One of the biggest movie production and distribution company in Japan, Toho acquired an animation company called TIA Studios. Toho made the company its subsidiary on Sept 16, 2022.

It also changed the company’s name to TOHO Animation Studio Co. It’ll have Keiji Ota, Toho’s managing executive officer in charge of visual image business and digital content in the visual image division, as the President and representative director.

TIA was established in 2017 as I&A, a joint venture between two companies specializing in CG animation, Dolphin and Anima, and changed its name to TIA in 2019.

The company has previously produced “The Crocodile Who Lived for 100 Days” for Toho Productions.

Earlier, Toho owned 34.8%, and Dolphin and Anima each owned 32.6%. This time, Toho acquired an additional stake in Anima, increasing its shareholding to 67.4%, more than two-thirds of the total. Toho promises to focus its functions of creator training, original content planning and development, and video production.

Toho is Japan’s largest film company involved in production, distribution and box office. Whereas TOHO animation was established 10 years ago in 2012, and has been expanding and strengthening not only films but also TV series and animation production. It is now one of the leading players in the animation business in Japan.

However, it has never had an animation production capabilities within the group like Toei Animation of Toei, Sunrise of Namco Bandai Group, or A-1 Pictures of Aniplex.

In its mid-term management plan announced in April this year, Toho has stated that animation will be the fourth pillar of its business. This move can be said to be one of such efforts to strengthen animation.

Source: TIA Studios official website