() is a Japanese

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals ...

primarily controlled by its namesake

Toei Company () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by i ...

. It has produced numerous series, including ''

Sally the Witch , also known as ''Sunny the Witch'', is one of the popular anime magical girls of what would eventually become a genre in Japan. Due to its characteristics, it may be considered the first shōjo anime as well; while titles such as ''Him ...

,'' ''

GeGeGe no Kitarō , originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as ''yōkai'', a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters ...

,'' ''

Mazinger Z is a Japanese super robot manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. The first manga version was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from October 1972 to August 1973, and it later was reissued in Kodansha ''TV Magazin ...

'', ''

Galaxy Express 999 is a Japanese manga series. It is written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto, later adapted into a number of anime films and television series. It is set in a spacefaring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer ...

'', ''

Cutie Honey is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. First appearing in ''Weekly Shōnen Champions 41st issue of 1973, the series ran until April 1974. It follows an android girl named Honey Kisaragi, who trans ...

'', ''

Dr. Slump is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was serialized in Shueisha's anthology magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1980 to 1984, with the chapters collected into 18 ''tankōbon'' volumes. The series fol ...

'', ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

'', ''

Saint Seiya , also known as ''Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac'' or simply ''Knights of the Zodiac'' (translated from the French title ''Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque''), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It w ...

'', '' Sailor Moon'', ''

Slam Dunk A slam dunk, also simply known as dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with one ...

'', ''

Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a "Di ...

'', ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chapte ...

'', ''

Toriko is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. It follows the adventures of Toriko, a Gourmet Hunter, as he searches for rare, diverse foods to complete a full-course meal. On his journey, he is accompanied b ...

'', ''

World Trigger , also known in short form as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Ashihara. It was initially serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from February 2013 to November 2018, and transferred to ''Jump Square'' in December ...

'', '' The Transformers'' (between 1984–1990, including several Japanese exclusive productions) and the ''

Pretty Cure , also known as and ''PC'', is a Japanese magical girl anime franchise created by Izumi Todo and Bandai and produced by Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, Asatsu-DK, Toei Animation and Bandai. Each series revolves around a group of magical girls kn ...

'' series.

History

The studio was founded by animators Kenzō Masaoka and Zenjirō Yamamoto in 1948 as . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was renamed , doing business as Toei Animation Co., Ltd. outside Japan. In 1998, the Japanese name was renamed to Toei Animation. It has created a number of TV series and movies and adapted Japanese comics as animated series, many popular worldwide.

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

Isao Takahata was a Japanese director, screenwriter and producer. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he earned international critical acclaim for his work as a director of Japanese animated feature films. Born in Ujiyamada, Mie Prefecture, Takahata joined Toe ...

Yasuji Mori was an animator who worked with Toei Animation, while it was still known as Toei Doga. He was also a famous illustrator of children's books. Mori was responsible for one of the major animation styles within Toei Animation. In '' The Little Prin ...

Leiji Matsumoto is a Japanese mangaka, creator of several anime and manga series. His wife Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Early life Matsumoto was the middle child of a family of seven brothers, and, in his early childhood, Matsumoto was given a 35m ...

and

Yōichi Kotabe is a Japanese animator and character designer. He has worked on several anime films from the 1960s and 1970s, on the ''Super Mario'' video game series, and the ''Pokémon'' series in television and film. He was an employee at Nintendo for two dec ...

have worked with the company. Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese anime

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

network

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed other cartoons in Japanese language. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headq ...

with other anime studios and production companies, such as

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology Al ...

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as '' Lupin the Third' ...

and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. The company is headquartered in the Ohizumi Studio in

Nerima, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The ward refers to itself as Nerima City. , the ward has an estimated population of 721,858, with 323,296 households and a population density of 15,013 persons per km2, while 15,326 foreign residents are re ...

. Their mascot is the cat Pero, from the company's 1969 film adaptation of ''

Puss in Boots "Puss in Boots" ( it, Il gatto con gli stivali) is an Italian fairy tale, later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for ...

''. Toei Animation produced anime versions of works from manga series by manga artists, including

Go Nagai , better known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and a prolific author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and erotica. He made his professional debut in 1967 with ''Meakashi Polikichi'', but is best known for creating popular 1970s ...

(''

''),

Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series ''One Piece'' (1997–present). With more than 516.5 million ''tankōbon'' copies in circulation worldwide, ''One Piece'' is both the best-selling manga in history and the best-se ...

(''

''),

Shotaro Ishinomori was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and , creating several immensely popular long-running series such as '' Cyborg 009,'' the ''Super Sentai'' series (later adapted into the ''Power Rangers'' series), ...

(''

Cyborg 009 is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was serialized in many different Japanese magazines, including '' Monthly Shōnen King'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', ''Shōnen Big Comic'', '' COM'', '' ...

''),

Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro is a Japanese manga artist. He first gained success with his comedy series '' Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi!'' (1997–2002), but is better known for ''Toriko'' which was serialized from 2008 to 2016 and has over 25 million copies in circulatio ...

(''

''),

Takehiko Inoue is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for the basketball series ''Slam Dunk'' (1990–1996), and the ''jidaigeki'' manga ''Vagabond'', which are two of the best-selling manga series in history. Many of his works are about basketball, I ...

(''

''),

Mitsuteru Yokoyama was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma Ward of Kobe City in Hyōgo Prefecture. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include ''Tetsujin 28-go'', ''Giant Robo'', '' Akakage'', ''Babel II'', '' Sal ...

(''

''), Masami Kurumada (''

''),

Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series ''Dr. Slump'', before going on to create ''Dragon Ball'' (his best-known work) and acting as a character design ...

(''

'' and ''

''),

(''

''), and Naoko Takeuchi ('' Sailor Moon''). The studio helped propel the popularity of the

Magical Girl is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered around young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transfo ...

and ''

Super Robot Mecha anime and manga, known in Japan as and , are anime and manga that feature robots (mecha) in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; "super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where robots are ...

'' genres of anime; Toei's TV series include the first magical-girl anime series, '' Mahoutsukai Sally'' (an adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same name), and Go Nagai's ''

'', an adaptation of his manga which set the standard for Super Robot anime. Although the Toei Company usually contracts Toei Animation to handle its animation internally, they occasionally hire other companies to provide animation; although the Toei Company produced the '' Robot Romance Trilogy'',

(then known as Nippon Sunrise) provided the animation. Toei Company would also enlist the help of other studios such as hiring Academy Productions to produce the animation for ''

Space Emperor God Sigma is a mecha anime television series aired from 1980 to 1981. It ran for 50 episodes. It is also referred to as "''God Sigma, Empire of Space''" and "''Space Combination God Sigma''". Concept Space Emperor God Sigma was created by Toei's Telev ...

'', rather than use their own studio. Toei Animation's anime which have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award are ''

'' in 1981, ''

'' in 1987 and '' Sailor Moon'' in 1992. In addition to producing anime for release in Japan, Toei Animation began providing animation for American films and television series during the 1960s and particularly during the 1980s. In October 2021, Toei Animation announced that they had signed a strategic partnership with the South Korean entertainment conglomerate

CJ ENM CJ ENM (, CJ Entertainment aNd Merchandising) is a South Korean entertainment and retail company founded in 2018. CJ ENM was established as a result of the merger of two CJ Group subsidiaries, CJ E&M and CJ O Shopping respectively, in July 20 ...

2022 ransomware attack

On March 6, 2022, an incident occurred in which an unauthorized third party attempted to hack Toei Animation's network, which resulted in the company's online store and internal systems becoming temporarily suspended. The company investigated the incident and stated that the hack would affect the broadcast schedules of several anime series, including ''

''. In addition, '' Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero'' was also rescheduled to June 11, 2022 due to the hack. On April 6, 2022, Toei Animation announced that it would resume broadcasting the anime series, including ''One Piece''. The following day, the Japanese public broadcaster

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

reported that the hack was caused by a targeted

ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid off. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, ...

attack.

Subsidiaries

Currently in production

TV animation

1960–69

1970–79

1980–89

1990–99

2000–09

2010–19

2020–present

Television films and specials

Theatrical films

CGI films

Original video animation (OVA) and original net animation (ONA)

Video game animation

Video game development

Dubbing

Animated productions by foreign studios dubbed in Japanese by Toei are ''

The Mystery of the Third Planet ''The Mystery of the Third Planet'' (russian: Тайна третьей планеты, ''Tayna tretyey planety''), aka ''The Secret of the Third Planet'' is a 1981 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by Roman Kachanov and produc ...

'' (1981 Russian film, dubbed in 2008); ''

Les Maîtres du temps ''Les Maîtres du temps'' (lit. ''The Masters of Time'', a.k.a. ''Time Masters''; ''Herrscher der Zeit'' in German; ''Az idő urai'' in Hungarian) is a 1982 Franco-West German- Swiss-British- Hungarian animated science fiction feature film direc ...

'' (1982 French-Hungarian film, dubbed in 2014), ''

Alice's Birthday ''Alice's Birthday'' (russian: Де́нь рожде́ния Али́сы, translit. Den' rozhdeniya Alisy), is a 2009 Russian traditionally animated children's science fiction film, directed by Sergey Seryogin and produced by Master-fil ...

'' (2009 Russian film, dubbed in 2013) and '' Becca's Bunch'' (2018 television series, dubbed in 2021 to 2022).

Commission work

Toei has been commissioned to provide animation by Japanese and American studios such as

Sunbow Entertainment Sunbow Entertainment (known as Sunbow Productions until 1995) was an American animation studio and distributor, founded on June 23, 1980, and owned until May 4, 1998, by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York City and in the United States. Griffin ...

Marvel Productions New World Animation Ltd., formerly known as Marvel Productions, was the television and film studio subsidiary of the Marvel Entertainment Group, based in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It later became a subsidiary of ...

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production com ...

, Rankin/Bass Productions and

World Events Productions WEP LLC, doing business as World Events Productions, is an American-based animation and distribution company in St. Louis, Missouri, best known for releasing the anime titles '' Voltron, Defender of the Universe'' and '' Saber Rider and the Sta ...

(

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

). In the 60's, they primarily worked with Rankin/Bass, but beginning in the 80's, they worked with Marvel Productions and their list of clients grew, until the end of the decade. Toei didn't provide much outsourced animation work in the 90's and since the 2000's has only rarely worked with other companies outside Japan.

Controversies

Fair use disputes

TeamFourStar TeamFourStar is a YouTube channel and production company most notable for the creation of the ''Dragon Ball Z Abridged'' web series, a parody of the iconic anime television series ''Dragon Ball Z''. Noted for its satirical humor of various story ...

's parody series, '' DragonBall Z Abridged''. TFS stated that the parody series is protected under

fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

Totally Not Mark, real name Mark Fitzpatrick. He uploaded a video addressing the issue, claiming that they were protected under fair use, and that nine of the videos do not include any Toei footage. He also outlined the appeal process on YouTube, and estimated having the videos reinstated could take over 37 years. He then goes on to announce that he would not be supporting new Toei releases until the issue had been resolved, and also called for a boycott on the upcoming '' Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero'' film. The dispute sparked discussion on YouTube on the vulnerability of creators against the copyright system and lack of fair use laws in Japan, with YouTubers such as

PewDiePie Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg ( , ; born 24 October 1989), better known as PewDiePie ( ), is a Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage ...

and

The Anime Man Joseph Tetsuro "Joey" Bizinger (born 28 September 1994), known online as The Anime Man, as well as his stage name , is an Australian-Japanese YouTuber, voice actor, songwriter, and podcaster. His video work focuses on Japanese popular culture, w ...

speaking out on the issue. On January 26, 2022, Fitzpatrick had his videos reinstated after negotiations with YouTube.

Treatment of employees

On January 20, 2021, two employees have accused Toei Animation of overworking their employees and discrimination towards sexual minorities. The company had inappropriately referred to employees who identifies as

X-gender X-gender () is a third-gender that differs from M, for male, or F, for female. The term ''X-gender'' came into use during the later 1990s, popularized by queer organizations in Kansai, specially in Osaka and Kyoto. The term is used in place of ...

(a non-binary identity in Japan).

References

External links

*
Toei Animation Inc. Official website

Toei Animation Europe Official website
*
Toei Animation
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

co-productions database
{{Authority control Animation studios in Tokyo Japanese animation studios Mass media companies established in 1956 Animax TV Asahi Japanese companies established in 1956 Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

History

2022 ransomware attack

Subsidiaries

Currently in production

TV animation

1960–69

1970–79

1980–89

1990–99

2000–09

2010–19

2020–present

Television films and specials

Theatrical films

CGI films

Original video animation (OVA) and original net animation (ONA)

Video game animation

Video game development

Dubbing

Commission work

Controversies

Fair use disputes

Treatment of employees

See also

References

External links