On May 29, 2024, Gainax entered bankruptcy. This was revealed by the manufacturer on June 1, 2024 in an official statement. Despite being famous for producing some of the best anime ever, Gainax's move comes after years of uncertainty about the company's current prospects.
Several reasons have been given for the studio's decline, including large unsecured loans, efforts to expand with a separate CG studio, and drying up of investment deals, among others. .
Yasuhiro Kamimura, chief executive officer of Gainax, commented further in a statement on Oricon. Specifically: “We are very sorry to our creditors, the companies that have cooperated with us, and our fans for not being able to fully achieve our goals and for having no choice but to go bankrupt.”
He gives a timeline of events leading up to today involving insolvency in the anime industry, IP transactions without the consent of copyright owners, the arrest of former CEO in 2019 for alleged indecent exposure and other incidents.
Ultimately, he wrote, even though Gainax had undergone an audit by fellow studio Khara, Inc. and bringing in new directors, the amount of debt is still too much.
Evangelion fans will recognize Khara as the current home of the franchise, founded by Hideaki Anno in 2006, as a way for him to produce the Rebirth of Evangelion anime films on his own terms. . Although Gainax has never recaptured the heights of Evangelion in the '90s, the animation studio has spawned several other series, including Gurren Lagann in 2007.
Khara also released a statement on the matter, revealing that Anno campaigned to support Gainax in every way possible, but failed to undo the damage. Khara said: “By the time we understood the situation, we were already in an unmanageable debt situation and Gainax had come to the conclusion that it would be difficult to continue operating.”
The final comment mentions that both Khara and Studio Trigger maintain the spirit of Gainax. Both were founded by creators from there and they have flourished in different paths.
We got Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time in 2021, with hints of something new in the series at some point, and Studio Trigger brought us Kill la Kill and SSSS .Gridman, one of the best superhero anime.
