Established in 1964 by Ex Mom Productionsnote A studio mostly known for doing stop motion animation for Rankin/Bass animator Yutaka Fujioka after his first studio, Tokyo Ningyo Cinema, bombed. TMS Entertainment (short for Tokyo Movie Shinsha, also credited as TMS-Kyokuchi or Tokyo Movie on occasion) is one of the oldest and most well-known (both in Japan and overseas) producers of Anime in the world. Their most famous works are Lupin III and Tiny Toon Adventures. They have also done various other anime, including Soreike! Anpanman, Sonic X, Detective Conan, Lil Pri, Ulysses 31, Hamtaro and Bakugan Battle Brawlers, and even some full length feature films, such as AKIRA and Little Nemo Adventures In Slumberland.Outside of Anime, they are also one of the best and most recognized overseas animation studios in the world. Their high quality work first popped up in the early '80s, when they did animation for Filmation's The New Adventures of Zorronote and, of course, knowing Filmation's reputation for cheapanimation, it was a sight to see, as well as Di C's cartoons back in the day. Soon enough, Disney and Warner Bros. joined the list of clients, giving us glorious animation in shows such as DuckTales and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh from Disney, and Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman The Animated Series, and, of course, Animaniacs Warner Bros., on the Japanese side of clients, we have Shogakukan with Detective Conan and Hamtaro, Kodansha with Ohayo! Spank and Kaitou Saint Tail and Shueisha with Dokonjo Gaeru and D.Gray-man.Starting off as a independent studio when the studio was founded in 1964. They were sold off to Sega-Kyokuchi in 1992 when the studio's founder Yutaka Fujioka left to retire (hence the name of their 1996-1999 productions as TMS-Kyokuchi. They were renamed to TMS Entertainment in 2000) and again in 2005 during the SegaSammy merger.In spite of their glory, their foreign workload has met a sharp decline, thanks to factors such as rising prices (as well as their surprisingly disappointing work after TMS shipped off their own works to cheaper studios in Japan as well as in Korea and China, and the less said about most of the episodes (animation wise) of Spider-Man: The Animated Series or Weiss Kreuz the betternote however the later was a co-production with StudioDEEN, which might explain the bad animation). The 2011 earthquake on Japan hasn't helped matters either.Whatever the case may be, TMS decided to focus mostly on anime (either their own or others, see below). The clients they once had have since moved to other studios. Disney opened its own overseas studio in Japan, using them for a while before dumping them in 2004, as well as using other Asian studios, like Toon City and Rough Draft. DiC, in its twilight years, used various other Asian studiosnote including KKC&D, Sei Young, Spectrum and Saerom after The Littles (which itself was taken over by Studio Gallop in season three). Warner Bros. likewise ended its ties with TMS after Wakko's Wish and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, instead going for cheaper animation studios like Moi Animation (most of the DC showcase shorts), JM Animation (the Jonah Hex short), Lotto Animation and Dong Woo Animation in Korea and Toon City as well (with Wang Film Productions on occasion). They did reunite with TMS for Green Lantern First Flight, Justice League: Doom and Superman Vs The Elite.Even with all of these factors, TMS still manages to be ahead of the game with its many animated productions.They were also one of the minds behind the channel Animax (With Toei Animation, Sunrise and Sony) and the web site Daisuki (with Toei Animation, Sunrise, Sony, Nihon Ad Systems, Dentsu and Asatsu-DK).
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Units of TMS
In Japan.
Telecom Animation Film: Founded in 1975 so that TMS can compete in western markets as pure American animation was started to become expensive (and stilted). The studio didn't start doing productions until 1977 (said production came out in 1978). Their first product was a show called Obake Chan, which is very unknown. Afterwards, Telecom did a number of episodes of Lupin III series 2, The Castle Of Cagliostro, and started production on Little Nemo (which started in 1978 and was finished eleven years after). From the '80s and '90s most of their productions were made for US marketsnote as the western productions from DiC and Disney were taking time away from Little Nemo. This was one of the reasons why the movie was taking so long. The studio is known for some of the best animation in history, and also does their own productions outside of TMS as well.
TMS Photo:Sometimes known as Toms Photo, founded in 1988 to do digital effects on AKIRA, TMS Photo is TMS's digital effects and coloring unit.
TMS Music
Studio Sakimakura: A more recent studio, the studio was founded in March of 2011, and has worked on Bakugan (Mechtanium Surge series), Cardfight!! Vanguard and Brave 10.
A-Productions:Founded in 1965 to help out TMS during Fujiko Pro's large work load, A-Pro split off from TMS in 1976 when TMS replaced them with Telecom, from then on A-Pro became Shin-Ei Doga.
Shin-Ei Doga: After A-Pro split off from TMS, they got 98% of their stocks, 90% of it was sold to TV Asahi, 8% of it became Shin-Ei Doga. The 2% TMS did not give out to A-Pro was put into Telecom. As of 2010, the studio is now 100% owned by TV Asahi.
KK C&D Asia: Formed by Tetsuo Katayama and Shigeru Akagawa in 1983 because of the way Little Nemo was going, the studio mostly did shows for DiC with their biggest project being The Real Ghostbusters. The studio shut down in 2000 due to becoming too expensive for the US to ship off productions to Japan and failing to compete in the anime market. Most of the staff now work for Production I.G.
Spectrum Animation: Formed in 1988, the studio's first job was to supervise the Koreanstudios responsible for Captain N: The Game Master. The company's first (and only) big break was on Batman The Animated Series, providing animation to episodes like "Robin's Reckoning Part 1" and to the movie Mask of the Phantasm. The studio also did some work for Cinar as well. But, much like KK C&D, they were unable to compete in the anime market and shut down in 1998. Most of their staff, like KK C&D's, now work for Production I.G.
Walt Disney Animation Japan: Founded by Motoyoshi Tokunaga in 1988 as Michael Eisner was opening up a unit in Japannote after he bought out Pacific Animation Corp. and was giving him more money to run the studio. The studio stayed open until 2004, when Disney got rid of most of their traditional animation unitsnote however, Roy E. Disney and John Lasseter did save the Los Angeles unit, and the Australia unit stayed open until 2007. After that most of their staff members went to work for Madhouse, Studio Pierrot or Production I.G. The ones who did stick with Tokunaga went on to become...
Noteworthy TMS staff members include (also counting their Telecom unit):executives and producers
Yutaka Fujioka: Founder of TMS, he retired in 1992note some say that he left in 1989 because of Little Nemo's bombing, however he was in a Tiny Toons staff photo, which was shot in 1990, which debunks that. Here's◊ a picture of him, and the full photo; to compare with older pictures of him, here is a photo of him and other TMS staff members during production on Little Nemo; the latter photo is a video, but he is in the very start of the video. He died in 1996.
Koji Takeuchi: Came to TMS in 1977 from A-Pro. He is the president of the Telecom unit.
Shunzo Kato
Tetsuo Katayama: He worked for TMS in the '70s and early '80s. Left in 1983 to establish KK C&D Asia.
Shigeru Akagawa: He worked for TMS in the '70s and eary '80s. Like Katayama, he left TMS in 1983 to work for KK C&D Asia.
Motoyoshi Tokunaga: He did some stuff for TMS, then left the studio in 1988 to establish Walt Disney Animation Japan, where he stayed until the studio closed down in 2004. After that he founded The Answer Studio.
artists
Toshihiko Masuda: Coming to TMS in 1980, he's mostly known for the Istanbul, Not Constantinople music video of Tiny Toon Adventures. He helped made the TomRuegger shows what they are today.
Sadakazu Takiguchi: Came to TMS in 1983 when a batch of people were leaving to go work for KK C&D Asia or go with Hayao Miyazaki to work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, he did not became a director until 2003 when Hiroyuki Aoyama left to became a freelancer, he has worked on The Daughter Of Twenty Faces and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (stationed at Telecom of course).
Yuichiro Yano: Came to TMS in 1982, he's mostly known for most of The Great Wakkorotti shorts from Animaniacs (the last one was by Jon McClenahan and shipped off to Wang Film Productions).
Hayao Miyazaki: Miyazaki came to TMS the first time in 1968 through A-Pro from Toeinote Whom he worked for until 1971, doing Isao Takahata's Panda Go Panda. He left TMS in 1972 to go work for Nippon Animation because of lack of work, but came back to TMS through Telecom in 1977. Directing The Castle Of Cagliostro and Sherlock Hound, before leaving a second time for a number of reasonsnote he did not want Little Nemo to be just a dream, and asked for more money, for instance to go work for Topcraft to direct Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. After that, Miyazaki stole most of their staff and co-founded Studio Ghibli. The rest is history.
Saburo Hashimoto: He worked for TMS from the '70s until the early '90s, where he left for Walt Disney Animation Japan. Staying until it closed in 2004. He is now a arts teacher.
Keiko Oyamada
Sawako Miyamoto: She came to TMS in 1977, left in 1989 for Walt Disney Animation Japan. Then came back in 1994.
Youichi Takada: Sometimes known as Yoichi Takada.
Isao Takahata: Takahata came to TMS from Toei through A-Pro in 1968, then left with Miyazaki to go work for Nippon Animation in 1972. He came back to TMS through Telecom in 1977, left with Miyazaki in 1983 to go work for Topcraft and went with Miyazaki when he co-founded Studio Ghibli.
Yasuo Otsuka: He came to TMS from Toei through A-pro in 1968 then to Telecom when A-Pro split from TMS in 1976note He did not come to Telecom until 1977, as he was supposed to be one of the main executives of Shin-Ei Doga. Mostly known for doing key animation on The Castle Of Cagliostro and doing early drafts for Little Nemo. He also runs a TMS owned animation school called Anime Juku.
Yoshifumi Kondo: Mostly known for Whisper of the Heart from Studio Ghibli, he came to TMS in 1968 through A-Pro. He left for Shin Ei Doga when A-Pro split off from TMS, after which he left for Nippon Animation, working with Hayao Miyazaki on Future Boy Conan and other stuff. In 1980, he left to go back at TMS through Telecom. He left Telecom in 1985 because of sickness. When he got better, he went back to do contract work for Nippon which didn't last long. After that, he went to work for Studio Ghibli until he died in 1998.
Teiichi Takiguchi
Takashi Kawaguchi: He did a number of things for TMS, then left to become freelance.
There are 2 known TakashiKawaguchis out there in the world, the later is the Ex-TMS staff member.
Hiroaki Noguchi
Koichi Suenaga
Hisao Yokobori: The only known member of Telecom to have a Twitter acount; See it here.
Yuzo Aoki: While not as known as Hayao Miyazaki, he is mostly known for keeping Monkey Punch's style in Lupin III when others tend to tone his style down, like Toshihiko Masuda (Elusiveness Of The Fog, but that has more to do with the special's budget), Nobuo Tomizawa (Farewell To Nostradamus), even Miyazaki (The Castle Of Cagliostro) toned the style down. Which wasn't, however, a bad thing.
Yukio Okazaki: Worked at TMS in the '80s. He left in 1989 to work for Walt Disney Animation Japan for a few years before becoming a freelancer.
As a side note, she was the animation director of several Animaniacs episodes including Taming Of The Screwynote which was shipped off to Actas, Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump Dump Dump and Schnitzelbank.
Shojiro Nishimi: Sometimes known as Shijiro Nishimi and Shoujirou Nishimi, he came to TMS in 1984, left in 2003 to work at Studio 4°C, and came back to TMS in 2009, the last thing he did at 4°C were some animated clips to a movie that he did in 2008 but said movie did not came out until 2009.
He also did Storyboards for Atlus's Catherine, whose chief animation studio is Studio 4°C. However, he did it along side Toshihiko Masuda and Sawako Miyamoto, who were doing key animation for it stationed at Telecom during production.
He also did a short called Keep Walking Theater that started production [[Development Hell in 2008 but did not came out until 2012 due to issues going on at 4°C, He did go back to finish it but quickly came back to Telecom after it was done.
Masatomo Sudo: Worked at TMS as early as the 1980s, doing key animation on Mighty Orbots. He also did the character designs for Hamtaro.
Noteworthy productions from the 1960s
1964Big X: TMS's first production, and the only production they got from Osamu Tezuka when he was still alive. Only done because Mushi Productions (the studio that most of Tezaka's productions were done by when he was still alive) was full at the time.
1965Obake No Q-Taro: TMS first production from Fujiko Pro.
1967/1971Chingo Muchabe: Made in 1967, but never aired until 1971. Final anime broadcast in black & whitenote but not the last one made. That honor goes to Umeboshi Denka.
1967Pa-Man: First series only, second series and the movies are done by Shin Ei Doga. Production was split between TMS and Studio Zero.
1968/1977/1979Kyojin No Hoshi: aka Star Of The Giants, did all three series.
1968Kaibutsu-Kun: With Studio Zero.
1969Umeboshi Denka: With Studio Zero. Final black & white anime from TMS note Chingo Muchabei was made before Denka, but aired years after.
1969Roppo Yabure-Kun
1969Moomin: First 26 episodes of the first series. The rest of the first series and New Moomin are by Mushi, and Tanoshii Moomin Ikka is done by Telescreen and Visual 80.
1969, 1971-NowLupin III: Pilot came out in 1969, 1st series came out in 1971 but bombed, the 2nd series came out in 1977, the series received a 3rd series in 1985 (but is mostly forgotten by many fans) and the franchise's many movies and specials. The 4th series, ''The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, was released in 2012.
1986The Real Ghostbusters: 10 Episodes, including the pilot and bumpers prior to Season 4. Most of the show was done by KK C&D Asia.
1986Kissyfur: Some episodes plus the opening, layouts by Youichi Takada (under the name Yoichi Takada). Other episodes are done by KK C&D Asia, Visual 80, Studio Korumi and Hong Long.
1986 (series started in 1984) The Transformers: If true, TMS did one episodeList "Call of the Primitives".
19872001 Ya Monogatari
1987DuckTales: Most of the 1st season. One episode, "Down and out in Duckburg", was done by Burbank Films; the rest of the show was by Wang. DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp was done by Walt Disney Animation UK.
1987Starcom The U.S. Space Force: Opening; series proper by KK C&D Asia.
1990Peter Pan & the Pirates: 13 episodes, including the first episode and the "Ages Of Pan" 2 parter, the rest of the series is done by other studiosnote Wang, AKOM, Dai Won, Pacific Rim Animation, Studio Sginal, Tae Sung, Pion Animation, Take One Productions, Hinton Animation Studios and Island Animation. Also served as co-producer and current owner.
1990Tiny Toon Adventures: 19 episodes List "The Wheel O' Comedy", "Test Stressed", "The Buster Bunny Bunch", "Her Wacky Highness", "Hollywood Plucky", "Journey to the Center of ACME Acres", "It's Buster Bunny Time", "The Wide World of Elmyra", "A Ditch in Time", "Tiny Toons Music Television", "ACME Cable TV", "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", "Love Disconnection", "Kon Ducki", "Take Elmyra, Please", "What Makes Toons Tick", "The Return of Batduck", "Two-Tone Town", "Music Day" plus the opening, Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation and "Night Ghoulery". Other episodes were done by StarToons, Wang Film Productions, AKOM, Freelance Animators New Zealand, Kennedy Cartoons, and Encore Cartoons.
2000 2D in game animation for the Nintendo 64 game Dance Dance Revolution-Disney Dancing Museum, TMS's first production with Disney in over 10 years.
2000, 2006, 2011Hamtaro: Along with four OVAs, four movies, an all CGI show, a sing along DVD, 2 Hiragana specials, a school special and a numbers special.
2011 A music video from the UK called Cartoon Style Fighting Kids aka It's Tropical: Live action X animation cross breed, produced by in the UK by Elnino and Studio 7-Machine Molle, but the live action was shot in France and the animation is done in Japan by TMS (Telecom Unit), however this video is NSFW due to all the blood shed that goes on in it.
Anime Mirai:Formaly known as Project A, Anime Mirai is a production of multiple short movies done by a number of studios, all short movies done by the Telecom unit.
Summer Wars (Key Animation through Telecom by Kenji Hachizaki, Atsuko Tanaka and Sawako Miyamoto, Hiroyuki Aoyama was also stationed at Telecom for Key Animation but was stationed at Madhouse for its Animation Direction and Storyboards)
Ponyo (Key Animation by Toshihiko Masuda and Atsuko Tanaka)
The Borrower Arrietty (Key Animation by Atsuko Tanaka and Takashi Kawaguchi, the later who is now freelanced is stationed at Telecom for this)
From Upon Poppy Hill (Key animation by Atsuko Tanaka and Hiroyuki Aoyama, the later who did some freelanced work in the past is stationed at Telecom for this)
Tropes associated with TMS Entertainment
Animation Bump: Like with most studios in Japan. This is especially noticable in their American works.
Cash Cow Franchise: Most of TMS's western productions (Primarily with Warner Bros. and Disney). On the anime side, we have Lupin III, Bakugan, Anpanman and Detective Conan.
Green Lantern First Flight as well, and the all CG showHamtaro Hai (and the new content in the 1st show's rebroadcast Dechu, and parts of the 4 movies).
But to be fair, TMS tends to ship off most of its CG work to a studio called SMDEnote Shogakukan Music And Digital Entertainment for the initial-declined and other Japanese studios (like Ufotable on Sonic X) or by their TMS Photo and Telecom units.
International Coproduction: Some North American projects (Visionaries, Bionic Six and Inspector Gadget, to name a few).
Limited Animation: Justified throughout the '60s and '70s, as practically everyone, even Disney was doing it due to incredibly low budgets. However like most anime, it sill largely serves as the norm. They do tend to fare better than other studios (With some exceptions as shown below).
Off Model: Even they're guilty of this. Mostly seen in their work from the '70s, Spider-Man and Weiss Kreuz. For more recent offenders, there's Kenichi, Sonic X, Hamtaro and Bakugan.
(short for Tokyo Movie Shinsha, also credited as TMS-Kyokuchi or Tokyo Movie on occasion) is one of the oldest and most well-known (both in Japan and overseas) producers of Anime in the world. Their most famous works are Lupin III and Tiny Toon Adventures. They have also done various other anime, including Soreike! Anpanman, Sonic X, Detective Conan, Lil Pri, Ulysses 31, Hamtaro and Bakugan Battle Brawlers, and even some full length feature films, such as AKIRA and Little Nemo Adventures In Slumberland.Outside of Anime, they are also one of the best and most recognized overseas animation studios in the world. Their high quality work first popped up in the early '80s, when they did animation for Filmation's The New Adventures of Zorro note , as well as Di C's cartoons back in the day. Soon enough, Disney and Warner Bros. joined the list of clients, giving us glorious animation in shows such as DuckTales and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh from Disney, and Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman The Animated Series, and, of course, Animaniacs Warner Bros., on the Japanese side of clients, we have Shogakukan with Detective Conan and Hamtaro, Kodansha with Ohayo! Spank and Kaitou Saint Tail and Shueisha with Dokonjo Gaeru and D.Gray-man.Starting off as a independent studio when the studio was founded in 1964. They were sold off to Sega-Kyokuchi in 1992 when the studio's founder Yutaka Fujioka left to retire (hence the name of their 1996-1999 productions as TMS-Kyokuchi. They were renamed to TMS Entertainment in 2000) and again in 2005 during the SegaSammy merger.In spite of their glory, their foreign workload has met a sharp decline, thanks to factors such as rising prices (as well as their surprisingly disappointing work after TMS shipped off their own works to cheaper studios in Japan as well as in Korea and China, and the less said about most of the episodes (animation wise) of Spider-Man: The Animated Series or Weiss Kreuz the betternote ). The 2011 earthquake on Japan hasn't helped matters either.Whatever the case may be, TMS decided to focus mostly on anime (either their own or others, see below). The clients they once had have since moved to other studios. Disney opened its own overseas studio in Japan, using them for a while before dumping them in 2004, as well as using other Asian studios, like Toon City and Rough Draft. DiC, in its twilight years, used various other Asian studiosnote after The Littles (which itself was taken over by Studio Gallop in season three). Warner Bros. likewise ended its ties with TMS after Wakko's Wish and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, instead going for cheaper animation studios like Moi Animation (most of the DC showcase shorts), JM Animation (the Jonah Hex short), Lotto Animation and Dong Woo Animation in Korea and Toon City as well (with Wang Film Productions on occasion). They did reunite with TMS for Green Lantern First Flight, Justice League: Doom and Superman Vs The Elite.Even with all of these factors, TMS still manages to be ahead of the game with its many animated productions.They were also one of the minds behind the channel Animax (With Toei Animation, Sunrise and Sony) and the web site Daisuki
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