Japanese Animation Studio Gainax Goes Bankrupt on its 40th Anniversary
Japanese animation studio Gainax, responsible for the original production of the popular 90s series ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’, among other works such as ‘Fushigi no Umi no Nadia’, ‘FLCL’ or ‘Kare Kano’, has filed for bankruptcy.
The company, established in 1984 under the name Daicon Film, was founded by the renowned director Hideaki Anno, who directed the influential series and numerous projects of the franchise even after leaving the company in 2007, a year after founding the studio Khara, where he remained as a shareholder of Gainax.
The trademarks and copyrights of the company’s works have been transferred to Khara.
“It is regrettable that an animation studio with almost 40 years of history comes to an end in this way,” Khara said in a statement on Friday after the bankruptcy announcement.
“Our company was aware of Gainax’s mismanagement and debts for some time, and Anno had expressed his concerns and made proposals to improve it, but for a long time they were not accepted,” the producer explained.
Gainax filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court on May 29 due to the financial problems it had been facing since the beginning of the 2010s, including unpaid debts to studios, scriptwriters, animators, and other creators, mainly due to a lack of business diversification.
In addition to its internal problems, in 2019 the studio’s then representative director was detained for a criminal cause unrelated to business management but it was a severe blow.
The company managed to settle some debts after this episode, but when the new management took over, “Gainax was already in a state of insolvency beyond their control and had decided that it would be difficult to continue their operations,” detailed Khara in their statement.
“We are working with the cooperation of each production committee to confirm and organize the rights to the works and intellectual property, so that creators and authors can somehow continue producing and operating the works,” they continued.
In addition to the mentioned series, Gainax’s catalog included cult works such as ‘Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’, ‘Gunbuster’, ‘Royal Space Force’, or ‘Medaka Box’.