About

AC-bu (AC部), translated to AC Club or Team AC, are a group of animators who are known for their unique art style and wild animation. The group was founded by Tama Art University graduates Tohru Adachi, Shunsuke Itakura, and Makoto Ando (now former member). They are managed by INS Studio in Japan.

History

Before forming AC-bu

Their first major animation work was the music video Euroboys in 1999, which they created as an entry for the NHK Digital Stadium Annual Grand Prix while they were still attending university. Their music video won the event.

ZAMAGI

Afterwards they produced three music videos for the Japanese hip-hop group "ZAMAGI". One of which, titled MAGICAL DEATH, was nominated for "Best Groove Video" at the Space Shower Music Video Awards 05^[1].

Policeman / Galo Sengen

In 2011, they produced a music video for the alternative hip-hop group "Policeman". The video, titled Galish Man GAL, reached over 4.6 million views on YouTube over the past decade. The video quickly went viral and became a widely recognized meme.

group_inou

In 2011 and 2012 they produced two music videos for group_inou, titled Therapy (shown below, left) and Heart (single mix) (shown below, right). They would become nominated for the 2011 and 2012 Space Shower Music Video Awards respectively^[2].

Lightec / Jii! Jii! Jii!

In 2012 they produced a commercial music video for Lightec's Jii cigarette lighter. The commercial, titled Future Lighter Jii! Jii! Jii! which starred an anthropomorphic Jii Lighter, went viral on YouTube and reached over 2.6 million views (shown below, left). In 2014 they released a sequel titled Jii World Cup featuring the lighters playing a football (soccer) match (shown below, right).

Pop Team Epic

AC-bu has more recently been known for their involvement in the 2018 anime series Pop Team Epic. They created two skits for the show: A parody of the show itself titled Bob Epic Team (ボブネミミッミ Bobunemimimmi) (shown below, left), and a segment involving flipping scenes drawn on pages of large flipbooks. The most notable one is titled Hellshake Yano (shown below, right).

No More Heroes III

In the videogame No More Heroes III, AC-Bu animated the intro cutscene for Velvet Chair Girl (shown below, left), as well as part of the game's trailer (shown below, right).

Search Interest

Reference Links