TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社トムス・エンタテインメント, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Tomusu Entateinmento), formerly known as the Kyokuichi Corporation, is a Japanese animation studio owned by Sega Corporation based in Nakano, Tokyo with its offices in Nakano and its studios in Chūō.
TMS is one of the oldest and most renowned animation studios in Japan, known for its numerous anime franchises such as Detective Conan, Lupin the Third, D.Gray-man, and Anpanman. Aside from animation production, the company also handles program sales and character licensing.
TMS Entertainment is the animation business company of the Sega Group and a well-established animation studio with its origins in Tokyo Movie. Originally established in 1946 as a textile manufacturer, the company entered animation when they merged with animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha to start an animation production business, known as the Kyokuichi Tokyo Movie division or TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (TMS-K).
Tokyo Movie Shinsha was one of the five major studios in the early days of Japanese animation, producing and/or animating a string of popular works from the 1960s to the 1970s, including Obake no Q-Tarō, Star of the Giants, Moomin, Attack No. 1, Tensai Bakabon, Lupin the 3rd Part I, Aim for the Ace!, and Gamba no Bouken.
TMS has studios 1 through 7 under its production headquarters, each with a nickname for the work they are involved in, such as Studio 1, 3xCube, Trois Studios, Rogue Studio, and Double Eagle. Each studio has its own production and management staff, including producers and production assistants. As for animators, each studio contracts them on a work-by-work basis. However, head creators sometimes have exclusive contracts and are given their own desks within the company to work on.
In addition to its own studios, TMS has wholly owned animation studios such as Telecom Animation Film, TMS Jinni's (former Jinni's Animation Studio) and Toon Additional Pictures.
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, Disney Television Animation, Warner Bros. Animation, Marvel Films Animation, Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, Production I.G, Sunrise, Bones, ShoPro, Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment among others, Since the early 2000s, TMS itself has no longer supplied animation services to Western studios due to increasingly demanding costs, although there have been a few exceptions such as Green Lantern: First Flight (2009) and Superman vs. The Elite (2012). While it still produces feature films, these films are primarily spinoffs from existing anime properties, which include the likes of Anpanman and Detective Conan.
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History
Prehistory of TMS Entertainment (Kyokuichi)
In 1946, Asahi Glove Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (アサヒ手袋製造株式会社, Asahi Tebukuro Seizō Kabushiki-gaisha) was founded in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and the trade name was soon changed to Kyokuichi Knitting & Weaving Co., Ltd. (旭一編織株式会社, Kyokuichi Amiori Kabushiki-gaisha).
The company changed its name to Kyokuichi Co., Ltd. (株式会社キョクイチ, Kabushiki-gaisha Kyokuichi) in 1947, and then to Kyokuichi Shine Industries Co., Ltd. (旭一シャイン工業株式会社, Kyokuichi Shain Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha) in 1957, and was listed on the Nagoya Stock Exchange.
The company established Shine Mink Co., Ltd. in Sapporo, Hokkaido in 1961, opened a mink breeding farm and began its fur business in 1962, and merged with Shine Mink in 1974 to form the Mink Division.
In 1989, Kyokuichi Shine Industries was acquired by Watchman Group, a mass retail group of watches and home appliances, and changed its business format to entertainment business.
Prehistory of TMS Entertainment (Tokyo Movie and Tokyo Movie Shinsha)
In 1964, Yutaka Fujioka, a former staff of the puppet theater company Hitomi-za (人形劇団ひとみ座, Ningyō Gekidan Hitomi-za), established the animation studio Tokyo Movie Co., Ltd. with investment from Tokyo Broadcasting System.
Inspired by the broadcast of the first domestically produced animated TV series Astro Boy on Fuji Television the previous year, TBS encouraged Fujioka, who was working at Tokyo Ningyo Cinema (東京人形シネマ, Tōkyō Ningyō Shinema), the film production division of Hitomi-za, which had produced puppet theater programs for the station, to establish a studio.
The studio's first production was an animated adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Big X. However, because all the staff came from puppet theater backgrounds and were unfamiliar with animation, the studio suffered a huge loss and fell into financial crisis.
In order to restore management, the studio received capital participation from the TV production company Kokusai Hōei (formerly Shintoho). Fujioka, the founder of the company, was demoted to director and head of the production department, and Rokuzo Abe of Kokusai Hōei was appointed as the new president.
In 1965, Fujioka established A Production to rebuild the production system, and Tokyo Movie formed a business alliance with A Production as an actual animation production company. Fujioka approached Daikichirō Kusube, who had left Toei Animation and was working as a freelancer, and by making him the representative of A Production, he succeeded in inviting talented Toei creators such as Tsutomu Shibayama, Yoshio Kabashima, and Keisuke Morishita. Fujioka also welcomed Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, Yasuo Ōtsuka, and Yōichi Kotabe, who had been forced out of Toei for overspending on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun.
Early directors, such as Tadao Nagahama and Masaaki Ōsumi, were all from puppet theater companies with no animation experience, but they produced a series of hits, including Obake no Q-Tarō, Star of the Giants, and Attack No. 1. Thanks to them, Tokyo Movie became independent from Kokusai Hōei in 1971, and Fujioka returned as president. The studio continued to produce a string of hits thereafter, including Tensai Bakabon, Lupin the 3rd Part I, Aim for the Ace!, and Gamba no Bouken.
History of TMS Entertainment
Kyokuichi Co., Ltd. opened its first amusement arcade in 1991, and joined the Sega Group in 1992 through a business alliance with Sega and Sega Toys.
On November 1, 1995, Sega absorbed Tokyo Movie Shinsha into Kyokuichi, with Kyokuichi as the surviving company. In conjunction with this merger, Kyokuichi made Telecom Animation Film and TMS Photo, which were subsidiaries of Tokyo Movie Shinsha, its own subsidiaries. Kyokuichi established a Tokyo branch office and launched its animation production division, Tokyo Movie Division. The name of the company was credited as Kyokuichi Tokyo Movie in the anime works produced at that time, however international prints used the TMS-Kyokuichi name.
In 1996 the Los Angeles studio was established.
On January 1, 2000, Kyokuichi changed its name to TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. The name Tokyo Movie remained as the name of the animation production division and as the brand name for animation production.
In 2003, the company completely withdrew from the textile business. Since then, animation production and amusement arcade operations were the two mainstays of its business.
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.
In 2005, Sega Sammy Holdings acquired a 50.2% stake in TMS Entertainment, making it a subsidiary.
In 2006, the Tokyo branch was reorganized as the Tokyo headquarters and merged with the Head Office in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. The headquarters then moved to Shinjuku, Tokyo. The Los Angeles studio was reorganized as TMS ENTERTAINMENT, USA, INC.
In February 2007, TMS Entertainment announced the completion of its fourth Tokyo studio (Building D) in Nakano, Tokyo. The company stated that Shinjuku would thereafter serve as the base for its corporate division and Nakano as the base for its production division.
Subsidiaries and divisions
The company has numerous animation subsidiaries and internal sub-divisions. Those include:
TMS Entertainment USA, Inc.: Established in 1996 as the Los Angeles studio division. In 2006, it was renamed to TMS Entertainment USA, Inc.
TMS Entertainment Europe SAS: Established in 2001 as the Paris studio division. In 2022, it was renamed to TMS Entertainment Europe SAS.
TMSLab (トムスラボ): On April 26, 2022, TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. announced the establishment of TMS-Lab (原作工房TMS-Lab), where 'TMS' stands for 'Theme, Message, Story'. The associate web site went operational on April 21, 2022. On December 22, 2022, it was renamed to TMSLab(トムスラボ), and the web site was relocated.
Tokyo Movie Online (東京ムービーONLINE): On October 19, 2005, TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. announced the establishment of Tokyo Movie Online video subscription platform.
Tokyo Movie (東京ムービー(トウキョウムービー)): On December 22, 2005, TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. announced the beginning of the Tokyo Movie service for EZweb users, effective on the same day.
TMS MUSIC UK LTD.: Established on January 15, 2007.
TMS MUSIC HK LTD.: On February 14, 2007, TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. announced the establishment of TMS MUSIC HK LTD., to be established in March 2007.
AG Bowl(エージーボウル): On April 21, 2008, TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. announced the establishment of AG Bowl bowing facility in Ishioka, Ibaraki, to be opened 5 days later.
Anpanman Digital LLP: On June 11, 2008, TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. announced the establishment of Anpanman Digital LLP (アンパンマンデジタルLLP) with Nippon Television and Froebel-Kan Co., Ltd., with each founding member invested 100 million yen, to be established 5 days later.