Ask John: Are Toei and Studio Pierrot Rivals?

Question:
Do Toei Animation and Studio Pierrot have a big rivalry? I’ve noticed something about Toei Animation and Studio Pierrot: they always seem to have a big rivalry going between each other. Like when Dragon Ball Z (Toei) was the biggest thing in the early 90s, the only anime that actually stood a chance against it was Yu Yu Hakusho (Pierrot). And now present time, there’s One Piece (Toei) and Naruto (Pierrot). And it always seems to involve the most popular titles! Is it just me or is this not a coincidence?

Answer:
Since I’m not thoroughly familiar with every aspect of Japan’s anime industry and fan community, there may be corporate rivalries that I don’t know about, but I don’t think that there’s a specific rivalry between Studio Pierrot and Toei Animation, apart from normal business competition. As far as I’m aware, there’s no studio overlap between Dragonball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, and Naruto, but it’s actually quite common for Japanese animation studios to assist each other. For example, Gainax provides supplemental animation for Toei’s Naruto television series. I think that any perceived rivalry between Toei and Studio Pierrot is just coincidence, enhanced by the interests of American fans.

Toei’s Dragonball Z series started in 1989, although it was just a continuation of Dragonball, which started in 1986. The Yu Yu Hakusho anime premiered three years later, in 1992, and never became quite as successful as Dragonball Z. Yu Yu Hakusho had less than a third of the number of episodes and theatrical movies that Dragonball Z had. Likewise, Naruto premiered three years after One Piece. When comparing the studios themselves, Toei has produced at least 16 anime titles that have been popular enough to have more than a hundred TV episodes while Pierrot has produced only 6 titles that have reached at least 100 episodes. Toei also has a longer history and many times more productions to its credit than Studio Pierrot.

Both Dragonball Z and One Piece were well established, successful franchises with over a hundred episodes each before the Yu Yu Hakusho and Naruto anime ever premiered. I find it hard to imagine that a brand new show would try to directly compete against an established hit already at the top of the ratings. That’s why I think that the parallel broadcasts of Dragonball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho, and One Piece and Naruto have not been an attempt to directly compete with each other, but rather simply parallel attempts to create shonen adventure anime for the mainstream Japanese market. The Star Wars and Star Trek franchises compete for viewers and market share, but I don’t think that Lucasfilm has a particular rivalry with the Roddenberry estate or Paramount Studios. Likewise, I think that broadcasts of certain Toei and Pierrot productions have coincidentally been concurrent, but I don’t think they represent a pointed rivalry between the two companies.