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Toei Animation Production - Dragon Ball

Toei Corporation (formerly Tokyo Film Distribution Company) is a Japanese media company. It produces and releases films, television shows, and video games. Toei has numerous facilities throughout Japan, including 34 theaters in Tokyo, studios in Tokyo and Kyoto, and even owns shares in various television companies. Toei is perhaps most famous for its incredible output of popular anime and, perhaps less so, for its historical dramas. Toei belongs to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan and is one of the four largest Japanese studios (Shochiku, TOHO, Toei, and Kadokawa Pictures).

Toei Animation

Founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films by Kenzo Masaoka and Zenjiro Yamamoto, the studio was acquired by Toei in 1956 and renamed Toei Doga (Toei Animation) before officially changing its name to Toei Animation in 1998. Famous names who have worked with Toei Animation include Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (of Studio Ghibli), their elder Yasuji Mori, Leiji Matsumoto (of Space Battleship Yamato), and Yoichi Kotabe (Nintendo character designer and animation supervisor for the famous Pokémon films). Toei Animation's mascot became the cat Pero, a character from their 1969 animated film adaptation of Puss in Boots, and has remained so ever since.

Toei Animation is best known for its animated adaptations of popular manga series. These include One Piece (Eichiro Oda), Toriko (Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro), Slam Dunk (Takehiko Inoue), Saint Seiya (Masami Kurumada), Sailor Moon (Naoko Takeuchi), and Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump ( Akira Toriyama ). Toei Animation has won the Animage Grand Prix several times. Nominated and winning works include Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya in 1987, and Sailor Moon in 1992.

Some of the most famous TV titles produced by Toei Animation include:

The Fist of the North Star (TV 1984)
Dragon Ball (Television 1986)
Dragon Ball Z (Television 1989)
Galaxy Express 999 (1978 TV Show)
Captain Harlock (TV 1978)
Slam Dunk (Television 1993)
Sailor Moon (1994 TV series)
One Piece (Television 1999)
Mononoke (TV 2007)
Toriko (Television 2011)

Funimation Productions

Toei Animation works closely with Funimation Productions, an American dubbing and distribution company known for its specialization in anime. Founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, Funimation initially operated out of an office space shared with EchoLight Studios, a Christian television production company. Initially unable to secure the rights to the Dragon Ball series from Toei Animation, Gen's uncle, Nagafumi Hori, a producer at Toei Animation, successfully persuaded the board of directors to transfer the rights to Funimation. Gen then convinced a colleague whose family owned an animal feed mill in Decatur, Texas, to sell the mill and invest in the company. Thus, Funimation Productions was born.

The company was founded on May 9, 1994, by Fukunaga and his wife Cindy as FUNimation Productions, with funding from Daniel Cocanougher and his family, who became investors. Funimation was acquired by Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005, and renamed FUNimation Entertainment until it was sold again in 2011 to a group of investors, including Gen himself, and the company was renamed Funimation again. Funimation then had deals with companies such as Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Crunchyroll before Sony Pictures Television acquired a 95% stake in Funimation in 2017. Manga Entertainment UK was later acquired and merged with Funimation UK.

Toei and Funimation: Dragon Ball

Toei produced the original Dragon Ball series with Funimation, collaborating with various studios to provide the English dubbing. First, Funimation worked with Ocean Dub to produce the first iteration of the English dubbed version of Dragon Ball Z for the first 53 episodes (originally 67, but reduced to 53 due to editing and cuts). Saban Entertainment provided the background music and score with an almost rock-style guitar and synth soundtrack, replacing Shunsuke Kikuchi's original orchestral score. In 1998, Dragon Ball Z became popular on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, and Funimation decided to continue dubbing the series. Starting in 1999, the decision was made to do all the music and dubbing in-house due to lack of financial support. The first episodes were then re-dubbed in 2004 and released with the Funimation Remastered box set. The re-dubbed version first aired on Cartoon Network in 2005. There are several differences between the original Japanese version and the English dubs, which have led to the story being censored or made more appropriate or accessible to Western audiences. Some examples include: Goku's Super Saiyan transformation speech being too heroic and somewhat uncharacteristic for Goku, and Android 17 and Android 18 being explained as androids based on human twins, whereas in the original, they are modified humans.