I remember some comments on Anime News Network saying TMS was “on fire” this spring season with Lupin III Part V and Megalobox. Y’know what? I think they’re right.
TMS isn’t a name that’s thrown around a lot, come to think of it – despite them being the studio behind Detective Conan and a bunch of simulcasts like the aforementioned Lupin III and Megalobox. I suppose this is because normally when they’re responsible for a show, you don’t tend to consider the studio that made it, whereas if it were a name with bigger fame or a rarer name, people would give a hoot. It’s just the matter of getting people out of apathy with a reputation.
As for stuff about them…they were founded in 1946, meaning they’ve been around for longer than even Toei, and unlike most of the other studios that have been featured in this series of posts, they weren’t created as the result of another studio (TMS n.d.). The letters in their title previously meant “Tokyo Movie Shinsha” (shinsha meaning “new company”), but strangely that’s not the name they started out under – in 1991, the studio’s name was “Kyokuichi”, in 1995, they merged with what was known as Tokyo Movie Shinsha at the time and in 2000, they took the name we know them by (TMS n.d.). Strangely, their name isn’t read by each initial, but rather “Tomusu”, if the katakana on their Japanese website is anything to go by.
A bit of digging around their website reveals they have head offices in Paris and Los Angeles (TMS n.d.), which isn’t that surprising for a company in this age, but a lot of studios don’t come clean on their websites about where any of their offices are aside from Japan. Speaking of Japan, TMS’s Japan office is in Nakano (TMS n.d.).
Now, considering Detective Conan is a series I owe a lot to as an anime fan and it’s a flagship series for pretty much any company or stakeholder involved, it sounds like an obvious choice to promote here. However, that also means it’s extremely popular and doesn’t need promotion, so I’ll pass on it for the first full-length simulcast I took on with the weekly schedule – Gugure! Kokkuri-san. Sure, it’s quite obviously a show that panders to the female fanbase with the pretty men, but there’s a bit of gender-bending in it as well if you’re not happy with that. Even though its forte is comedy, the moments where it chooses to do heartwarming moments – most notably episode 10 – are definitely nailed as well…which means it’s kind of like Hinamatsuri, only with more supernatural hijinks (and an ability to make a viewer crave cup noodles, rather than ikura).
So what’s your favourite show by these guys? Do you think fame is the only reason a studio’s name gets known by fans, or does consistently good work do better?
References
TMS Entertainment n.d. Company Profile. Available from: http://www.tms-e.co.jp/english/company/profile/
TMS Entertainment n.d. 会社沿革(Company History). Available from: http://www.tms-e.co.jp/company/history/index.php
TMS Entertainment n.d. What We Do. Available from: http://www.tms-e.co.jp/english/company/whatwedo/
The Animanga Spellbook 
Always nice to learn a bit of background on a studio. I had to do a little bit of research as I usually don’t really pay attention to which studio made a particular anime (yeah I know that’s bad lol), but I see they were also responsible (in part) for Orange, an anime that I highly enjoyed.
Lupin is a series that I haven’t seen, but have been hearing a lot about in terms of it being an absolute classic. Great post! 😊
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