Studio Signpost

St. Signpost Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社スタジオ サインポスト, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Sutajio Sainposuto) is an animation studio subsidiary of Pierrot. The studio is an associate-member of The Association of Japanese Animations.^[1]

St. Signpost

Native name	株式会社スタジオ サインポスト
Romanized name	Kabushiki-gaisha Sutajio Sainposuto
Formerly	Studio Kikan (1993–2009) Pierrot Plus (2009–2019)
Company type	Kabushiki-gaisha
Industry	Animation studio
Founded	March 10, 1959; 66 years ago (1959-03-10)
Founder	Keiji Kusano (as Studio Kikan) Yoshikazu Tochihira (as Studio Kikan)
Headquarters	2-19-5 Igusa, Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Ken Hagino (CEO)
Revenue	¥ 1,160,000,000 (2018)
Total equity	¥ 10,000,000
Number of employees	38 (as of August 2023)
Parent	Pierrot
Website	www.st-signpost.co.jp

History

The company was founded in 1959 as a magazine advertising agency and stepped into the anime industry in 1989 by Keiji Kusano and Yoshikazu Tochihira. In 1993, the company took on the name Studio Kikan and released their first animated works Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirou. In 1996, the company established Arms as a separate studio to focus on adult animation and subcontracted animation work.

The studio became a subsidiary of Pierrot in 2008 and changed its name to Pierrot Plus in 2009. Kusano stepping down as CEO to become a chairman, and was replaced by CEO of Arms, Osamu Shimizu.

On September 20, 2019, the company changed its name to Studio Signpost. Ken Hagino, who had worked at Pierrot as animation producer was appointed as the new CEO. In conjunction with this change, the official website of Arms was closed down, and the company was later dissolved on October 6, 2020.

Works

Television series

Year	Title	Director(s)	Animation producer(s)	Source	Eps.	Refs.
1993–2008	Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō	Hisayuki Toriumi	Producer: Shintarou Kozaki Yoshikazu Tochihira	Manga	726
1994–1995	Karaoke Senshi Mike Jiro [ja]	Tsutomu Shibayama	Producer: Yoshikazu Tochihira	Manga	20
Chō Kuse ni Narisō	Tetsuya Endo	Producer: Yoshikazu Tochihira	Manga	39
2008–2010	Hakken Taiken Daisuki! Shimajirou			Manga	101
2009–2010	Letter Bee	Akira Iwanaga	Osamu Shimizu	Manga	25	[2]
2010–2011	Letter Bee Reverse	Akira Iwanaga	Osamu Shimizu	Manga	25	[3]
2010–2012	Shimajirou Hesoka			Manga	101
2011–2012	Beelzebub	Yoshihiro Takamoto [ja]	Osamu Shimizu	Manga	60	[4]
2014	Survival Game Club!	Masahiko Ohta	Kazuyoshi Ozawa	Manga	12	[5]
2015	Re-Kan!	Masashi Kudō	Osamu Koshinaka Kazuyoshi Ozawa	Manga	13	[6]
2016	Onigiri	Takashi Yamamoto	Shingo Chiba	Video game	13	[7]
	The Morose Mononokean	Akira Iwanaga	Shintarou Nozaki	Manga	13	[8]
2018	Magical Girl Ore	Itsuro Kawasaki	Kazuyoshi Ozawa Shingo Chiba	Manga	12	[9]
	Shinya! Tensai Bakabon	Tooru Hosokawa [ja]		Manga	12	[10]
2019	The Morose Mononokean II	Itsoru Kawasaki	Osamu Shimizu Shingo Chiba	Manga	13	[11]
	Ultramarine Magmell	Hayato Date	Kazuyoshi Ozawa	Manhua	13	[12]
2020	Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga	Hideotoshi Takahashi	Shingo Chiba	Manga	12	[13]
2020–2021	Kingdom (season 3) (co-animated with Pierrot)	Kenichi Imaizumi Kazuya Monma	Yasuyuki Ogoshi	Manga	26	[14]
2022	Kingdom (season 4) (co-animated with Pierrot)	Kenichi Imaizumi Kazuya Monma	Yasuyuki Ogoshi	Manga	26	[15]
2023	My Clueless First Friend	Shigenori Kageyama	Osamu Shimizu	Manga	13	[16]
2024	Kingdom (season 5) (co-animated with Pierrot)	Kenichi Imaizumi	Yasuyuki Ogoshi	Manga	13	[17]
TsumaSho	Noriyuki Abe	Shintarou Nozaki	Manga	12	[18]
2025	Kingdom (season 6) (co-animated with Pierrot)	Kenichi Imaizumi	TBA	Manga	TBA	[19]

OVAs

Year	Title	Director(s)	Animation producer(s)	Source	Eps.	Refs.
1991–1992	The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor (eps. 7–12)[a]	Masahiro Ōtani (7–9) Naoto Hashimoto (10–12)	Producer: Osamu Shimimzu	Manga	6
1993	Dochinpira [ja]	Hiromitsu Oota	Producer: Yoshiharu Sakashita[b]	Manga	1
1994	Butt Attack Punisher Girl	Iku Suzuki [ja]	Producer: Osamu Shimizu	Manga	1
	Butt Attack Punisher Girl R	Hiroshi Yoshida	Producer: Osamu Shimizu	Manga	1
1994–1995	Wild 7	Kiyoshi Egami [ja]	Nagateru Katou Keiji Kusano	Manga	2
2008	Naisho no Tsubomi	Akira Shigino [ja]		Manga	3
2008–2009	Master of Martial Hearts	Yoshitaka Fujimoto [ja]	Producer: Keiji Kusano	Original work	5
2010	Beelzebub: Jump Festa 2010 Special	Yoshihiro Takamoto [ja]	Producer: Osamu Shimizu	Manga	1

Gross outsource

Series in which Studio Signpost, Pierrot Plus, or Studio Kikan served as a gross (full) outsourcing studio, either for singular episodes or across entire series.

List of gross outsources

Year	Title	Primary contractor(s)	Director(s)	Episode(s)	Note(s)	Refs.
2005	Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's	Seven Arcs	Keizō Kusakawa	4
2005–2009	Bleach	Pierrot	Noriyuki Abe	23 episodes[c]
2006	Himawari!	Arms	Shigenori Kageyama	1–13
2007	Himawari Too!!	Arms	Shigenori Kageyama	1–13
	Deltora Quest	OLM	Mitsuru Hongo	34
2012	Hiiro no Kakera: The Tamayori Princess Saga 2	Studio Deen	Bob Shirahata	9
	Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie	Pierrot	Hayato Date		Film
2013	Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen	Studio Deen	Mamoru Hatakeyama	4, 8, 12
	I Couldn't Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job	Asread	Kinji Yoshimoto	7
	Gatchaman Crowds	Tatsunoko Production	Kenji Nakamura	6
	Freezing Vibration	A.C.G.T	Takashi Watanabe	9
2013-2014	Gaist Crusher	Pierrot	Yoshihiro Takamoto	1–51		[20]
2016	Soul Buster	Pierrot	Kōbun Shizuno Toshinori Watanabe	1–12		[21]
	Tsukiuta the Animation	Pierrot	Itsuro Kawasaki	1–12		[22]
2017	Convenience Store Boy Friends	Pierrot	Hayato Date	1–12		[23]
	Dynamic Chord	Pierrot	Shigenori Kageyama	1–12		[24]
2018	Tokyo Ghoul:re	Pierrot	Toshinori Watanabe	1–24		[25]
2019	Astra Lost in Space	Lerche	Masaomi Andō	4
	A Certain Scientific Accelerator	J.C.Staff	Nobuharu Kamanaka	7
	Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest	Asread	Kinji Yoshimoto	2, 8, 11

Notable staff

Representative staff

• Keiji Kusano (co-founder, president of Studio Kikan (1989~2009))
• Yoshikazu Tochihira (co-founder and animation producer)
• Osamu Shimizu (Studio Kikan producer (1991~2009), president of Pierrot+ (2009~2019))
• Ken Hagino (president of Studio Signpost (2019~present))

Animation producers

• Shintarou Nozaki (1994~present)
• Shingo Chiba (2007~present)
• Yuuya Kumagai (2013~2019)
• Kazuyoshi Ozawa (2013~present)
• Osamu Koshinaka (also a part of ARMS)
• Yasuyuki Ogoshi (also a part of ARMS)

Directors

• Keizō Kusakawa (1991~2002)

Animators

• Maya "Rin Shin" Suzuki (1991~1996; moved to ARMS; has been working with Signpost since ARMS' dissolution)

Notes

1. It's not been confirmed if Studio Kikan has a credit on the series; however, Osamu Shimizu, a producer from Studio Kikan and later president of Pierrot Plus after the company was renamed, was the producer for episodes 7 through 12.
2. From Studio Marine, which did gross outsourcing work on the OVA.
3. 24, 28, 42, 51, 103, 110, 117, 127, 134, 149-150, 157, 159, 167, 176, 180, 182, 187, 204, 221, 225, 229, 237