TMS Entertainment
TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd., formerly known as Tokyo Movie Shinsha, also known as Tokyo Movie or TMS-Kyokuichi, is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1946.
TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as Lupin the 3rd, The Rose of Versailles, Detective Conan, D.Gray-man, Anpanman, Monster Rancher, Hamtaro, Bakugan, and Sonic X and feature-length films ', Akira and ', alongside animation works for western animation such as Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters, Rainbow Brite, DuckTales, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Tiny Toon Adventures, , Animaniacs, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
In 2010, TMS Entertainment became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings.
History
Foray into animation
The company was originally established on October 22, 1946 by Yutaka Fujioka. However, the company really started operations in 1964, when it ventured into the animation industry as Tokyo Movie after the failure of Fujioka's previous studio, Tokyo Ningyo Cinema. The studio's first production was an animated adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Big X. Tokyo Movie collaborated with another animation company, A Production, which employed notable figures like Daikichirō Kusube, Osamu Kobayashi and Tsutomu Shibayama. Most of Tokyo Movie's animation productions would be made with A Production.Hayao Miyazaki was also associated with Tokyo Movie before founding Studio Ghibli. He co-directed Lupin III with Isao Takahata, provided the screenplay and key animation for Panda! Go Panda!, provided key animation for the first episode of Tokyo Giants, provided the original concept for Jungle Kurobe, provided the director role for Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf, provided key animation for the 1980 Ulysses 31 pilot in conjunction with Diffusion Information Communication, provided the director role for The New Adventures of Zorro, provided key animation for the Inspector Gadget pilot, and provided the chief director role for season 1 of Sherlock Hound. His most notable work at TMS was his role as the director of The Castle of Cagliostro, which is notable for being his first feature-length debut. Miyazaki eventually left to form Studio Ghibli.
In 1972, Madhouse was established with funding from Fujioka, and co-produced its earliest series with Tokyo Movie. In 1977, Fujioka reformatted Tokyo Movie into Tokyo Movie Shinsha. Its first production was Lupin the Third Part II, which aired from 1977 to 1980. The film adaptation, The Mystery of Mamo, was the studio's first feature-length movie in history. A subsidiary, Telecom Animation Film, was founded in 1975, but didn't start production until after Tokyo Movie was restructured.
in 1980, TMS established a partnership with the French company DiC, as one of its overseas animation subcontractors, where the former would help animate many of the latter's programs, starting with the pilot of Ulysses 31. The two would also produce the 1982 unaired pilot Lupin VIII. This partnership would last until 1985, when DiC opened its own Japan-based animation facility for animation production on its shows in order to bypass overseas animation subcontractors.
In 1989, TMS released ' in Japan and the United States. The movie was infamous for being in development hell with figures such as George Lucas, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki, and Gary Kurtz being involved with the movie before dropping out. The film, despite receiving mixed to positive reviews from publications including The Washington Post, Variety, the New York Post, the Boston Globe, and The New York Times, became a box-office bomb. In response to this, founder Fujioka decided to retire from the animation business. TMS, having to recoup Little Nemos losses, increased production on locally based anime programs and became highly involved in animation for Western-based productions, including Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and '.
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, TMS and its subsidiaries, Telecom Animation Film and South Korea-based Seoul Movie, animated for various companies, including DiC, Walt Disney Television Animation, Warner Bros. Animation, Marvel Films Animation, Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, Production I.G, Sunrise, Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment, and outsourced to smaller studios such as Telecom, Ajia-do, Magic Bus, Gonzo, Studio Jungle Gym, Nakamura Production, Tokyo Kids, DR Movie, and Orange. Since the early 2000s, TMS itself has no longer supplied animation services to western studios due to increasingly demanding costs. The studio has never again since attempted a project like Akira or Nemo. While it still produces feature films, these films are primarily spinoffs from existing anime properties, which include the likes of Anpanman and Detective Conan.
Aside from Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, both of whom went on to found Studio Ghibli, animators would leave TMS to form their own studios. One of those studios was Spectrum Animation, who helped produce various episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. According to the commentary track for the episode "Heart of Ice |Heart of Ice" on the Volume One DVD, producer Bruce Timm stated that Spectrum was responsible for airbrushing Mr. Freeze's helmet in every frame that featured him. Unfortunately, such attention to detail ultimately drove the studio to bankruptcy; most Spectrum staff members are now working for Production I.G. Another one of these studios was Brain's Base. Similarly, animators at its subsidary, Telecom Animation Film, would leave to form Ufotable in 2000.
Partnership with Sega
On July 1, 1991, Tokyo Movie Shinsha's holding company changed their name to Tokyo Movie Kyokuichi. On August 4, 1992, Tokyo Movie Kyokuichi formed a capital and business alliance with Sega Enterprises. Notable collaborations between the two included Astal, Sonic Jam and Burning Rangers. In 1995, Tokyo Movie Kyokuichi merged with Tokyo Movie Shinsha. In 1996, the Los Angeles studio division was established for overseas TMS animation and in 2000, the company was re-branded as TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd.In 2001, the Paris studio division was established. In 2003, American brokerage group Merrill Lynch became the second-largest shareholder in TMS Entertainment after acquiring a 7.54 percent stake in the studio. Merrill Lynch purchased the stake purely for investment purposes and had no intention of acquiring control of the firm's management.
On October 17, 2005, Sega Sammy Holdings announced that they had acquired a 50.2% majority stake in TMS and subsidized the studio under it. In 2006, the Los Angeles studio was renamed to TMS Entertainment, USA, Inc. In 2007, the subsidiaries TMS Music Ltd. and TMS Music Ld. ere established.
On December 22, 2010, Sega Sammy Holdings acquired the remaining outstanding shares of the studio, thus making it a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2012, the head office was relocated to Nakano, Tokyo, In 2015, Sega Sammy placed TMS as a subsidiary of Sega Holdings. In April 2017, Sega's CG production division, Marza Animation Planet, became a subsidiary of TMS.
Subsidiaries
The company has numerous animation subsidiaries collaborating in conjunction with the company. Those include:- Telecom Animation Film Co., Ltd., which was established on May 19, 1975. The studio first started as a subcontracting company for its parent, but has since become the leading animation studio behind the more recent Lupin the III titles. The studio has also produced series like Chain Chronicle: The Light of Haecceitas, Orange, and Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation.
- Marza Animation Planet, a CG studio formerly a part of Sega and known for producing Space Pirate Captain Harlock, ', and the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film.
- V1 Studio, a studio most known for having co-produced the Detective Conan films with TMS since the 19th movie. The studio has also worked with its parent on the 2nd season of Kamisama Kiss.
- Double Eagle, a studio most known for co-producing ReLIFE, Cardfight!! Vanguard series G through G: Stride Gate, Nana Maru San Batsu, and The Thousand Musketeers.
- 8PAN, a studio best known for co-producing Bakuon!!, D.Gray-Man Hallow, and the Chichibu de Buchichi web anime.
- 3xCube, a studio known for producing The Pilot's Love Song, My Monster Secret, Sweetness and Lightning, and Megalo Box.
- Studio Sakimakura, a studio founded in March 2011, and known for producing the second half of the first season of Cardfight!! Vanguard and Brave 10.
- Trois Studio, a studio that produced Lupin III: Goodbye Partner, the 27th film special for the Lupin III franchise.
- Seoul Movie, a South Korean animation studio based in Seoul, established in 1990 and closed sometime in the late 2000s.
Productions