The Story of the Amazing Toei Animation Studio

Whenever you feast on amazing Japanese Anime productions you can’t refrain from thinking of big names like Toei Animation Studio. It’s natural since the studio was an essential ingredient for the successful launch of many great titles.

From a corporate point of view, the studio stands out as one of the best animation studios in the entire archipelago and beyond. So, you might be a fervent fan of Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, or even One Piece but you, probably, don’t know much about the Toei Animation Studio, which brought them to life.

Today, we will take a look at the story of Toei Animation Studio in this video, in addition to the most controversial discussions that come to disturb the calm waters of the studio’s sleek success.

1. Early Stages and Veteran Presence

Anyone could easily call Toei Animation Studio a veteran studio: I mean, it started very early (in 1948 to be precise). The debut of the studio was ignited initially by the huge success that Disney achieved in the United States and beyond. It’s difficult to find anyone who wasn’t mesmerized by the fantastic world of Snow White, Cinderella, or Pinocchio. The Japanese audience wasn’t any different: although the most popular artistic performance-based form back then was cinema and theatre, people in Japan were sensibly attracted to the Disney animated world. Usually referred to as “Gaijîn” (or foreigner) art, it succeeded at captivating viewers of all ages and from all sorts of cultures, regions, and ethnic backgrounds. It’s certainly due to the universal aspect of CG movies that usually speak the language of the heart.

It was enough of a reason to spark the first fire of the Toei Animation Studio long-running career in the Japanese industry and even worldwide. However, it decided to do things differently, uniquely, and originally, by bringing life into ancient Japanese legends and Manga characters. These first steps resulted in several releases that took off real quick, such as “Ken the Young Wolf” in 1963, “Sally the Witch” in 1966, and “Tiger Mask” in 1969. It wasn’t only a financial rise of the Japanese animation beast (since it went from 1 to 16 million Yen in less than 8 years), but also the beginning of its golden era of animated TV series.

2. The Golden Age of Toei Animation Studio

As comics and Marvel superheroes kept on overflowing in the western animation field, the Japanese production didn’t stop flooding the market with continuous hits. The company was indeed the mother of all genres: starting from the popular Shônen adaptations and expanding to new and heavily acclaimed archetypes.

We can’t mention these genres without taking a look at the best example, which is the Mecha (or the equivalent of “gigantic metal-geared monsters”). The debut was noticeable with famous and impactful titles like “Mazinger Z” in 1972 in addition to “UFO Robot Grendizer” in 1975. 

So, in other words, Toei Animation Studio made sure to shape the world and the dreams of Japanese kids, teenagers, and even entire families before expanding its reach to the entire world.

It was only the beginning: the real golden times of the company started around the 80s of the last century, making it take over the monopoly of the animated TV series with a diverse rich list among the best productions of all time.

3. Best Titles made by Toei Animation Studio

To be honest, it’s nearly impossible to make a selection that would satisfy all the fans, and it’s even harder to keep track of the massive heap that they produced given the fact that their arsenal counts more than 200 titles. However, we can refer to the worldwide impact to mention legendary titles like:

3.1. Dragon Ball

First serialized on Japanese Fuji TV in 1986 as an adaptation of the veteran Akira Toriyama’s Manga series. After 157 epic episodes that were translated and diffused in France, the United States, and beyond, it was clear that Toei Animation Studio reached international acclaim.

The adventure of Goku and the Saiyans was a long-running series followed by several sequels such as Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super.

3.2. Saint Seya

Released in the same year and also known as “Knights of the Zodiac”, especially, among the western audience. Most of its fanbase (which is a very large one by the way) is heavily attached to the Greek mythological aspect of the series. Especially, since one of the main characters is a depiction of the ancient Greek goddess Athena.

The series has also a beautiful flavor of mystical and charming astrology when describing the cosmetic powers of the characters and their bond with constellations.

3.3. Sailor Moon

It is considered an important contribution of Toei Animation Studio in the Shojo genre generally dedicated to girls. It was released in 1992 as a constant effort to diversify the production and the targeted audience.

There’s no need to say that it was a massively successful strategy: everyone fell in love with the Sailor Moon protagonist and her thrilling adventures to protect the earth.

3.4. One Piece

Not long after, Toei Animation Studio became the perfect overachiever with the “One Piece” long-running Anime. It was released in 1999 to worldwide ravaging acclaim, and quickly became the favorite animated series of countless bingers.

There’s everything in Luffy’s world: pirates, epic battles, extraordinary superpowers, and much more. It was so good to the extent of pushing the company to keep it running till now with nearly a thousand episodes.

If I go on like this the video will be so long, so I’ll just keep it here with a few honorable mentions like “Digimon”, “Dr. Slump” “Lovely Complex” and “World Trigger”.

The dark side of the animation industry

This is one of the biggest controversies that are roaming around Toei Animation Studio and other studios for quite a long time. It’s related to a large number of releases each year, making the industry become some sort of an “Anime” factory, preferring the quantity over the quality.

It was even one of the main reasons that pushed the famous Manga and Anime professionals Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata to split from the company. This is how their masterpiece “Studio Ghibli” was born, always putting the quality and the details first regardless of the time, the resources, and the effort it takes.

Toei Animation Studio, however, showed some signs of a decrease in the animation quality at some point.

On the other hand, a lot of factors should be taken into accounts, such as the high demand on ongoing series, the overcharged employees schedules, and a lot more. Despite the controversies, the company is still shining bright in the sky of Anime and still keeping up with the competition.

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