Jun 10, 2024

Neon Genesis Evangelion” studio Gainax files for bankruptcy.

Gainax, the Japanese animation production company behind “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” “FLCL,” and “Nadia of the Mysterious Sea,” has filed for bankruptcy.

The studio was founded in 1984 as Daikon Film, but has been plagued by years of mismanagement, according to a statement on its website. These problems included a failed attempt to enter the restaurant business, a failed attempt to launch a computer graphics studio, and high interest unsecured loans to individual executives.

Further adding to the company's woes was the arrest of CEO Tomohiro Maki in 2019 for sexually assaulting a teenage girl, which led to a “complete loss of operational capacity” while the company's debt piled up.

In 2020, the company underwent an audit that uncovered years of sketchy business practices, including borrowing heavily from financial institutions, defaulting on debts owed to companies in the animation industry, and selling and transferring intellectual property and other assets to companies and individuals without the permission of the legal right holder.

Last month, the company concluded that bankruptcy was its best option after being sued by a debt collection agency.

The co-founder of Gainax, Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno, left Gainax in 2007 to found a new studio, Khara, but remained involved behind the scenes at Gainax. English translation):

We have long been aware of Gainax's poor management and debt, and have expressed our concerns about the company's management and offered suggestions to improve the company's management, but these suggestions have long gone unaccepted.

Following Maki's arrest, Anno worked with Kadokawa, King Records Inc. and Trigger Inc. to “prevent reputational damage to the Evangelion series and other related works.”

Kara's website continues to sort out the intellectual property rights of various Gainax works:

[Anno] revamped the management team with representatives from each company serving as directors, understanding the internal structure of Gainax, and at least the studios, writers within the anime industry, partner companies to resolve outstanding payments to creators and to prevent the loss of intellectual property and documentation.

However, as stated in the Gainax release, by the time it understood the situation, it had already reached the conclusion that it was in untenable debt and that Gainax could not continue its operations.

In light of this situation, in order to ensure that the creators, original authors, and scriptwriters could continue to produce and operate their works in the future, we worked with each production committee to confirm and organize the rights relationships and transferred the rights to the companies and individuals we considered most suitable.

In addition, Anno's company acquired the trademarks and title to Gainax and will continue to manage those elements of the former company.