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Anime Studio Gainax Formally Dissolved After Bankruptcy Concludes

Anime director Hideaki Anno announced on the website of his Studio Khara on Thursday that the anime studio Gainax's bankruptcy proceedings have concluded, and that Gainax has officially and legally been dissolved as of Thursday, December 10. Anno noted that all of the rights to Gainax's works, deliverables, and products have been legally transferred to their "rightful owners" and the creators of those works.

In the statement, Anno also outlined his frustrations with figures within the company's management in the first half of its last decade, including alleged misrepresentations by former Fukushima Gainax representative director Yoshinori Asao as well as Hiroyuki Yamaga, Yasuhiro Takeda, and others. Anno, Yamaga, Takeda, and others co-founded Gainax. Anno pointed to the former executives'  mismanagement of the company, the delinquent repayment of Khara's loan to Gainax, and others. By contrast, Anno stated that Yasuhiro Kamimura, the last representative director of Gainax since 2020, was forthright in dealing with creditors, and prevented the scattering of the rights to Gainax's works.

Gainax's Bankruptcy

Gainax filed for bankruptcy in May 2024. At the time, Gainax issued a statement saying that its financial situation worsened starting in about 2012 due to various factors. Gainax said that due to massive debts incurred by management, it was removed from production committees after not paying royalties, and it was sued for debts and other matters. During this worsening financial situation, many affiliated companies were established under the Gainax name in regional areas, which led to many resignations at Gainax itself and the resulting loss of its capability to produce animation as a studio.

Tomohiro Maki, who became the studio's representative director in 1992, was arrested in December 2019 for semi-coerced indecent acts, causing the company to "completely lose its ability to operate while still being saddled with a large amount of debt."

After Gainax revamped its management team in February 2020, the company stated it began reviewing documents to fully understand its situation, alongside the Studio Khara as a creditor. The companies discovered large amounts of borrowing from financial institutions, defaults on debts to companies in the animation industry, and the sales and transfers of intellectual property and production materials to other companies and individuals without the permission of the original rights holders.

Gainax stated its management worked with Khara and other companies and production committees to confirm the rights of the works and "properly manage" the IP and scattered materials.

However, Gainax stated it has been unable to resolve its large amount of debt, and after it was sued by a debt collection company in May 2024, the company decided it could no longer continue as a business, and filed for bankruptcy.

After Maki's arrest and Kamimura becoming representative director, Anno and Khara worked with Kadokawa, King Records, and Studio Trigger to resolve Gainax's various debts and resolve the situation on the rights to the studio's works, working with the production committees for each individual work to transfer the rights to either companies or individuals they believe are most suitable.

Gainax History

Hiroyuki Yamaga, Hideaki Anno, Toshio Okada, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Shinji Higuchi, Yasuhiro Takeda, and Takami Akai co-founded Gainax in 1984. (The company was formerly named Daicon Film after the anime shorts they made for the Daicon III and IV sci-fi conventions.) 

Khara, Anno's current anime studio, distanced itself from Gainax after the December 2019 arrest of then-Gainax president Tomohiro Maki, emphasizing that Maki has no involvement with Khara or the Evangelion franchise. In a magazine article later that month, Anno detailed his falling out with Gainax, which he formally left in 2007. 

The Tokyo District Court had ordered Gainax to pay Khara 100 million yen (about US$900,000 at the time) in June 2017. Khara filed a lawsuit in December 2016 against Gainax regarding a 100 million yen debt that Gainax allegedly owed Khara.

After Maki's arrest in December 2019, Yasuhiro Kamimura was appointed the new representative director of Gainax later that month. Maki was sentenced in December 2020 to two and a half years in prison.

Source: Khara via Hachima Kikō