Takehiko Inoue
Toei Animation produced anime versions of works from manga series by manga artists, including Go Nagai ("Mazinger Z"), Eiichiro Oda ("One Piece"), Shotaro Ishinomori ("Cyborg 009"), Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro ("Toriko"), Takehiko Inoue ("Slam Dunk"), Mitsuteru Yokoyama ("Sally the Witch"), Masami Kurumada ("Saint Seiya"), Akira Toriyama ("Dragon Ball" and "Dr. Slump"), Leiji Matsumoto ("Galaxy Express 999"), and Naoko Takeuchi ("Sailor Moon"). The studio helped propel the popularity of the Magical Girl and "Super Robot" 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 "Mazinger Z", an adaptation of his manga which set the standard for Super Robot anime. Although the Toei Company usually allows Toei Animation to handle its animation, they 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 their own studio.