Toei Animation

Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 東映アニメーション株式会社, Hepburn: Tōei Animēshon Kabushiki-gaisha; ) is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It was originally founded on January 23, 1948, as Japan Animated Films by Kenzō Masaoka and Sanae Yamamoto. The studio is known for producing numerous series, including the Sally the Witch series, the GeGeGe no Kitarō series, Mazinger Z, Galaxy Express 999, the Cutie Honey series, the Dr. Slump series, the Dragon Ball series, the Saint Seiya series, the Sailor Moon series, Slam Dunk, the Digimon series, the One Piece series, Magical Doremi, Toriko, World Trigger and the Pretty Cure series, among others. Aside from animation production, the company handles character licensing and overseas distribution and sales of its titles through its wholly-owned international subsidiaries. Toei Animation is headquartered in Nakano, Tokyo with its studios in Higashiōizumi, Nerima, Tokyo which also houses the Toei Animation Museum. Toei also has an overseas studio in the Philippines known as Toei Animation Phils. Pero, the protagonist of the studio's 1969 film adaptation of Puss in Boots, serves as its mascot. History Early history The studio was founded by animators Kenzō Masaoka and Sanae Yamamoto in 1948 as Japan Animated Films (日本動画映画, Nihon Dōga Eiga) often shortened to Nichidō Eiga (日動映画). In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was renamed Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (東映動画株式会社, Tōei Dōga Kabushiki-gaisha; "dōga" is Japanese for "video", and in some extent "animation"). In 1998, the Japanese name was renamed to match with the English name. It has created a number of TV series and movies and adapted Japanese comics as animated series, many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yasuji Mori, Leiji Matsumoto and Yōichi Kotabe have worked with the company. Toei was a shareholder in the Japanese anime satellite television network Animax with other anime studios and production companies, such as Sunrise, TMS Entertainment and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. Although the Toei Company usually contracts Toei Animation to handle its animation internally for some of its works, it occasionally hire other companies to provide animation; although the Toei Company produced the Robot Romance Trilogy, Sunrise (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, rather than use its own studio. Since 1962, Toei Animation uses its own production offices rather than using Toei's television division. Toei Animation's anime which have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award are Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya 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. Later history and ransomware attack In October 2021, Toei Animation announced that it had signed a strategic partnership with the South Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ ENM. 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 One Piece. 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 reported that the hack was caused by a targeted ransomware attack. On June 5, 2025, the company announced a new animation production label known as Eterna Animation which would focus on original works with the label's first work, Foxing announced at the same time with the short being released during 2026. On August 26 of that year, the company announced the establishment of another studio in Osaka. The "Osaka Studio" would act as its second domestic animation studio further expanding Toei Animation's production work as well as recruiting artists from the Kansai region and build ties with the local community. According to Toei Animation board member and head of production Kiichiro Yamada, he states that the labor shortage in the Japanese animation industry is a serious issue and that the studio feels that it has an urgency to recruit creators and open studios across other regions in Japan rather than having to deal with the Tokyo studio. Subsidiaries Currently in production TV animation NOTE: A few of these productions have no involvement by Toei Animation, but rather Toei Company financing other animation studios instead to produce them. 1960–69 1970–79 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 2010–19 2020–present Television films and specials Theatrical films Original video animation and original net animation Video game animation Video game development Dubbing Animated productions by foreign studios dubbed in Japanese by Toei are The Mystery of the Third Planet (1981 Russian film, dubbed in 2008); Les Maîtres du temps (1982 French-Hungarian film, dubbed in 2014), Alice's Birthday (2009 Russian film, dubbed in 2013) and Becca's Bunch (2018 television series, dubbed in 2021 to 2022). Foreign production history Toei has been commissioned to provide animation by Japanese and American studios such as Sunbow Entertainment, Marvel Productions, Hanna-Barbera, DIC Entertainment, Rankin/Bass Productions and World Events Productions (DreamWorks Animation). In the 60's, it primarily worked with Rankin/Bass, but beginning in the 80's, it worked with Marvel Productions and its 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 2000s has only rarely worked with other companies outside Japan. Controversies Fair use disputes Between 2008 and 2018, Toei Animation had copyright claimed TeamFourStar's parody series, DragonBall Z Abridged. TFS stated that the parody series is protected under fair use. On December 7, 2021, Toei Animation copyright claimed over 150 videos by YouTuber 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 and The Anime Man 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 its employees and discrimination towards sexual minorities. The company had inappropriately referred to employees who identifies as X-gender (a non-binary identity in Japan). See also SynergySP, Studio Junio and Hal Film Maker/Yumeta Company, animation studios founded by former Toei animators. Topcraft, an animation studio founded by former Toei Animation producer Toru Hara. Studio Ghibli, an animation studio founded by former Toei animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Mushi Production, an animation studio founded by Osamu Tezuka and former Toei animators. Shin-Ei Animation, formally A Production, an animation studio founded by former Toei animator Daikichirō Kusube. Yamamura Animation, an animation studio founded by former Toei animator Kōji Yamamura. Doga Kobo, an animation studio formed by former Toei animators Hideo Furusawa and Megumu Ishiguro. Notes References External links Official website (in Japanese) Official website Toei Animation at Anime News Network's encyclopedia Toei Animation at IMDb