Is Toei Animation the worst animation company ever?

[ParkerAL]

Worst animation company in the world? You obviously haven't heard of the likes of Video Brinqued and its animated masterpiece,"The Little Panda Fighter."

I haven't seen much of Toei's recent animation, so I can't really comment on the current state of the company. Their early work on Dragon Ball and One Piece was perfectly serviceable, in my opinion. But that was years ago, and from what I've heard they really gave Toriko the shaft, which is unfortunate. They seem to treat their shows as junk food for the masses, but I can't really fault them for it when consumers keep stuffing their faces with the stuff.

Honestly, the only recent long-running Shonen adaptation I can think of with consistent high-quality animation is Madhouse's work on Hunter x Hunter. Even this fight against a nameless minion-type character is given top-notch animation. Otherwise, poor treatment seems to be par the course when it comes to animating Shonen properties, or at least the ones that are expected to run for 100+ episodes. The anime versions of these works only really exist as advertising for the manga and related merchandise anyway (at least that's my understanding of the economic side of things). A terrible anime doesn't have to detract from the greatness of the source material, at least.

[Chuquita]

What's disappointed me most about Toei recently, is what a huge budget drop this year's Precure seems to have had compared to their last several seasons at least. I may like the characters in HaCha more than Doki, but at least Doki looked polished. HaCha looks so cheap! Also, cgi attacks that did not need to be in cgi. >_<

I'm hoping Sailor Moon's reboot looks as nice as the character designs do, I feel that's where Precure's budget was partly thrown at.

[ChibiGoku]

What's disappointed me most about Toei recently, is what a huge budget drop this year's Precure seems to have had compared to their last several seasons at least. I may like the characters in HaCha more than Doki, but at least Doki looked polished. HaCha looks so cheap! Also, cgi attacks that did not need to be in cgi. >_<

I'm hoping Sailor Moon's reboot looks as nice as the character designs do, I feel that's where Precure's budget was partly thrown at.

The problem is Toei's working on about 6 shows at once (7 if you include Dragon Ball Kai, which may or may not already be finished), so seeing a drop in quality isn't too surprising.

[shinmaru]

They are cheap but not the worst.
Anyway i'm happy that Toei did the sound effects for DragonBall.

[Basaku]

Is it worth it? I'm sure a lot of people would say yes. Toei Animation's #1 advantage is having big mother company behind with big resources, established business contacts and relations etc. They're responsible for at least 4 global anime hits - DB, Sailor Moon, Digimon and Saint Seiya. It didn't happen as a coincidence, Toei knew how to sell it (or at least attempt to). So in terms of having your beloved franchise reach new popularity heights, obviously a lot of people would go with Toei.

[GarrettCRW]

Toei at its worst is still better than a lot of the animation studios that have existed over the years. It took many, many MANY years of browbeating by Matt Groening to get AKOM to an acceptable level, and those cheapo rip-off faux Disney direct-to-video deals are made by some noxious studios, as well.

And there's also pretty much every studio DiC worked with except Toei, TMS, and Studio Pierrot.

[Valerius Dover]

http://www.mariowiki.com/File:IndianaJoe.jpg

At least Toei draws faces. Can you imagine Dragon Ball with DIC's animation style?

[Mewzard]

Toei Animation:



...Just...wow. I know it's a distance shot, but Jesus...

[Mr.Judge]

Space Pirate Captain Harlock 2013 was a good product that came out of Toei Animation Studio.

Wikipedia
Space Pirate Captain Harlock 2013
Budget
$30 million
Box Office
$4,489,155 (Japan)
$17,137,302 (Worldwide)

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
Box Office
$47,815,755

[Attitudefan]

Space Pirate Captain Harlock 2013 was a good product that came out of Toei Animation Studio.

Wikipedia
Space Pirate Captain Harlock 2013
Budget
$30 million
Box Office
$4,489,155 (Japan)
$17,137,302 (Worldwide)

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
Box Office
$47,815,755

Wow, they were in the minus for that show. They are still off by about ten million.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

They've never put out anything that was visually stunning lately if not have gone down hill in presentation quality defintely, especially with dragonball (which all their shows now have to mimic in some way) then there is the less-than brilliant writing...

[Majin Buu]

Not that their shows itself were particularly bad, but their animation and some of their adaptations, lead a lot to be desired.

DEEN's adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin has always been a sore point with me. Less than half of the pre-Kyoto arc material was faithful to the manga and they never got to the Jinchuu arc because the mediocre to awful filler arcs they made because they caught up to the manga killed interest in the show, which got it canceled. To this day, the Jinchuu arc remains without a proper anime adaptation, in large part because of how poorly DEEN handled the series. The only material they adapted particularly well was the Kyoto arc.

Never forget the Rurouni Kenshin anime.

[Kamiccolo9]

Not that their shows itself were particularly bad, but their animation and some of their adaptations, lead a lot to be desired.

DEEN's adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin has always been a sore point with me. Less than half of the pre-Kyoto arc material was faithful to the manga and they never got to the Jinchuu arc because the mediocre to awful filler arcs they made because they caught up to the manga killed interest in the show, which got it canceled. To this day, the Jinchuu arc remains without a proper anime adaptation, in large part because of how poorly DEEN handled the series. The only material they adapted particularly well was the Kyoto arc.

Never forget the Rurouni Kenshin anime.

Luckily the Kyoto Arc was the best part of the manga
Aside from the filler, which I tend to skip nowadays, I think the anime is great. Sure, you have some things switched around a bit (the order of the Han'ya and Shikijo fights, the exclusion of Ki'hei) but it all worked out just fine, in my opinion.

I prefer to pretend that the final 30-odd episodes don't exist.

[Valerius Dover]

Toei Animation:



...Just...wow. I know it's a distance shot, but Jesus...

Ok, that also looks bad, but I'm assuming this character at least had a face. Indiana Joe didn't have a face at all for the entire episode he was in and nobody commented on it. We're just supposed to accept the fact that he has no face.

[Majin Buu]

Aside from the filler, which I tend to skip nowadays, I think the anime is great. Sure, you have some things switched around a bit (the order of the Han'ya and Shikijo fights, the exclusion of Ki'hei) but it all worked out just fine, in my opinion.

Some small things, yes, but major things as well. For example- The anime cuts about half of Jine's death speech and that cut material provided insight into his motivations and actions (for instance, in the anime it's left kind of vague as to why he commits suicide, in the manga it's much clearer). And the Raijuta arc. Hoo boy, that was almost entirely different from what it was in the manga.

I prefer to pretend that the final 30-odd episodes don't exist.

Same here, for the most part. I have the Shimabara arc episodes because those are decent at best, but nothing after that.

[Kamiccolo9]

Aside from the filler, which I tend to skip nowadays, I think the anime is great. Sure, you have some things switched around a bit (the order of the Han'ya and Shikijo fights, the exclusion of Ki'hei) but it all worked out just fine, in my opinion.

Some small things, yes, but major things as well. For example- The anime cuts about half of Jine's death speech and that cut material provided insight into his motivations and actions (for instance, in the anime it's left kind of vague as to why he commits suicide, in the manga it's much clearer). And the Raijuta arc. Hoo boy, that was almost entirely different from what it was in the manga.

I prefer to pretend that the final 30-odd episodes don't exist.

Same here, for the most part. I have the Shimabara arc episodes because those are decent at best, but nothing after that.

Well, I had no problem figuring out what was up with Jin'ei, but, to be fair, I saw the anime long before I read the manga, and he didn't seem that hard to decipher.
To be honest, I had totally forgot about the Raijuta Arc. I was never a fan of it, even in the manga.

They were spot-on with the Kyoto Arc, though, which is by far the best part, in my opinion. The Shin Kyoto Arc fucked that up though.

Hopefully interest in the upcoming sequels to the live-action movie (which was excellent, by the way) will kickstart a revamp of the series, but I doubt it.

[DonZ]

Yes, yes they are. i mean, any of you guys here watch Toriko? the last episodes of the anime -which are fillers- are one of the worst crap i've ever seen in my whole life!
they've ruined the manga.

[JulieYBM]

I don't know how to keep tying this back to Dragon Ball anymore. I think Dragon Ball Kai is speaks for itself when it comes to terrible mistreatment of an intellectual property.

Yes, yes they are. i mean, any of you guys here watch Toriko? the last episodes of the anime -which are fillers- are one of the worst crap i've ever seen in my whole life!
they've ruined the manga.

The last arc of the cartoon is an adaption of the comic chapters, not 'filler'.

[Super Sonic]

Since the poster didn't specify Japanese animation companies only, I'd say whatever company made Clutch Cargo as one of the worst ever. It made the original He-Man look like Toy Story.

[Mewzard]

Honestly, it seems Toei's doing far better in CG Animation than 2D animation (Super Sentai mech fights probably helped with their growing CG skill).

I mean, look at the trailer for the CG Saint Seiya movie coming out in June (subbed in English):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCH7N9R5yc

Morishita said "Compared with other Toei Animation films, this 'Saint Seiya' feature will have a top-level budget, and will be delivered in S3D and CGI 3D."

I can see it, it looks quite good (aside from my wishing they'd use the original manga designs and my dislike of not bringing Furuya and co back).

But most animation Toei does (especially for TV) is just so low budget...when they make a risk, they can make good stuff...but they so seldom do so.