This article needs additional citations for
verification. (July 2022) |
Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Multimedia entertainment |
Founded | 2004 |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Area served | North America, South America, Oceania and South Africa |
Key people | Masayuki Endo ( president and CEO) [1] |
Products | Anime |
Parent | Toei Animation |
Website | www.toei-animation-usa.com |
Toei Animation Inc. (abbreviated as TAI, or sometimes just Toei Animation USA or Toei LATAM depending on the territory) is an American licensing and distributor based in Los Angeles. [2] It is Toei Animation's American sister company. It holds partnerships with TV channels, DVD distributors, and streaming websites.
Due to Toei Animation's decision to start distributing the series directly since 2003 with the establishment of Toei Animation Europe based in Paris, Toei Animation Inc. based in Los Angeles was founded in 2004.
In November 2004, Toei had signed a deal with Geneon USA to distribute three titles, Air Master, Interlude and Slam Dunk on DVD in North America. [3] However, due to low sales, the DVD's went out-of-print and the deal was terminated within a year and a half. [4]
In 2005, the Toei Animation licenses that were distributed by Cloverway Inc. were transferred to Toei Animation Inc. for requirement, leaving Cloverway alone with the licenses of the other Japanese producers with which it intermediated until August 2007 (due to economic problems). As a consequence of this, there has been a chain of irregularities, such as the loss of master tapes of many series, with the Latin American versions being the most affected for this change in distribution.