Zatch Bell!
The episodes of the "Zatch Bell!" anime series were directed by Tetsuji Nakamura and Yukio Kaizawa and produced by Toei Animation. The episodes were aired on Fuji Television between April 6, 2003 to March 26, 2006 and spanned 150 episodes. Viz Media obtained the foreign television, home video, and merchandising rights to the "Zatch Bell!" anime from Toei Studio on August 4, 2005. Subsequently, Viz Media contracted Studiopolis to create the English adaptation of the anime. The North American English dub has been edited and localized for young children aged 6 to 10 years in America. Viz Media has licensed its individual "Zatch Bell!" merchandising rights to several different companies, including a new toy line made by Mattel and a collectible card game released by Bandai in the United States and Japan.
Zatch Bell!
The studio in which Makoto Raiku does his series is a unique studio. He has a large collection of autographs from manga artists displayed on the foyer which is the first thing one sees in the building. His studio contains a high ceiling to prevent getting claustrophobic, and he spends all day there for a dead line. Raiku collects figurines and displays them on his wall while he in his studio writing. Raiku does admit that most of his work takes place in a restaurant where he does most of his story boarding. He says there is less distraction since he is just surrounded by people and not games and the internet. Story boarding for a regular chapter of Zatch Bell takes about two days for Raiku to do. When the editor approves of the story board he calls his assistants and they start working. Raiku usually has four assistants but when dead lines are tight he uses a fifth one. Typically, a chapter of Zatch Bell! is released almost every week of the year except for holidays such as Golden Week in Japan, and Christmas. Even during those holidays he has to constantly think about the story and have new ideas.