Toho Company, Limited (東宝株式会社 Tōhō Kabushiki-Kaisha?, lit. Toho Co., Ltd.) is a Japanese film studio. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. In the West, it is best known as the producer of many kaiju and tokusatsu movies, the films of Akira Kurosawa, and the anime films of Studio Ghibli, as well as the Pokémon movies.
The company's most famous creation, the Godzilla franchise, was created by Tomoyuki Tanaka.
It is one of Japan's four major film studios.
History
Toho was founded by the Hankyu Railway in 1932 as the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company. 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.
After several successful film exports to the United States during the 1950s, Toho opened the La Brea Theatre in Los Angeles to show its own films without selling to a distributor. It was known as the Toho Theatre from the late 1960s until the 1970s. [1] Toho also had a theater in San Francisco and opened a theater in New York in 1963.[2]
The Shintoho Company was so named "New Toho" because it broke off from Toho.
The classic TohoScope logo, used for Toho's widescreen movies from 1957 to 1964, and once more in 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars
They have contributed to the production of some American films, including Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan.
Productions
1930s
- Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
1940s
- Ramayana
1950s
- Seven Samurai
- Godzilla
- Invisible Man
- Godzilla Raids Again
- Half Human
- Rodan
- The Mysterians
- The Legend of the White Serpent
- Throne of Blood
- H-Man
- Varan the Unbelievable
- The Three Treasures
- Battle in Outer Space
1960s
- The Secret of the Telegian
- The Human Vapor
- Mothra
- King Kong vs. Godzilla
- Gorath
- Atragon
- Matango
- Mothra vs. Godzilla
- Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
- Dogora
- Devil Woman
- Invasion of Astro-Monster
- Frankenstein Conquers the World
- Punch Guy
- War of the Gargantuas
- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
- Son of Godzilla
- King Kong Escapes
- Destroy All Monsters
- All Monsters Attack
- Latitude Zero
1970s
- Space Amoeba
- Godzilla vs. Hedorah
- Godzilla vs. Gigan
- Godzilla vs. Megalon
- Submersion of Japan
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
- Prophecies of Nostradamus
- Terror of Mechagodzilla
- Demon Spies
- The War in Space
- The Last Dinosaur (1977 film)
- Zero Fighter
1980s
- Bye-Bye Jupiter
- The Return of Godzilla
- Ran
- Princess from The Moon
- Gunhed
- Godzilla vs. Biollante
1990s
- Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
- Godzilla vs. Mothra
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
- Yamato Takeru
- Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
- Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
- Rebirth of Mothra
- Rebirth of Mothra II
- Rebirth of Mothra III
- Godzilla 2000: Millennium
2000s
- Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
- Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
- Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
- Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
- Godzilla: Final Wars
- Go! Godman
2010s
- Godzilla (licensed to Legendary Pictures, distributed in Japan)
- Attack on Titan (co-produced with Kodansha, Licri, and Nikkatsu)
- Shin Godzilla
- Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
- Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle
- Godzilla: The Planet Eater
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2020s
- Godzilla vs. Kong
- Godzilla Singular Point
- Godzilla Minus One
- Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
- Godzilla Minus Zero
- Godzilla x Kong: Supernova
Cancelled films
- Main article: List of unmade monster films.
Television
- He of the Sun
- Go! Godman
- Warrior of Love Rainbowman
- Zone Fighter
- Assault! Human (co-created with Nippon TV)
- Gimme Gimme Octopus
- Go! Greenman (co-created with Nippon Television)
- Submersion of Japan (TV series) (co-created with TBS TV)
- Go! Ushiwaka Koujirou
- Warrior of Light Diamond Eye (co-created with NET)
- Flying Saucer War Bankid (co-created with Nippon Television)
- Seishi Yokomizo Series (co-created with Daiei and Mifune Productions)
- The Godzilla Power Hour (co-created with Hanna-Barbera)
- Megaloman
- Tokyo Earthquake Magnitude 8.1
- The Forbidden Mariko
- Computer Police Cybercops
- Adventure! Godzilland
- Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd (co-created with Capcom)
- Vampire Host
- Godzilla Kingdom
- Godzilla Island
- Godzilla TV
- Super Star God GranSazer
- Phantom Star God Justirisers
- Super Star Fleet Sazer-X
- Kawaii! JeNny (co-created with Dream Planet Japan and Takara Tomy)
In more recent years and for a period, they have produced video games, including a series of games based on Godzilla.
Staff
Former
Producers
- Akira Kurosawa
- Eiji Tsuburaya
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Jun Fukuda
- Shogo Tomiyama
- Tomoyuki Tanaka
- Yoshinari Shimatani
Directors
- Akira Kurosawa
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Ishiro Honda
- Jun Fukuda
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Masaaki Tezuka
- Nobuhiko Obayasaki
- Shinji Higuchi
- Shusuke Kaneko
- Takao Okawra
- Toshiro Mifune
Writers
- Akira Kurosawa
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Ikuma Dam
- Ishiro Honda
- Jun Fukuda
- Kinji Fukasaku
- Masaaki Tezuka
- Nobuhiko Obayashi
- Seishi Yokomizo
- Shogo Tomiyama
- Shusuke Kaneko
- Takao Okawara
- Tomoyuki Tanaka
- Wataru Mimura
Composers
- Akira Ifukube
- Fumio Hayasaka
- Ikuma Dan
- Isao Tomita
- Joe Hisaishi
- Kiyoko Ogino
- Kow Otani
- Kunio Miyauchi
- Masamichi Amano
- Masaru Sato
- Michiru Oshima
- Reijiro Koroku
- Riichiro Manabe
- Shiro Sagisu
- Takayuki Hattori
- Toru Takemitsu
- Toshiyuki Watanabe
- Yasuharu Takanashi
Special Effects Crew
- Eiji Tsuburaya
- Ishiro Honda
- Kenji Suzuki
- Koichi Kawakita
- Masaaki Tezuka
- Nobuhiko Obayashi
- Shinji Higuchi
- Takao Okawara
- Teruyoshi Nakano
Musical Artists
- Asami Abe
- Masatoh Eve
- U-Ya Asaoka
Editors
- Akira Kurosawa
- Nobuhiko Obayashi
Cinematographers
Gallery
