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Anime Director Shinji Takamatsu Discusses Sunrise Shuffling

RobiHachi and Cute High Earth Defense Club anime franchise director Shinji Takamatsu discussed the recent reorganizing of Bandai Namco Holdings Inc's IP Production Unit, including the animation studio Sunrise, in a series of tweets on Wednesday. Takamatsu reminisced about his time with studio dating back to 1983, just four years after the studio's industry-changing release of Mobile Suit Gundam.

"It was a cozy company...it was as if a local small business had accidentally released a hit product," Takamatsu wrote. He also stated that while he heard Sunrise was "disappearing," he felt the company really started fading in 1994.

"My honest impression is that this has been coming for 25 years. [That's] when the old management suddenly sold their shares to Bandai and left," he said. According to Takamatsu, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino was not aware that this was happening at the time and felt that he was "sold out" by the old management team.

"[The sale] proceeded in secret during the production of V Gundam," he wrote. "They sold out the entire Gundam franchise, and left with a huge profit on the sale of shares. [Tomino] thought about killing the old management team. (But never did it.)"

It was after this point that Takamatsu felt that the "Sunrise style" was barely maintained, despite help from company presidents Takayuki Yoshii and Kenji Uchida, due to management being overtaken by staff from Bandai Namco. Uchida became president of Sunrise in 2008, succeeding Yoshii who in turn became the studio's chairman and CEO.

Takamatsu lamented that half of Sunrise was already split off to become Bandai Namco Pictures in 2014 and "robbed of its name." He added, "[The] disappearance of Sunrise seems to have finally come."

Bandai Namco Pictures focused primarily on younger children's entertainment with series such as Aikatsu!, Heybot!, and Battle Spirits, before moving into more general audience anime series.

Takamatsu also briefly discussed Bandai Namco's purchase of Sotsu in 2019. He wrote, "Sotsu, which owns the "Gundam" trademark, was also turned into a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco in October 2019, meaning that Bandai Namco now has the entire "Gundam" franchise in its hands."

Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. announced more details about its restructuring on Tuesday. The umbrella company is combining its visual, music production business, and creation business into a new IP Production unit on April 1. As part of this project, Bandai Namco Holdings is combining anime studio Sunrise Inc., the visual business operations of Bandai Namco Arts Inc., and Bandai Namco Rights Marketing Inc. into the new company Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc.

Bandai Namco Holdings emphasized in its press release that it will still use and develop the individual brand name of Sunrise. Makoto Asanuma, Sunrise's current president and representative director, will serve as the president and representative director of Bandai Namco Filmworks.

Sunrise Studio Ltd. was founded in September 1972 after former members of Mushi Production established the anime production company Sōeisha.

Source: Shinji Takamatsu's Twitter account via Otakomu