jimusho, a small freelance staff working for other studios. Originally, Bee Train was a subsidiary of Production I.G along with XEBEC but in February 2006, it ended its relationship and became independent.

Koichi Mashimo's goal when he founded Bee Train was to create a "hospital for animators", an animation studio interested in nurturing young talents and artistic quality of production rather than in corporate strategies and profit. This studio-as-hospital approach was allegedly invented by Mashimo during his prolonged stay in an intensive care unit (after he has had a severe skiing accident) and has been Bee Train's official strategy ever since.

The first projects published by the studio in 1999 were anime adaptations of video game franchises popular in Japan: PoPoLoCrois, Arc the Lad, Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, and Medabots. Later, Bandai Visual joined forces with Bee Train to produce an anime OVA based on the famous .hack video game series. Simultaneously, they decided to promote the games with an anime television series, that aired in 2002 as .hack//Sign and is among Bee Train's most famous works. The OVA became known as .hack//Liminality and its four episodes were added as bonus material to each of the original four games of the franchise. In 2006, Bee Train produced .hack//Roots, a prequel anime to the .hack//G.U. games and a spiritual successor to Sign.

Bee Train's first independent project was Noir. Aired in 2001, the series was produced at the same time as Sign and became the first installment of Bee Train's "girls-with-guns" trilogy. After Noir has become widely successful in Japan, USA, Germany, and other Western countries, the second series, Madlax, has been produced in 2004 and the third, El Cazador de la Bruja, went on air in April 2007. Although the "girls-with-guns" series are considered Bee Train's and, particularly, Mashimo's signature works, the original idea belonged to their common executive producer Shigeru Kitayama.

Since 1997, the studio's headquarters are located in Kokubunji, Tokyo, although in 2001, it moved to another part of the city. Two more studio locations were acquired in 2004 (in Karuizawa, Nagano) and 2006 (Kichijōji, Musashino, Tokyo).

Style

One frequent technique that Mashimo uses as part of his studio-as-hospital strategy is brainstorming new anime concepts with his colleagues in the state of alcohol intoxication. For example, according to him, that is how the idea of the supernatural connection between the two female leads of Madlax was born.

Another typical Bee Train gesture is to invite seiyūs who have already worked on some of their projects to voice the characters similar to the once they voiced before. For example, this list includes Hōko Kuwashima (Kirika Yuumura in Noir, Margaret Burton in Madlax), Aya Hisakawa (Chloe, Limelda Jorg, Jodie Hayward in El Cazador de la Bruja), and Kaori Nazuka (Subaru in .hack//Sign, Shino in .hack//Roots).

The famous Japanese composer and music producer Yuki Kajiura has created musical scores for multiple projects by Bee Train since Noir (whose appeal lay to a large degree in its soundtrack). Kajiura has provided music for Sign, Liminality, Madlax (as part of FictionJunction YUUKA), Tsubasa Chronicle, and recently El Cazador de la Bruja. When explaining his preference for Kajiura's work, Mashimo once commented that "she's a storyteller who just happens to know how to write music". Another frequent collaboration is that between Bee Train and the musical duo Ali Project (Noir, Avenger, .hack//Roots). Generally, the music plays a just as important role in Bee Train's works as visuals and dialogue do, sometimes even drowning the latter (heard, for example, in .hack//Sign, Avenger, and Madlax).

Works

References

External links

• (Japanese) Official website
• (English) Bee Train at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• (English) Bee Train at the Internet Movie Database
• (English) Unofficial fan site