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IG Port Transfers Xebec's Operations to Sunrise for 300 Million Yen

posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Settlement of payment, transfer of operations scheduled for April 1

IG Port, the parent company of several anime studios including Production I.G and Wit Studio, revealed on Tuesday that it will proceed with the transfer of most of the production operations of its Xebec production studio to Sunrise on April 1. The cost of the transfer to Sunrise will be 300 million yen (about US$2.69 million), which will be settled on the same date.

Sunrise established the Sunrise Beyond company on March 1. The new studio is located near the Tanashi train station in Nishi-Tokyo, at the same address as Xebec studio's current address. Sunrise previously revealed in January that it will establish a new company to take in Xebec's operations on March 1. In the previous January announcement, the companies outlined their plan to sign the finalized agreement on March 11, and formally transfer the operations on April 1 (the start of the Japanese fiscal year).

IG Port announced the transfer last November. However, the production of the Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND anime will remain under IG Port. IG Port will transfer Xebec's photography department and Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND's XEBEC zwei studio to its Production I.G subsidiary, and will then rename XEBEC zwei to IG zwei. In addition, IG Port will transfer Xebec's coloring department to Signal.MD, another IG Port group company.

XEBEC zwei is the primary animation production studio handling Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND, although the main Xebec studio is still credited for creating the Fafner franchise. The first three of 12 episodes in Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND will open in theaters on May 17.

The final film in another anime, Xebec's Star Blazers 2202 (Uchū Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi), opened in theaters on March 1.

Xebec has been in operation since its founding in May 1995. Its many works include Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202, Martian Successor Nadesico, Hana Kappa, and Future Card Buddyfight. The company's current president is Nobuyoshi Habara.

Sunrise was founded over 40 years ago in 1972 as Sunrise Studio, before renaming itself as Nippon Sunrise and eventually just Sunrise. Sunrise is now a group company of Bandai Namco Holdings, and its many works include Mobile Suit Gundam, Code Geass, Love Live!, and Cowboy Bebop. Sunrise's current president is Yasuo Miyakawa.

Sources: IG Port (link 2), Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)


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