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Gainax Ordered to Pay Studio Khara 100 Million Yen
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
A judge at the Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa Branch ordered Gainax to pay Studio Khara 100 million yen (about US$899,000) on Friday. Studio Khara filed a lawsuit in December against Gainax regarding a 100 million yen debt that Gainax allegedly owes Khara.
It is expected that Gainax will not appeal the decision, and the ruling will be finalized. Khara declined to comment on the ruling.
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. Gainax incurred a large debt with Khara. Khara loaned 100 million yen in August 2014, but has yet to receive repayment and is suing for about that amount.
After Khara filed the lawsuit against Gainax, Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga posted an apology to the Gainax website regarding the news in December. Yamaga apologized to all involved parties for causing concern. He stated that the company was undergoing restructuring, but the plan was 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.
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.
Source: The Sankei Shimbun via My Game News Flash
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