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Toho

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For other uses, see Toho (disambiguation).
File:DVD-VIDEO-2.jpg
The English-language version of Toho's famous logo, used from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, presented in a 2:35.1 letterboxed image in a 1.78:1 frame.

Toho Company Ltd. (東宝株式会社, Tōhō Kabushiki-kaisha, TYO: 9602) is a large 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 daikaijũ (monster) and tokusatsu (special effects) movies, the Chouseishin tokusatsu superhero TV franchise, the films of Akira Kurosawa, and the anime films of Studio Ghibli. Its most famous and worldwide creation is Godzilla, known as the King of the Monsters. It has also been involved in the production of numerous anime titles. The name Toho literally translates to "eastern treasure" in English. Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, and Rodan are described as being Toho's Big Five.

History

Toho was founded by the Hankyu Railway in 1932 as the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company (東京宝塚劇場株式会社, Tōkyō Takarazuka Gekijō Kabushiki-kaisha). 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.[1]

The Shintoho Company was named New Tõhõ because it broke off from the original Tõhõ Company.

The company has contributed to the production of some American films, including Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan.

File:TohoScope logo.jpg
The classic TohoScope logo, used for Toho's 2.40:1 widescreen movies from 1957 to 1964 and in 2004's Godzilla Final Wars.

Major productions & distributions

Film

1930s

Logo from 1933-1950, presented in a windowboxed 1.33:1 frame.

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Television

Tokusatsu

TV Anime

In more recent years and for a period, they have produced video games. One of their first video games was the 1990 NES game titled Circus Caper. Later, they followed with a series of games based on Godzilla. It also published games such as Super Aleste.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Toho" Far East Film News December 25, 1963.
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