Editing Toei Animation

[[File:Toei Animation logo svg.png|right|200px|thumb|Gaijin, go home!]]

'''Toei Animation Co., Ltd''' (東映アニメーション株式会社 ''Tōei Animēshon Kabushiki-gaisha'') is an animation studio based in Japan that was established on [[January 23]], [[1948]], and is owned by [[Wikipedia:Toei Company|Toei Company, Ltd]].  In terms of anime, they are known for animating shows such as ''Devilman'', ''[[Stephanie Sheh|Sailor Moon]]'', ''Golion'' (aka ''Voltron''), ''Mazinger Z'' (aka ''Tranzor Z''), ''Getter Robo'', the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise, ''One Piece'', ''Digimon'', ''Fist of the North Star'', ''Kinnikuman'', ''[[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] Disk Wars: The [[Avengers]]'' and many, ''many'' more.

In the 1980s, American animated series were frequently outsourced to Toei (though Toei abruptly discontinued the practice in 1989).  Some American cartoons Toei animated include ''[[G.I. Joe (franchise)|G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero]]'',  ''[[Susan Hoffman#Related characters|The Real Ghostbusters]]'', the original ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', ''[[Spider-Man]] and his Amazing Friends'', ''Pryde of the [[X-Men]]'', ''[[Inhumanoids]]'', ''[[My Little Pony]]'', ''[[Jem]]'', ''[[Robotix]]'', ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and just about every other show you can think of.

==''Transformers'' work==

*''[[The Transformers (cartoon)|The Transformers]]''
**Season 1 (16 episodes)<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20030106085836/www.toei-anim.co.jp/oldies/collabo2.html Archived version of Toei's resume for joint productions, confirming their share in seasons 2 and 3]</ref>
**Season 2 (39 episodes)<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20030106085836/www.toei-anim.co.jp/oldies/collabo2.html Archived version of Toei's resume for joint productions, confirming their share in seasons 2 and 3]</ref>
**Season 3 (13 episodes)<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20030106085836/www.toei-anim.co.jp/oldies/collabo2.html Archived version of Toei's resume for joint productions, confirming their share in seasons 2 and 3]</ref>
**[[Title sequence]]s, seasons 1, 2, 4 (partial, recycled animation), 5 (recycled animation)
**[[Commercial/Generation 1|Toy commercial]]s, 1984 - 1990
**[[Commercial bumper]]s, seasons 1, 2
**[[Public service announcement]]s, 5 total

*''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''

*"[[Scramble City: Mobilization]]" (OVA)

*''[[Transformers: The Headmasters (cartoon)|Transformers: The Headmasters]]'' (35 episodes, plus [[clip show]]s) 

*''[[Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Transformers: Super-God Masterforce]]'' (43 episodes, plus clip shows)

*''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory]]'' (38 episodes, plus clip shows)

*''[[Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!|Transformers: Zone]]'' (OVA)

*''[[Beast Wars Special Super Lifeform Transformers]]''
**"[[Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!]]"  

*''[[1999 Summer Toei Anime Fair]]''
**"[[Cutting Edge]]" (hosted only)

==The trouble with Toei==

Perhaps unflatteringly, Toei is notorious among Western anime distributors for their difficulty to work with.  For distributers releasing their material outside of Japan, Toei often refuses to provide quality video masters.  The masters they ''do'' provide are routinely of inferior picture and sound quality, and sometimes are even ''incomplete'' in their material.  

The masters for ''[[Transformers: The Headmasters (cartoon)|The Headmasters]]'' cartoon Toei provided to [[Metrodome]], [[Madman Entertainment]] and [[Shout! Factory]] for Western release contained none of the before credits recaps and next episode segments.  This was unfortunate, as some of those segments contained new content and not just clips.  The ''[[Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)|Super-God Masterforce]]'' and ''[[Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (cartoon)|Victory]]'' masters provided by Toei did not include the [[clip show]] episodes.  While this would not normally be a serious issue, in the case of ''Masterforce'' the clip shows were vital for making the rather convoluted plot of that series coherent.

For their US release of ''[[Scramble City: Mobilization|Scramble City]]'', [[Sony]] was provided the video but refused the audio track, forcing them to replace it with a non-optional audio commentary.  Metrodome and Madman Entertainment circumvented Toei entirely, releasing a low-quality fansubbed version of the OVA with burnt-in subtitles.  Shout! Factory attempted to negotiate with them professionally, but were outright denied in their request for ''Scramble City'', leaving them no choice but to omit it from their releases of US and Japanese ''Transformers'' cartoons.

Toei later denied Shout! Factory a distribution license for the ''[[Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!|Zone]]'' OVA. How Metrodome and Madman Entertainment got around them is unknown, though they likely used an unlicensed copy of ''Zone'' as they did with ''Scramble City''.

Toei's stubbornness to cooperate with Western distributors is infamous outside of ''Transformers''.  Western distribution of ''Sailor Moon'' material was forbidden for many years after both DiC & Cloverway's licenses lapsed in 2005, and even before that they never granted permission for the final season of that series (''Sailor Stars'') to be distributed in North America by either entity.  Toei continued refusing new potential ''Sailor Moon'' licencees until Viz Media (a Japanese-owned company) finally worked something out in 2014.  Toei rigorously oversees the localization of ''Digimon'' material in Western markets, often forbidding necessary edits or forcing inexplicable changes.  Just about the only Western distributor they ''do'' get along with is Funimation (the licensee for almost everything ''Dragon Ball'', ''One Piece'', and ''Toriko''), but that most likely has to do with the company's founder, Gen Fukunaga, who's uncle had been a Toei producer in the past.<ref>https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE/InfoFor/AlumniAndFriends/OECE/2003/fukunaga.whtml</ref>

Let's not even get into the ''Super Sentai''/''Power Rangers'' stuff.  ''Abaranger'', ''Shinkenger'' and ''Akibaranger'' has made Toei's opinion of Americans perfectly clear.

==External links==
* [http://www.toei-anim.com/ Toei's Official English-language Website]

==Footnotes==
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[[Category:Animation companies]]