Krillin is murdered after the tournament and Goku tracks down and is defeated by his killer, Tambourine, and the Demon King Piccolo. They all reunite at the World Martial Arts Tournament three years later and meet Master Roshi's rival and Tao's brother, Master Shen, and his students Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu, who vow to exact revenge for Tao's apparent death at the hands of Goku. Goku reunites with his friends to defeat Fortuneteller Baba's fighters and have her locate the last Dragon Ball in order to revive a friend killed by Tao. He almost single-handedly defeats the army, including their hired assassin Mercenary Tao, whom he originally loses to, but after training under the hermit Korin, easily beats. A monk named Krillin becomes his training partner and rival, but they soon become best friends.Īfter the tournament, Goku sets out on his own to recover the Dragon Ball his deceased grandfather left him and encounters a terrorist organization known as the Red Ribbon Army, whose diminutive leader, Commander Red, wants to collect the Dragon Balls so that he can use them to become taller. Goku undergoes rigorous training regimes under the martial artist Master Roshi in order to fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament ( 天下一武道会, "Tenkaichi Budōkai") that attracts the most powerful fighters in the world. Oolong stops Pilaf from using the Dragon Balls by wishing for a pair of panties. The journey leads to a confrontation with the shape-shifting pig Oolong, as well as a desert bandit named Yamcha and his companion Pu'ar, who all later become allies Chi-Chi, whom Goku unknowingly agrees to marry and Emperor Pilaf, a blue-skinned imp who seeks the Dragon Balls to fulfill his desire of becoming ruler of the world. Together, they go on an adventure to find the seven mystical Dragon Balls ( ドラゴンボール), which have the ability to summon the powerful dragon Shenron, who can grant whoever summoned him their greatest desire.
The series begins with a young monkey-tailed boy named Goku befriending a teenage girl named Bulma.
They are most famous for broadcasting the feature Dragon Ball Z movies.See also: List of Dragon Ball episodes Hunt for the Dragon Balls Saga These series' producers outsourced animation production work to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and other Asian countries because of cheaper labor costs. In addition to producing anime for domestic release in Japan, in the 1980s, Toei Animation also provided animation work for several American-made television series and feature films (for American animation studios such as Marvel Productions, Sunbow Productions, Rankin/Bass, Hanna-Barbera and Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, Inc among others), such as Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Adventures of the American Rabbit, Dungeons & Dragons, Defenders of the Earth, My Little Pony, Jem, The Transformers, and G.I.
In addition, the studio helped propel the popularity of the magical girl and Super Robot genres of anime among Toei's most legendary and trend-setting TV series include the first magical-girl anime series, Mahoutsukai Sally the anime adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same name, and Go Nagai's Mazinger Z, animated adaptation of his manga, which set the standard for Super Robot anime for years to come.Īnime created by Toei Animation that have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award have been Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya in 1987, and Sailor Moon in 1992. Toei Animation produced the anime versions of works by many legendary manga artists, including Go Nagai, Akira Toriyama, and Shotaro Ishinomori. Their mascot is the cat Pero, from the company's Puss in Boots 1969 film adaptation.Ī door inside Toei Animation's office during the production of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
Ltd."), with dōga being the native Japanese word for “animation” which was widely used until the 1970s. Until 1998, Toei Animation was known as Toei Doga ( 東映動画株式会社, Tōei Dōga Kabushiki-gaisha ) even at that time the company's formal English name was indeed "Toei Animation Co.
Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese anime satellite television network, Animax, along with other noted anime studios and production enterprises such as Sunrise Company, Tokyo Movie Shinsha and Nihon Ad Systems. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Go Nagai, and Yoichi Kotabe have all worked with the company in the past. Over the years, the studio has created a large number of TV series, and movies, and adapted many Japanese comics by renowned authors to animated series, many popular worldwide. In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name.