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TMS Entertainment Forms Partnership with Taiwan's R. Animation

Japanese anime production company TMS Entertainment announced on Thursday that it has established a business partnership with Taiwanese animation studio R. Animation. The partnership is aimed at having both studios collaborate on anime production, as well as to share production knowledge and techniques.

TMS Entertainment says that the partnership is part of TMS' plan to mitigate the continued aging of veteran animators in the anime industry, as well as the animator manpower shortages within the industry. TMS plans to establish more and stronger partnerships both inside and outside Japan to supplement its current animator training efforts, in the hopes of making a more stable production pipeline.

R. Animation was established in 2018, and is based in Taipei, with a core team of more than 40 members. The studio specializes in handdrawn animation in the style and methods of the Japanese anime industry. The company claims to be capable of producing key art, in-betweens, finishing, line production, storyboarding, design, and post-production. The studio has worked particularly closely with CloverWorks, working on key animation for such anime as My Dress-Up Darling, Spy×Family, The Elusive Samurai, trapezium, UniteUp!, and Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc. The studio has also worked on key animation for such anime as One Piece, COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing, takt op. Destiny, and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation II, as well as the background art for the opening and ending credits of Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig.

TMS Entertainment started in 1946 as Tokyo Movie, but began its animation business in 1964, and was later known with the name Tokyo Movie Shinsha. The company has been producing long-running anime series such as Detective Conan, Soreike! Anpanman, and the various series of the Lupin III franchise. Ghibli co-founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata formerly worked on Tokyo Movie Shinsha anime projects. Sega Sammy Holdings acquired a controlling stake in TMS Entertainment in 2005, and made TMS Entertainment a wholly owned subsidiary in 2010.

Sources: TMS Entertainment, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)