Highlights
- Popular anime studios like Toei Animation don't usually distribute titles outside Japan; rely on third-party companies.
- Toei Animation attempted to crack the American market independently but faced challenges in DVD sales and streaming.
- Despite failed attempts at independence, Toei Animation continues to thrive with lucrative contracts and new partnerships like Netflix.
There are many popular anime studios in Japan. Some recognizable names include Studio Ghibli, Studio Pierrot, Bones, and Gainex. Whether through a key franchise or with consistent quality products, these studios have carved a name for themselves in this industry, and several contain world-popular titles.
Though these studios may be successful, one thing they don't do is distribute their own titles outside of Japan. In those scenarios, a third-party company like Crunchyroll or Sentai is sought out. However, that doesn't mean they don't try once in awhile, and one of the biggest companies to take a swing and cut out the middle-man was Toei Animation.
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Who is Toei Animation?
Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio known for producing a wide range of animated television series, films, and other media. Founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films, the company changed its name to Toei Animation in 1956. Toei Animation has been responsible for creating some of the most iconic and beloved anime series in history. The studio is recognized for its significant contributions to the global anime industry and continues to produce new and innovative animated content enjoyed by audiences worldwide, and even if their name doesn't ring a bell, chances are you've seen a Toei Animation series or movie even if you aren't an anime fan per se.
Notable Works from Toei
Some of the notable works by Toei Animation include:
- Dragon Ball
- One Piece
- Sailor Moon
- Digimon
- Puss in Boots
- Saint Seiya
- The original Yu-Gi-Oh! series
As you can see, they are quite a big deal in anime circles.
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Didn't Toei Already "Crack" the Market?
With so many hit shows, it would seem like Toei had already cracked the American anime market. The reality, though, is not so simple. Toei's shows may have found huge success around the world, but they were always dealing with partners like Funimation or Pioneer Entertainment. These companies would pay them a licensing fee, in some cases a percentage would be paid if a certain amount of success was achieved, and then the American companies would pocket the rest of the profits. Toei decided that they had observed the American market enough that they could safely enter it without partners and collect all the profits themselves. On paper, this sounded like a good move, and the company made moves to become independent.
The Hidden Costs of Independence
The problem with going independent is a series' success and failure is all on the distributor. If a title underperforms, they're on the hook for unsold inventory and low sales. They also need to design their packaging and advertising and need to find a manufacturer to press their own discs. They then have to hire a company to ship those discs, and none of this is accounting for the people you have to hire to master the content on the discs. All these and many more expenses are things that Toei didn't have to worry about when they were licensing their shows. By becoming their own boss they would be taking on all these responsibilities and expenses! Needless to say, this is all easier said than done.
Toei Attempts to Enter DVD Market
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Despite wanting to go independent, Toei wasn't completely oblivious to the challenges of the marketplace. As such, they hired Geneon to distribute DVDs that they would be producing. The first titles would be Slam Dunk, Interlude, and Air Master. While Slam Dunk was the most anticipated title (it being an anime classic that had long been excluded from being released in America), none of these titles sold very well. While the dollar-for-episode count wasn't terrible (most DVDs had 5 episodes with a retail price of $29.99; a good deal at the time), the quality of the discs themselves was simply atrocious. With poor picture quality, flimsy packaging, and (worst of all) the dreaded 'dubtitles' (subtitles that are based on the altered English script and not the authentic Japanese translation), many anime fans avoided the releases altogether.
A few volumes for each series were released (with Slam Dunk making it the furthest with five releases), but ultimately the attempt was considered a failure, and Toei quietly discontinued all the discs while they licked their wounds. Though they never made another attempt to enter the American DVD market, they did decide to dip their toe into the streaming business several years later.
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Toei's Failed Streaming Attempt
During 2020 when the world was facing the Covid-19 Pandemic, everyone and their mother were trying to get into the business of streaming. Toei decided they wanted to take a chance too. No, they weren't going to spend billions of dollars developing their own infrastructure (only companies with stupid amounts of money and even more stupid shareholders would do that). Instead, they teamed with a few other notable Japanese companies to launch a YouTube channel called AnimeLog (AniLog for short). The idea is that classic anime would be uploaded for worldwide viewing. Once the channel got a decent size of subscribers, eventually more current titles would hit the channel, with the assumption that eventually these companies could cut Funimation and Crunchyroll out of the equation.
Ultimately, this didn't work for a couple of reasons. The first was that while shows like Jungle Emperor and Anne of Green Gables were classic titles, they weren't traffic drivers. YouTube's algorithm is unforgiving, and without titles that will drive viewers on a more regular basis, the channel could be devalued in the search results. What's more, because it was YouTube, it made searching and sorting shows cumbersome and non-intuitive, which meant the channel exactly wasn't user-friendly. After a little more than a year, the experiment was considered a failure. Most of the anime has been pulled from the channel (except for a few Toei titles that have little market value outside of Japan) and the channel hasn't been updated in over a year as of this writing.
Despite the massive success Toei Animation may have as a content maker, they were never able to become a creator and distributor. While it's hard to say if they will attempt to go at it alone again, their popularity has only given them more lucrative contracts with their American partners in the following years.
Even if they aren't getting the whole pie like they would want, they are at the very least getting a bigger piece of it these days. And with new partners like Netflix in the wings, the company appears to have a long and bright career on American shores.
Source: Anime News Network
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