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Tsuburaya Productions (円谷プロダクション, Tsuburaya Purodakushon) is a Japanese special effects studio founded in 1963 by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and was run by his family, until October 2007, when the family sold the company to advertising agency TYO Inc. The studio is best known for producing the original Ultraman TV series, as well as the Ultraman Series. From 2005 to 2011, the head office was located in Yawatayama, Setagaya District, Tokyo. However, since 2012, the head office has been relocated to Shibuya District, Tokyo.

History[]

TsuburayaLogo

First established in 1963, it was responsible for the creation of such classic shows as Ultraman (and its many sequels), Kaiju Booska and many other spectacular tokusatsu family/children's shows.

The company's current logo was originally the arrow-like logo from their 1968 TV series, Mighty Jack, designed by that show's art director, Tohru "Tohl" Narita.

The company, when first formed in 1963, was called Tsuburaya Special Effects Productions (円谷特技プロダクション, Tsuburaya Tokugi Purodakushon). In 1968, Toho Company Ltd. forced the company to change the name to just "Tsuburaya Productions," not only because they thought Eiji acted as though only he can do special effects, but they also felt that his own TV shows were becoming a strong competition to the movies he was doing for them. Although Eiji had strong political power at Toho, he and the company were at odds with each other until his death in 1970.

Their more recent work includes the "Ultra N Project" (ULTRAMAN and Ultraman Nexus) and Bio Planet WoO, based loosely on an unused concept which was planned before the production of Ultra Q, but never filmed.

Corporate Buyout[]

Due to rising production costs and crippling loans, the Tsuburaya family sold the company to Japanese advertising agency TYO Inc. in September 2007, which bought out 80% of its outstanding shares worth ¥80 million.[1] Bandai, the main licencor of merchandise for the Ultraman Series, acquired a 33.4% stake in 2008[2] with TYO transferring another 15.6% in 2009 giving Bandai a total of 49.9%. As a result, the old Kinuta Office used by Tsuburaya as its Head Office was razed, and the company moved to newer facilities. Kazuo Tsuburaya, Eiji's grandson, stayed with the company on its board of directors.

Fields Corporation, a pachinko machine producer, bought out TYO's 51% stake in Tsuburaya Productions in 2010, with Bandai retaining the remaining 49%.[3]

Tsuburaya Fields[]

After becoming a subsidiary of Fields, Tsuburaya Productions resolved the ongoing debt excess issue that had persisted since 2007 by the fiscal year ending in March 2014.[4]

On August 1, 2017, Shinichi Ooka resigned, and Takayuki Tsukagoshi succeeded as the eleventh president. On April 1, 2019, Masayuki Nagatake succeeded as the twelfth president, while Tsukagoshi assumed the position of CEO.[5]

In October 2022, with Fields transitioning to a holding company system, including group subsidiaries, Tsuburaya Productions became a subsidiary of Tsuburaya Fields Holdings. As of March of that year, Tsuburaya Productions accounted for nearly 40% of Fields' business profit.[6]

World Record[]

In 2001 Tsuburaya's Ultraman Series was awarded by the Guinness Book of World Records for the most amount of television spin offs. In 2013, the record has continued to be upheld for a total of 12 years. In the 2014 edition of the book, the Ultraman Series was still listed as having the world record for the most spin-offs. The certification counts the 27 spin off series which were made at that time. This excludes remakes like Heisei Ultraseven, one off specials (movies), summaries and home releases. Although technically many of the shows were not originally meant to be sequels, they were retconned to be in a single multiverse.

Spinoff Series Listed in the Record[]

  1. Ultraseven (1967)
  2. Ultra Fight (1970)
  3. Return of Ultraman (1971)
  4. Ultraman Ace (1972)
  5. Redman (1972)
  6. Ultraman Taro (1973)
  7. Ultraman Leo (1974)
  8. The☆Ultraman (1979)
  9. Ultraman 80 (1980)
  10. Andro Melos (1983)
  11. Ultraman Kids Proverb Stories (1986)
  12. Ultraman Kids: 30 Million Light-Years in Search of Mother (1991)
  13. Ultraman Tiga (1996)
  14. Ultraman Dyna (1997)
  15. Ultraman Gaia (1998)
  16. Ultraman Cosmos (2001)
  17. Ultraman Boy's Ultra Coliseum (2003)
  18. Ultraman Nexus (2004)
  19. Ultraman Max (2005)
  20. Ultraman Mebius (2006)
  21. Ultraseven X (2007)
  22. Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle (2007)
  23. Kanegon KANEGON (2008)
  24. Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: Never Ending Odyssey (2008)
  25. Ultraman Retsuden (2011)
  26. Ultra Zone (2011)
  27. Ultraman Ginga (2013)
  28. Ultraman X (2015)
  29. Ultraman Orb (2016)
  30. Ultraman Geed (2017)
  31. Ultraman R/B (2018)
  32. Ultraman Taiga (2019)
  33. Ultraman Z (2020)
  34. Ultraman Trigger (2021)
  35. Ultraman Decker (2022)
  36. Ultraman Blazar (2023)

Non-Ultraman Series[]

These are all of the series Tsuburaya has produced that isn't the Ultraman Series and is a form of tokusatsu.

Collabs[]

Comissioned Works/Provided Effects[]

While Eiji Tsuburaya himself helped provide special effects for the Toho films since 1954, Tsuburaya Productions was founded in 1963. At the time, they worked in the Toho Studio lot.

Gallery[]

Main Logos[]

Miscellaneous[]

External Links[]

References[]

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