HAL Film Maker

HAL Film Maker (HAL Film Maker Inc.) was a Japanese animation studio based in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan. Former Toei Animation employees led by Katsunori Haruta established Hal Film Maker Co., Ltd. as a limited company in August 1993 — and began producing animation after former Studio Junio members joined the studio in 1997. Following Junichi Sato’s appointment as the company’s board director in 2000, the studio has primarily focused on and became notable for works by Sato; such as Prétear: The New Legend of Snow White (2001), Princess Tutu (2002), Aria the Animation (2005), and Tamayura (2010).

In 2003, HAL Film Maker became a majority-owned subsidiary of advertising conglomerate TYO — alongside TYO Group’s later animation subsidiaries Yumeta Company in 2005 and Doga Kobo in 2007. Under the TYO Group, the studio established editing studio REAL-T as a majority-owned subsidiary in March 2006; reorganized itself into HAL Film Maker, Inc., a joint-stock company with an increased capital of ¥10 million in August of the same year; acquired sub-contracting studio Yuhoudo as a majority-owned subsidiary in June of the following year (exited the TYO Group in the same year); and converted into a wholly-owned subsidiary of TYO Productions by 2009.

In May 2009, amidst TYO Group’s corporate restructuring and divestiture of its entertainment businesses, TYO merged and dissolved HAL Film Maker into Yumeta Company to form TYO Animations Inc. (now Yumeta Company as of Dec. 2017) on July 1, 2009 — and remained as a brand of the new company, until its retirement the following year.