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Gainax Posts Apology After Khara's Lawsuit
posted on by Karen Ressler
Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga posted an apology to the Gainax website regarding the news from December 2. The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported on that day that Studio Khara has filed a lawsuit against Gainax.
Yamaga apologized to all involved parties for causing concern. He stated that the company is undergoing restructuring, but the plan is to once again put project production at the center of its business. He requested the support of involved parties so they can continue to make animation people love.
Yamaga also noted that Gainax has no capital ties to the companies Yonago Gainax, Fukushima Gainax, Gainax WEST., and other companies in Kyoto and Niigata, and expressed deep regret for how the December 2 news had caused worry for them.
Khara's lawsuit is for a 100 million yen (about US$878,777) debt that Gainax allegedly owes Khara. According to the filing at the Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa Branch, Khara and Gainax had an agreement that Khara would earn royalties from income Gainax received on works and properties that Khara founder and Gainax co-founder Hideaki Anno had worked on. Khara alleges that Gainax has delayed on paying these royalties. Khara loaned 100 million yen in August 2014, but has yet to receive repayment and is suing for about that amount.
Hideaki Anno and current Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga were friends and schoolmates at the Osaka University of Arts. They, along with Toshio Okada, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Shinji Higuchi, Yasuhiro Takeda, and Takami Akai, co-founded Gainax in 1985 (the company was formerly named Daicon Film after the anime shorts they made for the Daicon III and IV sci-fi conventions). At Gainax, Anno directed some of the studio's most iconic franchises, most notably Neon Genesis Evangelion, but also Gunbuster, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, and Kare Kano.
Anno left Gainax in 2007 to found Studio Khara, where he worked on the new Evangelion anime film series in collaboration with Gainax. Anno has since directed the Shin Godzilla film alongside Gainax co-founder Shinji Higuchi.
[Via Otakomu]
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history