Toei Animation

File:ToeiLogo1.gif

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 and owned by Toei Company, Ltd. In terms of anime, they are known for animating shows such as Devilman, Sailor Moon, Voltron (aka Golion), Tranzor Z (aka Mazinger Z), Getter Robo, Steel Jeeg, Grendizer, Daiku Maryu Gaiking, the Dragon Ball franchise, One Piece, Digimon, Fist of the North Star, Kinnikuman, Zatch Bell, Bobobo-bo-Bobobo, and many, many more.

In the 1980s, Toei was popularly outsourced for American animated series (though they abruptly discontinued the practice in 1989). Some American cartoons Toei animated include G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Real Ghostbusters, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, the Ruby-Spears Superman series, Pryde of the X-Men, Inhumanoids, My Little Pony, Jem, Robotix, Dungeons & Dragons, Inspector Gadget, and just about every other show you can think of.

Transformers work

• The Transformers
  • Season 1 (16 episodes)
  • Season 2 (39 episodes)
  • Season 3 (13 episodes)
  • Title sequences, seasons 1, 2, 4 (partial, recycled animation), 5 (recycled animation)
  • Toy commercials, 1984 - 1990
  • Commercial bumpers, seasons 1, 2
  • Public service announcements, 5 total

• The Transformers: The Movie

• "Scramble City: Mobilization" (OVA)

• Transformers: The Headmasters (35 episodes, plus clip shows)

• Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (43 episodes, plus clip shows)

• Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (38 episodes, plus clip shows)

• 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 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 Super-God Masterforce and Victory masters provided by Toei did not include the clip show episodes. In the case of Masterforce, they were vital for making the plot of the series coherent.

For their US release of 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 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. Toei did not permit a new license until Viz Media 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. How Funimation gets along with them so well regarding their Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Toriko licenses is a freakin' mystery.

External links

• Toei's Official English-language Website