AIC

AIC (Anime International Company, Inc.) is a Japanese animation studio based in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan. Kazushi Nomura and Toru Miura established AIC on July 15, 1982, with Nomura serving as the studio's president until leaving to found Another Push Pin Planning (APPP) on June 22, 1984. Following Nomura's departure, Miura assumed the role as the studio's president. As a result, the studio began producing works as a prime contractor, riding on the late 1980s OVA boom. The studio later expanded into game production (AIC Spirits) and the publishing business (AIC Club). In 2003, the studio shuttered AIC Spirits and AIC Club and reorganized itself into three sub-studios; AIC A.S.T.A. (now AIC ASTA), AIC Digital, and AIC Spirits. In February 2008, ACA-managed investment fund MCP Synergy acquired a 95% stake in the studio, and a new Anime International Company, Inc. was established through an incorporation-type demerger in May of the same year. In September 2010, Oizumi Corporation made AIC into a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. In March of the following year, the studio became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aplix Corporation. In January 2014, Aplix IP Holdings (now Aplix Corporation) announced its exit from its multimedia entertainment business, and transferred all of its shares in the studio to Toru Miura. In August 2015, the studio's animation production department was disbanded. The same year in December, Miura appointed Yasutaka Omura as the company's new representative director, and also transferred its classic IPs to AIC RIGHTS (AIC RIGHTS Co., Ltd.) through a corporation-separation procedure. In January 2020, Miura reassumed the representative director position from Omura.

The studio had several sub-studios within itself; in 2013, they consisted of: AIC ASTA, AIC Build, AIC Classic, AIC Digital, AIC PLUS+, and AIC Frontier. In addition, the studio also had a background art, CG, photography, finishing, and editing departments, as well as a recording and editing studio AIC Eastside Studio.