The Toei Animation Company, Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio whose biggest shareholder is the Toei Company, Ltd. The studio was originally founded as Japan Animated films (Nihon D?ga Eiga, but often shortened as Nichid? Eiga) Toei Animation purchased the studio and reincorporated it under its current name.
To date, the studio has created a vast number of movies, TV series, and many Japanese comic adaptations by renowned authors with animated series in which many are world renowned. Directors, manga artists, animators, illustrators, producers, and screenwriters like Yoichi Kotabe, Isao Takahata, Leiji Matsumoto and Hayao Miyazaki have all worked with the company on many projects in the past.
Toei Animation is also a shareholder with the Japanese Anime Satellite Television Network, Animax, in addition to other production enterprises and anime studios including TMS Entertainment, Sunrise and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. The company headquarters is located in Ohizumi Studio in Nerima, a special ward located in Tokyo Japan.
Toei Animation produced the anime versions (hand-drawn or computer animation) of works by many legendary manga artists, such as Eiichiro Oda, Go Nagai, Shotaro Ishinomori, Takehiko Inoue, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, Masami Kurumada, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Akira Toriyama, Naoko Takeuchi and Leiji Matsumoto.
The studio also aided in propelling the popularity of the Super Robot and magical girl genres of anime and Toei's trendsetting and most legendary TV series such as Mahoutsukai Sally the anime adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga, Go Nagai's Mazinger Z, The magical-girl anime series, and his animated adaptation of manga, which became the standard for the Super Robot anime franchise for years to come.
