Zuiyo Co., Ltd.

Zuiyo Co., Ltd.'s logo. Image courtesy of Artie1helps.

Zuiyo Co,. Ltd. (瑞鷹株式会社 in kanji, or Zuiyō Kabushikigaisha—alternately, they are also referred to as ズイヨー (Zuiyō) in katakana) is a Japanese animation production company founded by Shigeto Takahashi in April of 1969 and headquartered in Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Their logo is a hawk, designed by manga artist Sanpei Shirato.

The studio was previously known as "Zuiyo Enterprise" from 1969 to 1972, and "Zuiyo Eizo" from 1972 to 1975 and from 1979 to 1983. The name "Zuiyo" in kanji ("瑞鷹") is a combination of the kanji for "瑞" (ずい, zui using the go-on reading of the kanji) which has several meanings, but can include "beauty", "youth", or "luster". The other half of the word, "鷹" (たか, taka) uses the kanji for "hawk".

The studio has produced in the past a variety of series based on Western literature including, but not limited to, Moomin (ムーミン, Mūmin, 1969-1970), Heidi, Girl of the Alps (アルプスの少女ハイジ, Arupusu no Shōjo Haiji, 1974), and Vicky the Viking (小さなバイキング ビッケ, Chiisana Viking Bikke, 1974-1976).

Zuiyo produced Popee the Performer along with Kids Station and Nippon Columbia from January 3, 2000 to December 28, 2001. They also worked with the aforementioned companies to produce the series' only special, the Popee the Performer Countdown Special that aired from December 31st, 2002 to January 1st, 2003.

Zuiyo Co., Ltd. is also the name of a sake brewery in Kumamoto, Japan, but they are separate companies. Searching the company name will typically result in search results for the brewery, and not the production studio. To find results on the studio, try searching "ズイヨー" (Zuiyo) or "ズイヨー映像" (Zuiyo Video).