Formerly called Toei Douga until 1998. Toei Animation is the
anime department of the Toei Company
* and one of the oldest (it can trace its roots back to 1948) and largest animation companies. Toei is responsible for producing a large number of popular and
Essential Anime, including
Mazinger Z,
Devilman,
Fist of the North Star,
Dragon Ball,
Sailor Moon,
Digimon, and
One Piece. In other words, it was responsible for defining the
Humongous Mecha,
Space Opera,
Shōnen, and
Magical Girl genres as we know them today.
When the studio started in 1956, the studio did
mostly Disney like art films, but based around native Japanese artwork and some stuff for
Rankin/Bass. Some people like
Isao Takahata (the director of
Grave of the Fireflies),
Yoichi Kotabe (mostly known for doing most of Nintendo's 2D artwork),
Yasuo Otsuka and
Hayao Miyazaki worked at Toei at this time. However due to
the staff members wanting more money and how the studio was going, many staff members left for other studios.
They've also done a
bit of work on American cartoons, but those are few and far between after the 1980s ended. They, along with
TMS,
Sunrise and
Sony also had a hand in
Animax.
See also:
Sei Young and
Dai Won, two Korean studios that worked with Toei in the late 70's to mid 80's.
Major Anime Productions
Western Animation work
Other works (largely through their studio in the Philippines) include
Tropes associated with Toei:
- All CGI Cartoon: A couple, Two of them handled in China (One by Imagi Animation Studios and one in Taiwan by Wang (through CGCG)).
- Animation Bump: Happens in any (if not all) of their movies.
- Cash Cow Franchise: IN SPADES, but One Piece, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Transformers and Digimon are the most prominent.
- Conspicuous CG: Has been becoming more obvious since 1999 or so.
- Doing It for the Art: The films Toei did during 1958 to 1972.
- Filler: Very often, especially in Dragon Ball Z.
- Limited Animation: Fairly common, due to producing long running series (and relatively shorter series during those long runners). The majority of their American projects too.
- Long Runners: Most of the series mentioned either had several incarnations or were continuously going on.
- Mascot: Pero from the company's adaptation of Puss in Boots is their official mascot.
- No Export for You: In recent years, Toei have been quite reluctant to licence their work for foreign translation or rerelease, with Sailor Moon having being hit particularly hard by this for quite a while. After the fate that befell One Piece, you can't really blame them.
- Off Model: A frequent victim of this trope due to the fact that they end up producing incredibly long running series, mostly at the same time as one another, rotating each around various animation teams of wildy varying quality.
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