About the studio
Here's a fun one: before Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded Studio Ghibli, they cut their teeth at Toei Animation. Founded January 23, 1948 as Japan Animated Films (originally Nichido Eiga) by Kenzō Masaoka and Sanae Yamamoto, the studio was acquired by the Toei conglomerate in 1956 and took its current name in 1998. Based in Nerima, Tokyo, Toei Animation is one of the true giants of the industry, the studio behind Dragon Ball, One Piece, Sailor Moon, and the Precure franchise. *That's not a résumé, that's a monopoly on childhoods.* Few studios can claim to have shaped multiple generations of anime fans across different decades, but Toei has been doing exactly that since the late 1940s. It also quietly served as a training ground for some of the most celebrated directors in animation history before they went on to build studios of their own.