GAINAX, the company famous for its involvement in animation production for anime such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, His and Her Circumstances, Gurren Lagann, FLCL, Gunbuster, and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, has filed for bankruptcy.
An official statement from GAINAX president Yasuhiro Kamimura, published on June 7 JST, revealed that the application was filed at the Tokyo District Court on May 29 JST and was accepted.
The brand GAINAX currently belongs to Studio Khara, the studio founded by renowned director and former GAINAX member Hideaki Anno to produce the Rebuild of Evangelion quartet. Khara is also the current copyright holder of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
According to the statement, GAINAX's financial situation worsened around 2012, due to a management style that led to events such as restaurant management based on overly optimistic forecasts, the establishment of a CG without proper planning, took large unsecured loans to executives and related investment losses.
Kamimura said that large debts incurred by management and unpaid royalties caused GAINAX to be removed from production committees. In the midst of that, various regionally affiliated studios with “GAINAX” in their names were established. This situation led to mass resignations and crippled GAINAX's ability to produce animation (in 2016, GAINAX issued a statement addressing efforts to make it a centralized company). focus on planning and production).
The 2019 arrest of Gainax's then-president, Tomohiro Maki, who had only recently assumed the role and was described in the statement as someone unfamiliar with video production, for indecent conduct was a another blow.
In 2020, GAINAX tried to turn things around by reforming its management with the help of Khara, who was also a creditor of GAINAX at the time. As the studio went through the process of reviewing past documents, they discovered a series of problems, from borrowing large sums of money and defaulting on them to selling and transferring intellectual property and capital goods. export is made without the approval of the appropriate authorities. Owner. The latter apparently belonged to companies and individuals affiliated with the previous management.
Kamimura said that GAINAX tried to resolve the rights issue with the cooperation of Khara and the new management, but was unable to resolve the issue of previously accumulated debt. It also faced the problem of many people from the previous management remaining as shareholders.
In May 2024, a debt collection agency sued Gainax, leading to the decision to file for bankruptcy.
Khara issued his own statement on the GAINAX bankruptcy filing mentioning his status as a shareholder of GAINAX and saying that he had previously made suggestions to improve GAINAX management. Besides detailing Khara's role in supporting GAINAX, they expressed that it was unfortunate that a studio with nearly 40 years of history had to meet such an end.
Of the current regional studios — Studio Gaina (formerly Fukuhama Gainax), GAINAX International, GAINAX Kyoto, Yonago GAINAX, GAINAX Niigata and GAINAX WEST — Kamimura claims GAINAX has no connection to them. He also said using the GAINAX trademark without Khara's permission could be considered unauthorized use.
This severing of ties happened many years ago—in the 2016 statement mentioned earlier, then-GAINAX president Hiroyuki Yamaga said that they had no capital ties with these studios and apologized for any worries caused by their legal problems ( Khara sued GAINAX for about 100 million yen in debt [~ 642.775 USD]). When Maki was arrested, GAINAX Kyoto and Yonago GAINAX tweeted statements from their respective presidents (Yasuhiro Takeda and Takami Akai, both former GAINAX members), declaring that they had nothing to do with the person. This man has no capital relationship with GAINAX.
According to a 2016 Animation Business Magazine Article, Fukushima Gainax's website at the time explained that it had been affiliated with GAINAX when it was founded in 2014, but bought back its shares in December. 2015 and then became independent. It currently belongs to Kinoshita Corporation.
GAINAX was founded in 1984 to produce the animated film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise. Its founding members include Anno, Takeda, Akai, Yamaga, Toshio Okada and Shinji Higuchi.
In addition to anime, the studio is also involved in the development of games such as Silent Mobius, Cybernetic Hi-School, Princess Maker created by Akai (receiving a new part from Korean developer D-ZARD) and Battle Skin Panic.
In 2015, Production IG purchased the rights to FLCL, which the company co-produced with GAINAX. The current copyright notice for Gurren Lagann lists the names of the scriptwriter (Kazuki Nakashima) and director (Hiroyuki Imaishi) along with the production committee, while the current copyright notices for Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt have the name of the animation studio TRIGGER and Imaishi.
Source: GINAX website, Automaton, Crunchyroll News, Japan Times
