Brief History:
The studio was founded by animators Kenzō Masaoka and Zenjirō Yamamoto in 1948 as Japan Animated Films (日本動画映画, Nihon Dōga Eiga, often shortened to 日動映画 (Nichidō Eiga)).
In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was renamed
Toei Doga Co., Ltd. (東映動画株式会社, Tōei Dōga Kabushiki-gaisha,
"dōga" is Japanese for "animation"), doing business as Toei Animation Co.,
Ltd. outside Japan. In 1998, the Japanese name was renamed to Toei
Animation. It has created a number of TV series and movies and adapted
Japanese comics as animated series, many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki,
Isao Takahata, Yasuji Mori, Leiji Matsumoto and Yoichi Kotabe have
worked with the company. Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese
anime satellite television network Animax with other anime studios
and production companies, such as Sunrise, TMS Entertainment and Nihon
Ad Systems Inc. The company is headquartered in the Ohizumi
Studio in Nerima, Tokyo.
Their mascot is the cat Pero,
from the company's 1969 film adaptation of Puss in Boots.
Toei Animation produced anime versions of works from
manga series by manga artists, including Go Nagai
(Mazinger Z), Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Shotaro Ishinomori
(Cyborg 009), Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro (Toriko), Takehiko Inoue
(Slam Dunk), Mitsuteru Yokoyama (Sally the Witch), Masami Kurumada
(Saint Seiya), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump), Leiji Matsumoto
(Galaxy Express 999), and Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon).
The studio helped propel the popularity of the Magical Girl
and Super Robot genres of anime; Toei's TV series include the
first magical-girl anime series, Mahoutsukai Sally (an adaptation
of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same name), and Go Nagai's Mazinger Z
, an adaptation of his manga which set the standard for Super Robot anime
. Although the Toei Company usually allows Toei Animation to handle its
animation, they occasionally hire other companies to provide animation;
although the Toei Company produced the Robot Romance Trilogy, Sunrise
(then known as Nippon Sunrise) provided the animation. Toei Company
would also enlist the help of other studios such as hiring Academy
Productions to produce the animation for Space Emperor God Sigma,
rather then use their own studio.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toei_Animation
Ryne's Take:
Toei animation is the true legacy animation studio. It is the oldest one
that is on the site. They have animated anime that are known
as true classics in the anime world (Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball as examples). Without these visualizations of these critically aclaimed manga (original japanese comic book)
the more modern age of anime would not be so great as
it is. What is pretty cool is that they are recently
remastering their old productions which is bringing
a new generation to the amazing works of the past.
As I grew up, the shows I would catch on tv were
Toei animation works as most of their shows were
on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. At that age I
never saw them as anime but just really cool cartoons.
During that time I read manga more than watching anime. I
felt that what pulled me into it all years later was the fact
that the books I read were either shows already made or were coming
out. Toei Animation and the manga they adapted from had a close
connection to me during those days and even today years later.
Examples of works:
1. Dragonball Z: RATING PG-13
Synopsis
Video
Source: Dragonball z
2. One Piece: RATING PG-13
Synopsis
Video
Source: One Piece
3. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: RATING PG-13
Synopsis
Video
Source: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo