Anime studio Gainax announced on its official website on June 7 that the business officially filed for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court on May 29, with the court accepting the application. Gainax is best known as the studio that produced Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, Gunbuster, Gurren Lagann and many more classic anime.The statement, penned by representative director Yasuhiro Kamimura, apologized to creditors, those who were working with Gainax to help alleviate the situation prior to the bankruptcy and fans. Kamimura wrote, “We had no choice but to choose bankruptcy because we were unable to fully achieve our goals.”Kamimura states that since 2012 Gainax’s “financial situation worsened” in relation to managing a restaurant, starting a CG company and sizeable unsecured loans to then-executives, all of which caused debt to accrue. This even led to situations where Gainax was removed from production committees they were a part of. The studio also lost anime production staff when then-executives established affiliate studios barring the Gainax name in some form, leaving the anime studio without an established animation production line. Those studios, which included Gaina and Fukushima Gaina (formally named Fukushima Gainax and are now owned by the Kinoshita Group), GAINAX Kyoto, Gainax Niigata and others. The statement confirms, alongside a statement from studio Khara, that Khara now owns the Gainax trademark and title. Both anime studios revealed that the above companies do not have an agreement to use the Gainax name nor are they affiliated with Gainax at this time and “may be considered unauthorized use,” though any enforcement can only happen after bankruptcy proceedings. Prior to the filing, Gainax, under the leadership of Kamimura and a board of directors made up of representatives from Kadokawa, King Records, Studio Khara and Studio Trigger, were working with production committees of previous works to “transfer the intellectual property [of the works] to the companies of which the directors, the writers, and the creators belong” after the mismanagement of the company prior to the arrest of former president Tomohiro Maki in December 2019.Despite a coalition of companies working together without remuneration to settle the issues within Gainax, Kamimura states that “former management continued to work using the Gainax brand without any regard for this predicament” and claims the company “has not been able to resolve the large amount of debt that had accumulated under the previous administration.” Then in May 2024, Gainax was sued by a debt collection company, forcing the board to file for bankruptcy.
Studio Khara, founded by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno who was also a co-founder of Gainax, is separately one of Gainax’s creditors. Studio Khara also released a statement today expanding on Gainax’s release and previous articles by Anno himself. The statement from Khara claims that Anno expressed concerns regarding the operation of Gainax “for a long time” prior to 2019. Instead, Khara offered loans to the studio to try and keep it afloat. Khara sued Gainax in 2016 for 100 million yen in owned royalties and won the settlement in 2017.Anno’s goal was to give the rights back to the creators of their series. According to Khara’s statement, after Maki’s arrest, Anno helped revamp the management structure of Gainax to “prevent reputational damage to the Evangelion series and other related works” and “prevent the loss of intellectual property and material.” One example Anno gave in a 2019 op-ed included rights the Gunbuster and FLCL series without informing Khara. Khara’s statement adds that “to ensure that creators, original authors, and writers can continue to produce and manage their works in the future, we have worked with each production committee to confirm and organize the rights and transfer the rights to the companies and individuals we deem most suitable.”
Since 2020, the copyrights for Gurren Lagann and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt have been transferred to creator Hiroyuki Imaishi and Studio Trigger with Gurren Lagann getting a 15th-anniversary re-release of the movies, and Panty & Stocking announcing a new season.Gainax opened its doors in December 1984 by a group of university students after producing shorts under the Daicon Film name. Kamimura was appointed as Gainax’s representative director in February 2020, alongside Yuko Takaishi of Kadokawa, Atsushi Moriyama of King Records and Yoshiki Usa of studio Trigger joining as the new board members. Anno founded studio Khara in 2006 and resigned from Gainax in 2007, while still being a shareholder of the company.
Sources: Oricon, Gainax, Khara
