Topcraft

Topcraft was a Japanese animation studio based in Tokyo. It was established in 1972 by Toru Hara, a former producer at Toei Animation, and it operated as a limited company, a kabushiki-gaisha in Japanese corporate terms, also written Top Craft. The studio became best known for producing Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in 1984, the theatrical film that Hayao Miyazaki adapted from his own manga series, which ran from 1982 to 1994. Topcraft also built a working relationship with Rankin/Bass Productions of New York City, handling the hand-drawn animation for several of that American company's animated television specials and feature films, among them The Hobbit in 1977 and The Return of the King in 1980. The record behind this entry is a short encyclopedia lead, so the studio's later history and its closure are left for further research.