No Toei on Batman: TAS?

[Jon T]

Inspired by a thread on another forum, I'm wondering if anyone knows exactly why Japanese studio Toei never did any work on Batman: The Animated Series. During the 1980s, along with TMS, Toei were one of the most prolific companies that studios outsourced their animation to. Indeed, one of the last high-profile U.S. shows they animated was the 1988 Superman series for Ruby-Spears.

Yet just a few years later Batman: TAS comes around with contributions from major Japanese studios like TMS and Sunrise (admittedly never used since), but fellow major studio Toei was nowhere to be found. Were they simply not asked, or did they directly or indirectly (i.e. cost per episode) decline to contribute to the show?

[Alph]

It would've been neat if they'd done the second Clock King episode. What with Batman's kamehameha wave and all.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Toei Animation was a wee bit busy during the early and mid-nineties (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toei_Animation#1990s) but I suspect it might have been the studio's penchant for being a bit cheap when it comes to animation.

Although I would have killed for an episode by Naoki Tate, Minoru Maeda (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIk0-75vCO0), Kazuya Kuda, Naoki Miyahara, Keisuke Masunaga, or Masashiro Shimanuki. :D

A great non-Toei animator would've been Atsuhi Wakabayashi (http://www.hulu.com/watch/161535/naruto-shippuden-planetary-devastation)...but I'm not too sure how he would've gone over with fans. :p