Toho Co., Ltd. (??????, T?h? Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Y?rakuch?, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside Japan, it is best known as the producer and distributor of many kaiju and tokusatsu films, the Chouseishin tokusatsu superhero television franchise, the films of Akira Kurosawa, and the anime films of Studio Ghibli. Other famous directors, including Yasujir? Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masaki Kobayashi, and Mikio Naruse, also directed films for Toho.
Toho's most famous creation is Godzilla, who features in 29 of the company's films. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla are described as Toho's Big Five because of the monsters' numerous appearances in all three eras of the franchise, as well as spin-offs. Toho has also been involved in the production of numerous anime titles. Its subdivisions are Toho-Towa Distribution, Toho Pictures Incorporated, Toho International Company Limited, Toho E. B. Company Limited, and Toho Music Corporation & Toho Costume Company Limited. The company is the largest shareholder (7.96%) of Fuji Media Holdings Inc.
Toho is a member of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and is one of Japan's Big Four film studios.
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History
Toho was created by the founder of Hankyu Railway, Ichizo Kobayashi, in 1932 as the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company (??????????, T?ky? Takarazuka Gekij? Kabushiki-gaisha). It managed much of the kabuki in Tokyo and, among other properties, the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater and the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo; Toho and Shochiku enjoyed a duopoly over theaters in Tokyo for many years.
Toho and Shochiku competed with the influx of Hollywood films and boosted the film industry by focusing on new directors of the likes of Kurosawa Akira, Ichikawa Kon, Kinoshita Keisuke and Shindo Kaneto.
After several successful film exports to the United States during the 1950s through Henry G. Saperstein, Toho took over the La Brea Theatre in Los Angeles to show its own films without the need to sell them to a distributor. It was known as the Toho Theatre from the late 1960s until the 1970s. Toho also had a theater in San Francisco and opened a theater in New York City in 1963.
The Shintoho Company, which existed until 1964, was named New Toho because it broke off from the original company.
The company has contributed to the production of some American films, including Sam Raimi's 1998 film, A Simple Plan.
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Major productions and distributions
Film
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Upcoming
Television
Tokusatsu
- Ike! Godman (1972)
- Warrior Of Love: Rainbowman (1972)
- Zone Fighter (1973)
- Ike! Greenman (1973)
- Warrior Of Light: Diamond Eye (1973)
- Flying Saucer War Bankid (1976)
- Megaloman (1979)
- Electronic Brain Police Cybercop (1988)
- Seven Stars Fighting God Guyferd (1996)
- Stickin' Around (1996-1998)
- Godzilla Island (1997)
- Chouseishin Gransazer (2003)
- Genseishin Justirisers (2004)
- Chousei Kantai Sazer-X (2005)
- Kawaii! Jenny (2007)
Anime
- Belle and Sebastian (1981)
- Igano Kabamaru (1983)
- Touch (1985)
- Kimagure Orange Road (1987)
- Godzilla: The Series (1998) (co-production)
- Midori Days (co-production) (2004)
- Psycho-Pass (2012)
- Yowamushi Pedal (2013)
- Haiky?!! (2014)
- Blood Blockade Battlefront (2015)
- My Hero Academia (2016)
- Three Leaves, Three Colors (2016)
In more recent years and for a period, they have produced video games. One of their first video game was the 1990 NES game titled Circus Caper. Later, they followed with a series of games based on Godzilla and a 1992 game called Serizawa Nobuo no Birdy Try. It also published games such as Super Aleste. They even worked with Bandai on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, released in Japan in 1988 and in the United States in 1989.
Headquarters
Toho's headquarters, the Toho Hibiya Building (???????, T?h? Hibiya Biru), are in Y?rakuch?, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company moved into its current headquarters in April 2005.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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