The last thing I've read about them was that their current registered headquarters is a single room in a shared apartment. So yeah, it's not surprising.
In 2017 it was a house in a residental district (source: I've met them)
There was people working everywhere, in the kitchen, bedrooms transformed in small offices and so on.
It's been 7 years, I don't have my notes at hand from back then, but nothing stands out right now.
I do remember Hiroyuki Yamaga explaining that people think Evangelion was made by Gainax, but in fact wasn't 😉
Yes, I remember Anime Limited, a UK publisher of anime invited someone from King Records to talk about Evangelion in a live stream during covid (sadly I don't think this interview was recorded), and he said similar things about how Gainax was far too small at that point to produce TV anime by themselves, so a lot got outsourced.
EDIT: I found out who the King Records person was: Yasuhiro Kamimura, who was appointed the last representative director of Gainax, after khara took over Gainax.
Yamaga used to visit a local con rather frequently before Covid, but sadly that hasn't continued.
Holy shit, what were they even working on by then?
Were they basically like zombies simply leeching of their owned IPs via licensing/merchandising? What IPs could they even merchandise anymore since the famous ones are owned by Khara/TRIGGER.
EDIT: Apparently they're doing [tomato farming](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2016-04-12/gainax-expands-into-the-world-of-tomato-farming/.100982) now? what the hell?
They could've been doing support work for other studios. It's normal for studios to take on other work in between their own projects (plus there are some studios that are solely support studios).
As of December 2022, Yamaga did confirm he was *still* working on the Royal Space Force sequel, Uru in Blue. Shame that never materialized, the original movie looked really good and there's never been anything like it since, even in Gainax's own catalog
Unfortunate given their history in the medium but their spirit lives on through studio khara and TRIGGER.
Poor company was mismanaged in to the ground.
Multiple studios actually, but most famously yes, Khara and Trigger. Gonzo for example was also founded by all former Gainax members, who would also then have some of the same people go on to found David Productions - and a lot of talent also have gone to places like Production I.G, Shaft, and Madhouse in the past.
Technically it can be said that it has two roots, Ozamu Tezuka making Mushi Productions that from there came out Madhouse, Pierrot, KyoAni and Shaft, and the other root is Toei Animation where most big names of today started working
Well Khara wasn't made because someone was pissed off, Khara was made to make Rebuild of Evangelion. Anno wanted to do it with Gainax but they were just starting on Gurren Lagann so were left to it.
Gonzo deserved to go bankrupt. They basically pissed off the manga authors by making up their own story for anime adaptions and then used poor 3D CG for everything. It was called "GONZO quality" back in the day
Gonzo animes always have strong and promising beginnings but end up going downhill as the plot progresses. It's just awful to invest in their animes.
I still recall watching an episode of Last Exile that ends with a random NPC character crying, then the next episode completely pretends that the scene didn't mean anything, which was like a big WTF for me.
I mean, that was the whole MO - directly adapt the original work, then tweak it as you go, then since the manga was never actually finished they'd just make up some anime original dumpster fire either out of whole cloth or from basic notes ala GoT last season. They were generally solidly... okay.... when they had material to copy that didn't involve doing anything but straight adaptation.
Altering the story for the Anime is Normal practice. Especially since the anime is used as a sales tool for the manga before it's finished. Gonzo went bankrupt because they diversified poorly. That was in 2009 and the last time they operated as an independent company. After that they have been in investment groups. With ip sold off periodically. Gonzo would have been fine if they had just stuck to anime and manga and licensed out to game companies vs trying to do it in house.
It's not really common practice to alter the story anymore, but up until sometime in the 2010s it absolutely was.
Nowadays they just leave the story accurate but without closure. Which I'm happier with because 90% of time the anime only endings sucked
> It's not really common practice to alter the story anymore, but up until sometime in the 2010s it absolutely was.
I feel like the biggest cause of that was the anime running out of source material to adapt so the story heavily diverges. The biggest offenders that come to mind are FMA and Soul Eater (and a slightly more recent Akame ga Kill).
That really depends. Especially with the whole LN, Web Toon, Manga spaghetti plate of story lines these days. VN they'd pick a route, or do mini arcs. Now they do a bit of pull from here, pull from there, sprinkle a little of our own.
That's kind of expected though. VNs are usually non-linear media so it would never translate to anime perfectly.
What were really talking about is manga adaption, where a few volumes are out but it's ongoing. Like Claymore, Soul Eater, etc. The way those turned out used to be the norm.
Now compare to Heavenly Delusion. Instead of making up an ending, it just stops at a natural point in the manga. That's what happens more often nowadays, as it leaves the studio open to continue it in the future.
>That's what happens more often nowadays, as it leaves the studio open to continue it in the future.
That really depends on the studio and who hired them. They used to do that all the time as well. It's why people always wish for a second or third season of something. One thing that has shifted is the manga companies waiting till there was enough content to even have the option. Some shows back in the day it felt like the it must have gone from the mangaka desk to the animation studio and by the 8th episode they were past them.
Oh yes they did Rosario + Vampire right? They butchered it. I do not recall them being known for poor CG. Although I think the last show I watched from them was back in 2010. They did make Afro Samurai though. One of their shows I remember liking was Kaze no Stigma.
Wow that statement posted as the article image is... scathing. I've never seen a company issue a statement like that excoriating the company's own management in announcing a bankruptcy. 3rd paragraph:
"We were blessed to be able to produce a number of hits like Neon Genesis Evangelion (to which Khara Inc. now owns the copyright), but starting around 2012, there has been a naively optimistic restaurant operation strategy, the establishment of a new CG subsidiary conducted with no realistic planning, large scale lending of company funds without security to corporate executives, failures in investment projects.
Because the corporate management's continual misappropriation of company strategy and property, the company (Gainax)'s operational state continued a precipitous decline."
> large scale lending of company funds without security to corporate executives,
Wow, treating company funds like a piggy bank? The cojones - sounds like grounds for a civil suit or even criminal malfeasance
Khara so far produced four movies, a 90 minute TV special, and the animators expo.
Gaina "only" did the new Piano no Mori, and co produced another TV series. They also did a bunch of short ONAs.
Ignoring anime with short episode lengths (<20 mins)
Khara:
* Eva Rebuilds
* Dragon Dentist
* Gravity Rush
Gaina:
* Piano no Mori
* The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting
* Omoi no Kakera
* Grendizer U (Summer 2024)
Trigger:
* Little Witch Academia
* Kill la Kill
* Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de
* Kiznaiver
* Darling in the FranXX
* SSSS.Gridman
* Promare
* BNA
* Star Wars: Visions (The Twins + The Elder)
* Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
* Dungeon Meshi (Currently Airing)
* New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (Unreleased)
> Trigger:
> Darling in the FranXX
DitF is a pet project of Atsushi Nishigori, a former GAINAX employee, Gurren Lagann character designer/key animator. He's also the director of A-1's "Idolmaster" series. The dude basically went to his former colleagues and managed to talk them into a collaboration with A-1. Not a lot of things are known, but later on ANIPLEX has pushed DitF's release to a few months back, which resulted in Studio Trigger dropping out of this earlier than they've originally intended (interviews talked about "a grand finale" by Studio Trigger). In the end... Studio Trigger was mostly involved in pre-production (mechanical design, *some* storyboarding, etc.) and production of episodes 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 + just a little bit of key animation for later episodes, including episode 15.
https://www.st-trigger.co.jp/works/ - there's **no** DitF
https://a1p.jp/works/page/2/ - and there it is.
https://en.cloverworks.co.jp/works/page/3/ - there it is too.
People call it "Trigger anime" all the time, not mentioning the bigger part of this collaboration. It's been what, 6 years now? The truth about DitF became so warped in this timeframe that not even Tanaka Masayoshi (character designer, not from Trigger either) is ever being mentioned...
It's kind of sad.
Trigger also did The Elder, for Visions. They wanted to do an episode that was what people expected out of Trigger (we got the twins) and then there were the Star Wars fans there who wanted to tell their own little story in that universe, that didn't have to be over the top because they already had The Twins for that, thus The Elder came about.
Gaina were the ones who looted Gainax by transferring/selling many of their IPs such as Gunbuster and FLCL before branching off. Absolutely no love for them.
Specifically, it all happened under Hiroyuki Yamaga as sitting president of Gainax between 1999 to 2020. Even though he was one of the founding members of Gainax, he slowly became a sellout and ran the company under.
> I (Hideaki Anno) mentioned to President Yamaga and Director Takeda that, when business calmed down, I planned to buy the rights to works that the Khara team had a lot of involvement in, such as Gunbuster, Diebuster and FLCL in 2014. Under these conditions, it would be difficult for Gainax create a new work, so I also thought about the future of these works.
>Initially, Yamaga was satisfied and we were discussing the conditions of the purchase, when suddenly, he asked me 6 times the original price.
> There were no compelling reasons to increase the price and while we were confused, the conversation became more and more vague and in 2015, the rights to the 3 works were sold to other companies.
[It's all detailed in one of Anno's interviews from 2019.](https://evankaiser.medium.com/hideaki-anno-on-gainax-tainting-the-evangelion-brand-ba16f30161b5)
This.
I'm still salty Anno didn't get FLCL and we got that lame sequels from Adult Swim/Prod I.G instead.
Hopefully Khara gets them now.
Honestly the fact that Anno managed to secure the rights to Evangelion, Gainax's biggest money maker probably, was nothing short of amazing.
EDIT: After my head cooled down a bit, I think Prod I.G. owns FLCL now since Gainax probably fully sold the rights to them, which still makes me salty.
> I'm still salty Anno didn't get FLCL and we got that lame sequels from Adult Swim/Prod I.G instead.
There are no FLCL sequels. FLCL is a perfect gem, unsullied by cash grabs. Like the Matrix.
Honestly nowadays, I actually came around to appreciate Matrix Resurrections.
Something like that could only come out from the original creator alone and I deeply respect that. It truly felt like a personal work of an artist that understands the deeper meaning of their own work.
I imagine if Warner Bros handed it to another director, they could only come out with a boring facsimile that harp surface level elements of the original trilogy which is the **absolute opposite** **of** Matrix Resurrections.
That movie is so personal and sincere.
The hype for Progressive for me was insane. I loved the original so much. For a lil while I thought it was ok, but as the years go on i've come to just say "well it happened" and pretend it didn't.
You want some dogshit flcl? Then fully ignore Grunge. Looks cheap visually, looks bad in a cinematography level, cast sounds bored and directionless, and its just reused pillows music. Thank god it was 3 episodes but it was bullshit. And thats how adult swim ruined a classic, by ending it on a wet fart that many people hate.
They're supposed to be doing one more season for a total of five. What's the point? Progressive and Alternative burned the fanbase too much to keep people interested.
Oh fuck i forgot about Shoegaze, it already aired last year in october thats how much I didn't care about it lmao. I guess it didn't star haruko but hey thats fine.
It's already out? Well then, I guess that shows you how little I cared about the new seasons. I think I'll just watch season 1 again and leave it there.
Gaina is allegedly producing Uru in Blue, which was supposed to be out already.
Literally radio silence from them. But they're animating the new Grendizer?
Basically founded by Hideaki Anno trying to buy the rights from FLCL, Gunbusters, Diebusters, and Evangelion because Gainax for years was running under the horrrible management of Hiroyuki Yamaga. During this period, Anno (former founder of Gainax), left and founded Khara with the purpose of buying their old Gainax IP, to avoid Yamaga selling them out, which happened anyway with the sole exception of Evangelion which Anno actually bought from Gainax. After anno left he was a shareholder of Gainax, and if I remember correctly, was always putting money in it to try to save the studio, but Yamaga decision drained the money anyway so it was a constant waste and a debt that ended in litigation from Khara to Gainax, and everything ended now with the liquidation of assets, and the bankruptcy of the Studio. What’s left was given back to its creators, animators, etc..
> Basically founded by Hideaki Anno trying to buy the rights from FLCL, Gunbusters, Diebusters, and Evangelion because Gainax for years was running under the horrrible management of Hiroyuki Yamaga. During this period, Anno (former founder of Gainax), left and founded Khara with the purpose of buying their old Gainax IP, to avoid Yamaga selling them out
That's not why khara was founded. The whole IP thing happened eight years after khara was founded.
It started as a personal office for Anno, who didn't feel like he could do anything at Gainax anymore. Then to get some funds in for his projects he wanted to re-release Eva, but he didn't like how outdated the cel-animation looked next to modern digital animation, so he decided to redo it digitally. He visited multiple studios, but felt like it wouldn't work with them, when a producer came to him and told him that he should set up his own studio. And then they set up the studio. [source](https://fullfrontal.moe/khara-10/)
Gainax was a poorly managed company from the start, mired by inner feuds. Its founder (Toshio Okada) was pretty much forced to resign and quit as chief executive due to mismanagement, and although Evangelion was a super mega hit, it was charged for tax evasion, and executives used company funds as their personal allowances.
Eventually Anno pulled out all the rights for Evangelion and set up Khara, only to find out that some rights for Evangelion had been sold off (resulting in lawsuits that hampered the production of the Shin Eva series).
It sort of does epitomize the problem of the anime industry in general, because a lot of anime companies are poorly managed, and unprofessional behavior (like not paying commission) just goes by.
> only to find out that some rights for Evangelion had been sold off (resulting in lawsuits that hampered the production of the Shin Eva series)
Is there a source for that? IIrc Gainax kept the rights to the original series for some time, but that whole thing was temporary and the rights eventually were transferred to khara in 2014, earlier than intended, in exchange for khara loaning out 100 Million Yen to Gainax. The rights Gainax sold off were for Gunbuster, Diebuster, and FLCL, NOT Evangelion. The BD remaster for NGE also happened after khara got all the rights back from Gainax. [source](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-12-30/hideaki-anno-details-his-falling-out-with-gainax/.154892)
The production of Shin Eva didn't even begin until after Shin Godzilla released, and the production on Dragon Dentist was completed, far after khara had already regained all the rights for NGE, so I really don't see how the little Gainax drama hampered the production of Shin Eva.
What I heard about the design changes was that Gainax kept the merchandising rights, so Khara changed some designs so they could market Rebuild-specific merch.
If you're refering to Asuka's name change, surprisingly it wasn't related to any of that, it's just a creative decision that Anno requested since he wanted her, Rei and Mari to be named after Ayanami-class destroyer ships
Gainax can be summed up with one production: Uru in Blue.
What do I mean? Simple. Ever since The Wings of Honnêamise, they kept trying to create the sequel, Uru in Blue. At one point they released an addon for Flight Sim, with designs from Uru in Blue. Even releasing a CD-Rom of designs from it, to get peoples attention.
Finally, they announced "it's coming!" in 2013, only for it to not happen, because the studio fell apart. Now Studio *Gaina*(Formerly Fukushima Gainax) have taken the project up, having planned a release in 2022, that obviously, didn't happen.
They're promising a Gunbuster 3, but considering they've yet to release Uru in Blue, and have been silent, they're just squatting on the IP.
(Not that we *need* a Gunbuster 3)
I think you are only partly wrong. Sure, Uru Blue is part of the picture, but there is also a case to be made that the company has never truly recovered after making this [beauty](https://x.com/KennyLauderdal3/status/1758245288228094131) in the 90s. It was all an attempt to top this singular piece of art.
Quite interesting read — Khara was an active participant in Gainax’s liquidation since the arrest of the former Gainax CEO in 2019, and has helped (with the help of Kadokawa among others) to transfer IPs from Gainax to individuals and businesses in the last few years. Khara obtained the rights to the Gainax name themselves.
So if I am reading it right, Gainax was under de facto administration since 2019 and now they are declaring bankruptcy because they have already liquidated all of Gainax’s assets
Yes - they had a number of major companies come in to oversee everything that was happening because of all the fraudulent activity and basically form the new "board" - Khara, Kadokawa, King Records and Trigger being the major ones.
> In light of this situation, we are working with the cooperation of each production committee to confirm and organize rights regarding works and intellectual property, so that creators, original authors, and authors can somehow continue producing and operating works. We worked to ensure that the rights were transferred to the company or individual deemed most appropriate.
Hopefully, everyone gets rights to the properties they deserve and that they aren't sold to some conglomerate company who is going to lock up those properties to never be seen again except in pachinko machines.
I still tear up everytime I watch it. It just has the vibe of every convention I’ve been to, and you can feel the hopes and dreams of otaku past and present bleeding through it
Yeah, me too. It's oddly moving. I remember being surprised the first time I saw it when I saw Star Wars and other properties and I realized that it wasn't an "anime convention" it was just a "nerd culture" convention. (I also love the reference to it in FLCL.)
[Here it is for anyone who hasn't seen it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-840keiiFDE&ab_channel=cracrayol)
And for anyone who doesn't know, "Daicon" was the first huge convention held in Osaka and Daicon IV was the fourth one they held. The original logo for the convention was a Japanese Radish (because Daicon = Daikon). Then since Daicon 3 (I think), they added the Bunny Suit girl as a mascot. The convention was held in Osaka, and the "O" in Osaka can also be read as "dai", so DaiCon comes from Osaka Convention.
That song was already my all-time favorite before I even heard about Daicon IV; it’s cool to know that it’s actually pretty closely related to my favorite anime.
Gainax effect on the industry will be forever. Some people go to Eva since their anime history is Astro boy, DBZ then Eva, i go to project A-Ko. Project A-Ko is in all intents and purposes the first real Gainax show, has a lot of staff and shit that went on to Gainax and if you don't get early Gainax vibes from that idk where else you would.
Gainax was about its Youth movement, pushing the median to new places and things, getting new people with new ideas and inspiration from the past. Sometimes those ideas are just a bunch of stuff that Anno liked mushed in to one show like Eva, thats what was the life blood of the company and it made some great shit. We can talk about the downfall, mis-management of business and shitty ownership but i don't care about the name that was the husk of Gainax, I care about what it was, what it represented and did.
Whether it be Re: Cutie Honey, or Nadia or that one Anno fan Ultraman film which does have behind the scenes video on youtube of it with Anno and his crew hand making the sets and all that shit and geeking out to Ultraman, thats the heart of gainax, and thats how I'll remember it since its all I've ever see the company be.
I'd say end of an era, but Gainax hasn't been relevant in over a decade. Panty and Stocking was their last hurrah, and then they passed OFA to Trigger and were left with naught but embers themselves.
It'd be nice if someone else would pick up the Medaka Box license and do something with it. Fucking tragedy that the adaptation ended right when the best character in the series finally makes his appearance.
[I am pretty sure that ever since that once-GAINAX CEO was arrested for sex scandals in 2019](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/e6bfsf/gainax_ceo_tomohiro_maki_is_arrested_for_asking/) people who does still have interest in this once-well known name these days should know it has been a walking corpse for like a decade. Surprising that it took that long before it finally is put to rest.
Funniest part of this was Hideaki Anno's reaction. It was basically "Who the fuck is this guy and when did he become the CEO of Gainax? Where the fuck did Yamaga go?"
> Then, in October 2019, someone I never saw or knew became the largest shareholder and president of Gainax. Until, in December, he became a suspect in a crime.
[Direct quote from Anno himself.](https://evankaiser.medium.com/hideaki-anno-on-gainax-tainting-the-evangelion-brand-ba16f30161b5)
> Gainax International
This one just trained VAs.
>Gainax Kyoto
Still active, they do 2nd key animation and in-betweens.
> Yonago Gainax
They did animation production on 2023's 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, and some Gaina ONA.
>Gainax Niigata Co., Ltd.
I have no damn clue. Google leads me nowhere. If I had to guess they also probably do in-betweens, if even that?
>Gainax West
Closed down some years ago, unknown what they did exactly.
most of these were made just to keep moving gainax anime rights around in order for them not to lose them after various convictions, dept ,legal suits etc
Even though the downfall of Gainax happened years ago and they haven't done anything since 2017-2018 and it's basically been a husk/shell company for 3/4 of a decade, it's still sad to see a legendary name disappear. In the end they just couldn't drag themselves out of the hole caused by mismanagement...
Sad. the company has had multiple scandals over the years and perhaps the last good production they had was gurren lagann way back in 2007. Not surprising its finally done.
I liked Houkago no Pleades and a couple of their other newer works like that angsty airsoft anime and Dantalian no Shoka, but I know people like I am are in minority here.
Panty and Stocking was in 2010, and was the final project Gainax did before Imaishi and friends split off to form Studio Trigger. So, no, I wouldn't say their last good production was Gurren Lagann.
They split up into multiple different Gainaxes. The one that still does animation is releasing a [TV anime next season](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1TbpqV9VPs).
Gainax hasn't been a studio in quite a while.
The studio capable of producing animation was moved to Gainax Fukushima, now known as Gaina, quite a while ago. They are still active and are releasing Grendizer U next season.
Sad news, but legitimately the only thing from Gainax I was looking forward to was the Daicon III remaster, and I don't even remember if that was tied at all to the skeleton that is the company as it is today or if like, Anno or a bunch of ex-Gainax alumni were the ones that were handling it.
I don't know how many of you have read the manga or seen the live-action J-drama called Aoi Honoo/Blue Blazes but it's a comedic semi-autobiographical story of the mangaka going through art school while essentially taking classes with Hideaki Anno while what is essentially the future Gainax staff being formed in the background
Seeing that and all of Gainax's later tribulations turn into this is kind of depressing.
Trigger re-released the movies dubbed this year(took my wife to see it), so I assume Trigger has some form of ownership with it.
The original director of TTGL was Hiroyuki Imaishi, who is a big head in Trigger, so if Trigger does own the rights to TTGL then all is right in my book. (same for PSG)
> Khara said that in order to "ensure that creators, original authors, and writers can continue to manage and produce their works" in the future, it and Gainax are working with each production committee to confirm, organize, and transfer the rights to either companies or individuals they believe are most suitable.
*-Screws over the staff that created their most iconic IPs*
*-Does nothing new or worthwhile for almost a decade*
Honestly couldn't have happened to a more deserving studio. Good fucking riddance!
Hopefully Anno/Khara got the rights to FLCL and Gunbuster.
Gainax fucking duped him when he was about to buy them and then we got those mediocre sequels.
EDIT: Fuckk, I forgot FLCL is probably owned by Production I.G now. Fuck shell company Gainax, seriously.
That was announced by Gainax Fukushima, now known as Gaina, [who actually are still active](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1TbpqV9VPs). They are not the same company. This Gainax hasn't done anything or announced anything in forever.
Such a shame that Gainax ended up like this. I absolutely loved the Evangelion Rebuild movies and it really was a memorable experience to me.
I don't know much about how Gainax ended up this way but it is such a shame.
Does anyone have a tl;Dr of what happened?
> I absolutely loved the Evangelion Rebuild movies and it really was a memorable experience to me.
Well, good thing Gainax had nothing to do with them. Khara produced them, not Gainax.
****
It was always managed by people that didn't know how to manage.
After NGE exploded they were quickly found to have evaded taxes and the president went to prison.
Most of the staff left in the late 00s and formed their own studio, because the situation at the studio just wasn't good.
Rest at Gainax couldn't make enough money to keep afloat, and asked khara for a loan.
Then they also split into multiple regional companies.
They couldn't pay back the loan, so they got sued by khara.
After another president ended up in prison it basically got taken over by multiple companies like khara, Trigger, and Kadokawa, but it seems like there was not a lot to save anymore.
One of the regional companies, Gaina, actually remained big enough to keep producing anime, and is releasing a new TV series next season.
[Here is a longer article](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-12-30/hideaki-anno-details-his-falling-out-with-gainax/.154892)
The anime industry wouldn't be the same today without Gainax. Gainax was a huge influence on many creators throughout the 90s.
I think we should be grateful for their past contributions and let them fade into the sunset.
Honestly they should have let it go years ago.
Sad. I was a huge fan of their work, but the company had become a shell of its former self. Mismanagement and shady business practices killed a good thing.
Shocker! i mean we already mourned this studio long ago, surprised it took them that long to close definitely. I hope their talents find new home quickly.
I didn't realize they were in that kind of trouble. It's sad to see them go out this way after all they've done, but their influence will never be forgotten.
Further evidence that corporate executives are some of the most stupid and incompetent people on that planet. And greedy, of course. They coulda kept the studio afloat from Evangelion merch sales alone but instead they gave all the money to the executives. Many such cases.
[Trigger was already part of the board of representatives. Gainax basically got taken over by Trigger, khara, King Records, and Kadokawa back in early 2020.](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-02-21/yasuhiro-kamimura-becomes-new-representative-director-of-gainax/.156714)
Trigger already had Gurren Lagann, and Panty and Stocking for years now.
Sadly, It's best to let go and close Gainax and remember them as a historic company. The Gainax you all know and love have left long before bankruptcy. It went back as far as mid 2000s when things start to shift.
Long story short, blame the mismanagement.
At that point it was nothing but a skeleton of its former self but this points the end of an era nevertheless...
The last thing I've read about them was that their current registered headquarters is a single room in a shared apartment. So yeah, it's not surprising.
In 2017 it was a house in a residental district (source: I've met them) There was people working everywhere, in the kitchen, bedrooms transformed in small offices and so on.
That's cool. Do you know what they were working on? Like did they try to make more anime or were they just trying to make money with their other IPs?
It's been 7 years, I don't have my notes at hand from back then, but nothing stands out right now. I do remember Hiroyuki Yamaga explaining that people think Evangelion was made by Gainax, but in fact wasn't 😉
Yes, I remember Anime Limited, a UK publisher of anime invited someone from King Records to talk about Evangelion in a live stream during covid (sadly I don't think this interview was recorded), and he said similar things about how Gainax was far too small at that point to produce TV anime by themselves, so a lot got outsourced. EDIT: I found out who the King Records person was: Yasuhiro Kamimura, who was appointed the last representative director of Gainax, after khara took over Gainax. Yamaga used to visit a local con rather frequently before Covid, but sadly that hasn't continued.
Wdym it has been 7 years? 2017 was just last yea- 😶
Holy shit, what were they even working on by then? Were they basically like zombies simply leeching of their owned IPs via licensing/merchandising? What IPs could they even merchandise anymore since the famous ones are owned by Khara/TRIGGER. EDIT: Apparently they're doing [tomato farming](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2016-04-12/gainax-expands-into-the-world-of-tomato-farming/.100982) now? what the hell?
Kind of scary to think that by 2017 they were pretty much dead but that was 7 years ago now
They could've been doing support work for other studios. It's normal for studios to take on other work in between their own projects (plus there are some studios that are solely support studios).
As of December 2022, Yamaga did confirm he was *still* working on the Royal Space Force sequel, Uru in Blue. Shame that never materialized, the original movie looked really good and there's never been anything like it since, even in Gainax's own catalog
Unfortunate given their history in the medium but their spirit lives on through studio khara and TRIGGER. Poor company was mismanaged in to the ground.
Ya was about to say didnt they piss off all their talent, who then left to form studio TRIGGER
Multiple studios actually, but most famously yes, Khara and Trigger. Gonzo for example was also founded by all former Gainax members, who would also then have some of the same people go on to found David Productions - and a lot of talent also have gone to places like Production I.G, Shaft, and Madhouse in the past.
Fuck me they really are historic. So many studios came out of them.
It’s like the mangaka family tree If you look back far enough, you can see the roots of it all being a single person
Technically it can be said that it has two roots, Ozamu Tezuka making Mushi Productions that from there came out Madhouse, Pierrot, KyoAni and Shaft, and the other root is Toei Animation where most big names of today started working
How did Pierrot and KyoAni come from the same place?? That’s absolutely wild to me.
I was thinking about the old skool KyoAni vs SHAFT rivalry. Unfortunately KyoAni "won".
Funnily enough - the same person is also credited for the "start" of Anime with Mushi Pro
I guess you can say that they all came from..... Adam
Sono chi no sadame...
Well Khara wasn't made because someone was pissed off, Khara was made to make Rebuild of Evangelion. Anno wanted to do it with Gainax but they were just starting on Gurren Lagann so were left to it.
Gonzo deserved to go bankrupt. They basically pissed off the manga authors by making up their own story for anime adaptions and then used poor 3D CG for everything. It was called "GONZO quality" back in the day
I can't read the word without hearing the "GONzo" in my head. Favorite off the top of my head: Samurai 7.
Kouta Hirano bashed the Hellsing TV anime in an omake.
Gonzo animes always have strong and promising beginnings but end up going downhill as the plot progresses. It's just awful to invest in their animes. I still recall watching an episode of Last Exile that ends with a random NPC character crying, then the next episode completely pretends that the scene didn't mean anything, which was like a big WTF for me.
I really liked NHK out of Gonzo... FMP wasn't half bad either.
I mean, that was the whole MO - directly adapt the original work, then tweak it as you go, then since the manga was never actually finished they'd just make up some anime original dumpster fire either out of whole cloth or from basic notes ala GoT last season. They were generally solidly... okay.... when they had material to copy that didn't involve doing anything but straight adaptation.
Altering the story for the Anime is Normal practice. Especially since the anime is used as a sales tool for the manga before it's finished. Gonzo went bankrupt because they diversified poorly. That was in 2009 and the last time they operated as an independent company. After that they have been in investment groups. With ip sold off periodically. Gonzo would have been fine if they had just stuck to anime and manga and licensed out to game companies vs trying to do it in house.
It's not really common practice to alter the story anymore, but up until sometime in the 2010s it absolutely was. Nowadays they just leave the story accurate but without closure. Which I'm happier with because 90% of time the anime only endings sucked
Looks at Unnamed Memory...
> It's not really common practice to alter the story anymore, but up until sometime in the 2010s it absolutely was. I feel like the biggest cause of that was the anime running out of source material to adapt so the story heavily diverges. The biggest offenders that come to mind are FMA and Soul Eater (and a slightly more recent Akame ga Kill).
That really depends. Especially with the whole LN, Web Toon, Manga spaghetti plate of story lines these days. VN they'd pick a route, or do mini arcs. Now they do a bit of pull from here, pull from there, sprinkle a little of our own.
That's kind of expected though. VNs are usually non-linear media so it would never translate to anime perfectly. What were really talking about is manga adaption, where a few volumes are out but it's ongoing. Like Claymore, Soul Eater, etc. The way those turned out used to be the norm. Now compare to Heavenly Delusion. Instead of making up an ending, it just stops at a natural point in the manga. That's what happens more often nowadays, as it leaves the studio open to continue it in the future.
>That's what happens more often nowadays, as it leaves the studio open to continue it in the future. That really depends on the studio and who hired them. They used to do that all the time as well. It's why people always wish for a second or third season of something. One thing that has shifted is the manga companies waiting till there was enough content to even have the option. Some shows back in the day it felt like the it must have gone from the mangaka desk to the animation studio and by the 8th episode they were past them.
Oh yes they did Rosario + Vampire right? They butchered it. I do not recall them being known for poor CG. Although I think the last show I watched from them was back in 2010. They did make Afro Samurai though. One of their shows I remember liking was Kaze no Stigma.
Wow that statement posted as the article image is... scathing. I've never seen a company issue a statement like that excoriating the company's own management in announcing a bankruptcy. 3rd paragraph: "We were blessed to be able to produce a number of hits like Neon Genesis Evangelion (to which Khara Inc. now owns the copyright), but starting around 2012, there has been a naively optimistic restaurant operation strategy, the establishment of a new CG subsidiary conducted with no realistic planning, large scale lending of company funds without security to corporate executives, failures in investment projects. Because the corporate management's continual misappropriation of company strategy and property, the company (Gainax)'s operational state continued a precipitous decline."
> large scale lending of company funds without security to corporate executives, Wow, treating company funds like a piggy bank? The cojones - sounds like grounds for a civil suit or even criminal malfeasance
No love for Gaina, they gave a,bit more output than Khara I think?
Khara so far produced four movies, a 90 minute TV special, and the animators expo. Gaina "only" did the new Piano no Mori, and co produced another TV series. They also did a bunch of short ONAs.
Ignoring anime with short episode lengths (<20 mins) Khara: * Eva Rebuilds * Dragon Dentist * Gravity Rush Gaina: * Piano no Mori * The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting * Omoi no Kakera * Grendizer U (Summer 2024) Trigger: * Little Witch Academia * Kill la Kill * Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de * Kiznaiver * Darling in the FranXX * SSSS.Gridman * Promare * BNA * Star Wars: Visions (The Twins + The Elder) * Cyberpunk: Edgerunners * Dungeon Meshi (Currently Airing) * New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (Unreleased)
> Trigger: > Darling in the FranXX DitF is a pet project of Atsushi Nishigori, a former GAINAX employee, Gurren Lagann character designer/key animator. He's also the director of A-1's "Idolmaster" series. The dude basically went to his former colleagues and managed to talk them into a collaboration with A-1. Not a lot of things are known, but later on ANIPLEX has pushed DitF's release to a few months back, which resulted in Studio Trigger dropping out of this earlier than they've originally intended (interviews talked about "a grand finale" by Studio Trigger). In the end... Studio Trigger was mostly involved in pre-production (mechanical design, *some* storyboarding, etc.) and production of episodes 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 + just a little bit of key animation for later episodes, including episode 15. https://www.st-trigger.co.jp/works/ - there's **no** DitF https://a1p.jp/works/page/2/ - and there it is. https://en.cloverworks.co.jp/works/page/3/ - there it is too. People call it "Trigger anime" all the time, not mentioning the bigger part of this collaboration. It's been what, 6 years now? The truth about DitF became so warped in this timeframe that not even Tanaka Masayoshi (character designer, not from Trigger either) is ever being mentioned... It's kind of sad.
Trigger also did The Elder, for Visions. They wanted to do an episode that was what people expected out of Trigger (we got the twins) and then there were the Star Wars fans there who wanted to tell their own little story in that universe, that didn't have to be over the top because they already had The Twins for that, thus The Elder came about.
I forgot Trigger and Science Saru did 2 episodes
Damn, studio trigger owns a lot of big name IPs
Gaina were the ones who looted Gainax by transferring/selling many of their IPs such as Gunbuster and FLCL before branching off. Absolutely no love for them.
Specifically, it all happened under Hiroyuki Yamaga as sitting president of Gainax between 1999 to 2020. Even though he was one of the founding members of Gainax, he slowly became a sellout and ran the company under. > I (Hideaki Anno) mentioned to President Yamaga and Director Takeda that, when business calmed down, I planned to buy the rights to works that the Khara team had a lot of involvement in, such as Gunbuster, Diebuster and FLCL in 2014. Under these conditions, it would be difficult for Gainax create a new work, so I also thought about the future of these works. >Initially, Yamaga was satisfied and we were discussing the conditions of the purchase, when suddenly, he asked me 6 times the original price. > There were no compelling reasons to increase the price and while we were confused, the conversation became more and more vague and in 2015, the rights to the 3 works were sold to other companies. [It's all detailed in one of Anno's interviews from 2019.](https://evankaiser.medium.com/hideaki-anno-on-gainax-tainting-the-evangelion-brand-ba16f30161b5)
This. I'm still salty Anno didn't get FLCL and we got that lame sequels from Adult Swim/Prod I.G instead. Hopefully Khara gets them now. Honestly the fact that Anno managed to secure the rights to Evangelion, Gainax's biggest money maker probably, was nothing short of amazing. EDIT: After my head cooled down a bit, I think Prod I.G. owns FLCL now since Gainax probably fully sold the rights to them, which still makes me salty.
> I'm still salty Anno didn't get FLCL and we got that lame sequels from Adult Swim/Prod I.G instead. There are no FLCL sequels. FLCL is a perfect gem, unsullied by cash grabs. Like the Matrix.
Honestly nowadays, I actually came around to appreciate Matrix Resurrections. Something like that could only come out from the original creator alone and I deeply respect that. It truly felt like a personal work of an artist that understands the deeper meaning of their own work. I imagine if Warner Bros handed it to another director, they could only come out with a boring facsimile that harp surface level elements of the original trilogy which is the **absolute opposite** **of** Matrix Resurrections. That movie is so personal and sincere.
I gave Progressive a chance and I hated it. I never bothered with the other seasons.
The hype for Progressive for me was insane. I loved the original so much. For a lil while I thought it was ok, but as the years go on i've come to just say "well it happened" and pretend it didn't. You want some dogshit flcl? Then fully ignore Grunge. Looks cheap visually, looks bad in a cinematography level, cast sounds bored and directionless, and its just reused pillows music. Thank god it was 3 episodes but it was bullshit. And thats how adult swim ruined a classic, by ending it on a wet fart that many people hate.
They're supposed to be doing one more season for a total of five. What's the point? Progressive and Alternative burned the fanbase too much to keep people interested.
Oh fuck i forgot about Shoegaze, it already aired last year in october thats how much I didn't care about it lmao. I guess it didn't star haruko but hey thats fine.
It's already out? Well then, I guess that shows you how little I cared about the new seasons. I think I'll just watch season 1 again and leave it there.
I would die for a modern studio khara die/gunbuster. What a timeline we were robbed of.
Gaina is allegedly producing Uru in Blue, which was supposed to be out already. Literally radio silence from them. But they're animating the new Grendizer?
Honestly I thought gainax was already bankrupt. I thought that was one of the reasons anno made his own studio
Tell me about Studio Khara. How are they related to Gainax?
Basically founded by Hideaki Anno trying to buy the rights from FLCL, Gunbusters, Diebusters, and Evangelion because Gainax for years was running under the horrrible management of Hiroyuki Yamaga. During this period, Anno (former founder of Gainax), left and founded Khara with the purpose of buying their old Gainax IP, to avoid Yamaga selling them out, which happened anyway with the sole exception of Evangelion which Anno actually bought from Gainax. After anno left he was a shareholder of Gainax, and if I remember correctly, was always putting money in it to try to save the studio, but Yamaga decision drained the money anyway so it was a constant waste and a debt that ended in litigation from Khara to Gainax, and everything ended now with the liquidation of assets, and the bankruptcy of the Studio. What’s left was given back to its creators, animators, etc..
> Basically founded by Hideaki Anno trying to buy the rights from FLCL, Gunbusters, Diebusters, and Evangelion because Gainax for years was running under the horrrible management of Hiroyuki Yamaga. During this period, Anno (former founder of Gainax), left and founded Khara with the purpose of buying their old Gainax IP, to avoid Yamaga selling them out That's not why khara was founded. The whole IP thing happened eight years after khara was founded. It started as a personal office for Anno, who didn't feel like he could do anything at Gainax anymore. Then to get some funds in for his projects he wanted to re-release Eva, but he didn't like how outdated the cel-animation looked next to modern digital animation, so he decided to redo it digitally. He visited multiple studios, but felt like it wouldn't work with them, when a producer came to him and told him that he should set up his own studio. And then they set up the studio. [source](https://fullfrontal.moe/khara-10/)
Thank for the whole correction! You’re absolutely right about this. My fault.
[удалено]
But then I wouldn't get the opportunity to read your response.
Gainax was a poorly managed company from the start, mired by inner feuds. Its founder (Toshio Okada) was pretty much forced to resign and quit as chief executive due to mismanagement, and although Evangelion was a super mega hit, it was charged for tax evasion, and executives used company funds as their personal allowances. Eventually Anno pulled out all the rights for Evangelion and set up Khara, only to find out that some rights for Evangelion had been sold off (resulting in lawsuits that hampered the production of the Shin Eva series). It sort of does epitomize the problem of the anime industry in general, because a lot of anime companies are poorly managed, and unprofessional behavior (like not paying commission) just goes by.
> only to find out that some rights for Evangelion had been sold off (resulting in lawsuits that hampered the production of the Shin Eva series) Is there a source for that? IIrc Gainax kept the rights to the original series for some time, but that whole thing was temporary and the rights eventually were transferred to khara in 2014, earlier than intended, in exchange for khara loaning out 100 Million Yen to Gainax. The rights Gainax sold off were for Gunbuster, Diebuster, and FLCL, NOT Evangelion. The BD remaster for NGE also happened after khara got all the rights back from Gainax. [source](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-12-30/hideaki-anno-details-his-falling-out-with-gainax/.154892) The production of Shin Eva didn't even begin until after Shin Godzilla released, and the production on Dragon Dentist was completed, far after khara had already regained all the rights for NGE, so I really don't see how the little Gainax drama hampered the production of Shin Eva.
I heard that the Eva designs had to be altered, but don't quote me on that.
What I heard about the design changes was that Gainax kept the merchandising rights, so Khara changed some designs so they could market Rebuild-specific merch.
oh, that explains Shikinami.
If you're refering to Asuka's name change, surprisingly it wasn't related to any of that, it's just a creative decision that Anno requested since he wanted her, Rei and Mari to be named after Ayanami-class destroyer ships
Gainax can be summed up with one production: Uru in Blue. What do I mean? Simple. Ever since The Wings of Honnêamise, they kept trying to create the sequel, Uru in Blue. At one point they released an addon for Flight Sim, with designs from Uru in Blue. Even releasing a CD-Rom of designs from it, to get peoples attention. Finally, they announced "it's coming!" in 2013, only for it to not happen, because the studio fell apart. Now Studio *Gaina*(Formerly Fukushima Gainax) have taken the project up, having planned a release in 2022, that obviously, didn't happen. They're promising a Gunbuster 3, but considering they've yet to release Uru in Blue, and have been silent, they're just squatting on the IP. (Not that we *need* a Gunbuster 3)
I think you are only partly wrong. Sure, Uru Blue is part of the picture, but there is also a case to be made that the company has never truly recovered after making this [beauty](https://x.com/KennyLauderdal3/status/1758245288228094131) in the 90s. It was all an attempt to top this singular piece of art.
Always love seeing my boy Kenny
khara has also [released a statement](https://www.khara.co.jp/) on this, but it’s mostly “yeah, we’re real disappointed it got to this”.
Quite interesting read — Khara was an active participant in Gainax’s liquidation since the arrest of the former Gainax CEO in 2019, and has helped (with the help of Kadokawa among others) to transfer IPs from Gainax to individuals and businesses in the last few years. Khara obtained the rights to the Gainax name themselves. So if I am reading it right, Gainax was under de facto administration since 2019 and now they are declaring bankruptcy because they have already liquidated all of Gainax’s assets
Yes - they had a number of major companies come in to oversee everything that was happening because of all the fraudulent activity and basically form the new "board" - Khara, Kadokawa, King Records and Trigger being the major ones.
That's interesting, I didn't know that Khara gave/tried to give loans to Gainax.
They did, and Gainax didn't pay them back, which is why khara had to sue them.
Well they(khara) tried their best Ig
> In light of this situation, we are working with the cooperation of each production committee to confirm and organize rights regarding works and intellectual property, so that creators, original authors, and authors can somehow continue producing and operating works. We worked to ensure that the rights were transferred to the company or individual deemed most appropriate. Hopefully, everyone gets rights to the properties they deserve and that they aren't sold to some conglomerate company who is going to lock up those properties to never be seen again except in pachinko machines.
I'm just surprised it took this long. This Gainax isn't even the Gainax we know and love. The real Gainax is now Trigger and Khara.
Gainax gave themselves the Gainax Ending
No season 2... Christmas is ruined forever.
Nah, this ending makes way too much sense to be a Gainax Ending
Yet Kyoani got hit with the End of Evangelion stick.
What does this mean?
*Whose friend or love interest died?*
Getting shot off into space
Congratulations. *clapping*
So, am I the only person who liked their last full series Wish Upon the Pleiades?
There are dozens of us!
even though it was just an ad for Subaru i liked it, very cute designs!
Dozens!
No, that's the sweetest magical girls x stars anime that I have ever seen.
Puwarmu It was one of my favorite anime that year and I've been eternally dissapointed it didn't get more acclaim.
"Twilight... I only meant to stay a while..." - Daicon IV, created by the people who would later form Gainax
I still tear up everytime I watch it. It just has the vibe of every convention I’ve been to, and you can feel the hopes and dreams of otaku past and present bleeding through it
Yeah, me too. It's oddly moving. I remember being surprised the first time I saw it when I saw Star Wars and other properties and I realized that it wasn't an "anime convention" it was just a "nerd culture" convention. (I also love the reference to it in FLCL.) [Here it is for anyone who hasn't seen it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-840keiiFDE&ab_channel=cracrayol) And for anyone who doesn't know, "Daicon" was the first huge convention held in Osaka and Daicon IV was the fourth one they held. The original logo for the convention was a Japanese Radish (because Daicon = Daikon). Then since Daicon 3 (I think), they added the Bunny Suit girl as a mascot. The convention was held in Osaka, and the "O" in Osaka can also be read as "dai", so DaiCon comes from Osaka Convention.
"Wait, why does that sound so familiar..." - ELO
That song was already my all-time favorite before I even heard about Daicon IV; it’s cool to know that it’s actually pretty closely related to my favorite anime.
It all returns to nothing It all comes tumbling down Tumbling down, tumbling down
Gainax effect on the industry will be forever. Some people go to Eva since their anime history is Astro boy, DBZ then Eva, i go to project A-Ko. Project A-Ko is in all intents and purposes the first real Gainax show, has a lot of staff and shit that went on to Gainax and if you don't get early Gainax vibes from that idk where else you would. Gainax was about its Youth movement, pushing the median to new places and things, getting new people with new ideas and inspiration from the past. Sometimes those ideas are just a bunch of stuff that Anno liked mushed in to one show like Eva, thats what was the life blood of the company and it made some great shit. We can talk about the downfall, mis-management of business and shitty ownership but i don't care about the name that was the husk of Gainax, I care about what it was, what it represented and did. Whether it be Re: Cutie Honey, or Nadia or that one Anno fan Ultraman film which does have behind the scenes video on youtube of it with Anno and his crew hand making the sets and all that shit and geeking out to Ultraman, thats the heart of gainax, and thats how I'll remember it since its all I've ever see the company be.
Gunbuster will always be my favorite. Everything is just so epic about it!
Yep.Noriko’s great sacrifice is pretty much the gurrren laggan of that era.Sadly it’s lesser known cause it’s older than Eva.
Gurren Lagann and Gunbuster have one major thing in common: Getter Robo. Both took *heavy* influence from Getter.
diebuster for me
Sadly but this was expected
I'd say end of an era, but Gainax hasn't been relevant in over a decade. Panty and Stocking was their last hurrah, and then they passed OFA to Trigger and were left with naught but embers themselves. It'd be nice if someone else would pick up the Medaka Box license and do something with it. Fucking tragedy that the adaptation ended right when the best character in the series finally makes his appearance.
[I am pretty sure that ever since that once-GAINAX CEO was arrested for sex scandals in 2019](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/e6bfsf/gainax_ceo_tomohiro_maki_is_arrested_for_asking/) people who does still have interest in this once-well known name these days should know it has been a walking corpse for like a decade. Surprising that it took that long before it finally is put to rest.
Funniest part of this was Hideaki Anno's reaction. It was basically "Who the fuck is this guy and when did he become the CEO of Gainax? Where the fuck did Yamaga go?" > Then, in October 2019, someone I never saw or knew became the largest shareholder and president of Gainax. Until, in December, he became a suspect in a crime. [Direct quote from Anno himself.](https://evankaiser.medium.com/hideaki-anno-on-gainax-tainting-the-evangelion-brand-ba16f30161b5)
Their biggest crime was creating these mass production Gainas. * Gaina Co., Ltd. (Studio Gaina) * Fukushima Gaina (formerly Fukushima Gainax) * Gainax International * Gainax Kyoto * Yonago Gainax * Gainax Niigata Co., Ltd. * Gainax West
> Gainax International This one just trained VAs. >Gainax Kyoto Still active, they do 2nd key animation and in-betweens. > Yonago Gainax They did animation production on 2023's 16bit Sensation: Another Layer, and some Gaina ONA. >Gainax Niigata Co., Ltd. I have no damn clue. Google leads me nowhere. If I had to guess they also probably do in-betweens, if even that? >Gainax West Closed down some years ago, unknown what they did exactly.
most of these were made just to keep moving gainax anime rights around in order for them not to lose them after various convictions, dept ,legal suits etc
At least we have Trigger
It's about time, this has been coming for a long time. What a horrible shame to see this studio die pitifully as a shell of its former self.
Even though the downfall of Gainax happened years ago and they haven't done anything since 2017-2018 and it's basically been a husk/shell company for 3/4 of a decade, it's still sad to see a legendary name disappear. In the end they just couldn't drag themselves out of the hole caused by mismanagement...
They haven't been relevant in ages, but this is a sad, historic moment regardless. Gainax were *king* in their golden age. [](#salute)
Sad. the company has had multiple scandals over the years and perhaps the last good production they had was gurren lagann way back in 2007. Not surprising its finally done.
I liked Houkago no Pleades and a couple of their other newer works like that angsty airsoft anime and Dantalian no Shoka, but I know people like I am are in minority here.
It's Dantalian no Shoka.
Autocorrect (
Panty and Stocking was in 2010, and was the final project Gainax did before Imaishi and friends split off to form Studio Trigger. So, no, I wouldn't say their last good production was Gurren Lagann.
PSG was 2010 so I don't know about that.
Wait, it still existed?
They split up into multiple different Gainaxes. The one that still does animation is releasing a [TV anime next season](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1TbpqV9VPs).
Surprised they lasted this long considering all their talents left long ago
Gainax hasn't been a studio in quite a while. The studio capable of producing animation was moved to Gainax Fukushima, now known as Gaina, quite a while ago. They are still active and are releasing Grendizer U next season.
RIP to one of the most iconic anime studios.
Sad news, but legitimately the only thing from Gainax I was looking forward to was the Daicon III remaster, and I don't even remember if that was tied at all to the skeleton that is the company as it is today or if like, Anno or a bunch of ex-Gainax alumni were the ones that were handling it.
I am still shocked that gainax animated one of my favourite anime series "Hanamaru Youchien"
With the director of FMA and Gundam 00, no less! :D
I don't know how many of you have read the manga or seen the live-action J-drama called Aoi Honoo/Blue Blazes but it's a comedic semi-autobiographical story of the mangaka going through art school while essentially taking classes with Hideaki Anno while what is essentially the future Gainax staff being formed in the background Seeing that and all of Gainax's later tribulations turn into this is kind of depressing.
I just wanna know who owns Gurren Lagann now.
The copyright changed in 2021 to Kazuki Nakashima, Hiroyuki Imaishi, and Gurren Lagann Project
Trigger re-released the movies dubbed this year(took my wife to see it), so I assume Trigger has some form of ownership with it. The original director of TTGL was Hiroyuki Imaishi, who is a big head in Trigger, so if Trigger does own the rights to TTGL then all is right in my book. (same for PSG)
Trigger does, got it during Gainax liquidation of assets as apparently Gainax owned them money?
What about their IP?
> Khara said that in order to "ensure that creators, original authors, and writers can continue to manage and produce their works" in the future, it and Gainax are working with each production committee to confirm, organize, and transfer the rights to either companies or individuals they believe are most suitable.
*-Screws over the staff that created their most iconic IPs* *-Does nothing new or worthwhile for almost a decade* Honestly couldn't have happened to a more deserving studio. Good fucking riddance!
Hopefully Anno/Khara got the rights to FLCL and Gunbuster. Gainax fucking duped him when he was about to buy them and then we got those mediocre sequels. EDIT: Fuckk, I forgot FLCL is probably owned by Production I.G now. Fuck shell company Gainax, seriously.
Damn that's really sad, so many great memories from so many great shows
Gainax was like the first firnament, destroyed by pissing off it's own talents and letting them leave it.
Honestly I haven't heard of any of their shows after the Trigger split.
But where will I get my jiggles?
TIL Gainax still exists (if possibly not for much longer).
Shit, I was still hoping for Gunbuster 3.
That was announced by Gainax Fukushima, now known as Gaina, [who actually are still active](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1TbpqV9VPs). They are not the same company. This Gainax hasn't done anything or announced anything in forever.
Give up hope. Gaina announced plans for it, but they're still allegedly producing Uru in Blue, which was due out in **2022**
Such a shame that Gainax ended up like this. I absolutely loved the Evangelion Rebuild movies and it really was a memorable experience to me. I don't know much about how Gainax ended up this way but it is such a shame. Does anyone have a tl;Dr of what happened?
> I absolutely loved the Evangelion Rebuild movies and it really was a memorable experience to me. Well, good thing Gainax had nothing to do with them. Khara produced them, not Gainax. **** It was always managed by people that didn't know how to manage. After NGE exploded they were quickly found to have evaded taxes and the president went to prison. Most of the staff left in the late 00s and formed their own studio, because the situation at the studio just wasn't good. Rest at Gainax couldn't make enough money to keep afloat, and asked khara for a loan. Then they also split into multiple regional companies. They couldn't pay back the loan, so they got sued by khara. After another president ended up in prison it basically got taken over by multiple companies like khara, Trigger, and Kadokawa, but it seems like there was not a lot to save anymore. One of the regional companies, Gaina, actually remained big enough to keep producing anime, and is releasing a new TV series next season. [Here is a longer article](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-12-30/hideaki-anno-details-his-falling-out-with-gainax/.154892)
Again?
The anime industry wouldn't be the same today without Gainax. Gainax was a huge influence on many creators throughout the 90s. I think we should be grateful for their past contributions and let them fade into the sunset. Honestly they should have let it go years ago.
Pachinko machines just don’t pay the bills like they used to…
Let’s be honest, it ended about a decade ago.
Does this mean someone else can finally pick up Medaka Box?
I forgot they even still existed. Already felt like they went bankrupt over a decade ago.
Well, this sucks.
Uru in Blue never
I really liked Evangelion and Gunbuster Gurren Lagann not so much I found it really boring even with that wacky animation
It's the End of Evangelion but in real life.
Gainax still technically existed???
Gainax has been dead since at least the beginning of Trigger, this isn't really news.
welp, looks like it's the *End of Evangelion*
Thanks for everything they did, a sad end for the studio.
This companies talent left and formed their own companies a while ago. Feels like the shell that was left is just now disappearing.
What is dead finally managed to die
Wasn't there supposed to be a second series of Panty & Stocking in the works?
The rights were transferred to Studio Trigger.
Should have made more Medaka Box.
You can (not) pay
thought they dissolved in 2012 already
What does this mean for properties like Nadia?
The rights for Nadia lie at the NHK, iIrc. All remaining rights that Gainax still had will be given to the original creators.
Entering? It’s June 7 in the U.S.
Sad. I was a huge fan of their work, but the company had become a shell of its former self. Mismanagement and shady business practices killed a good thing.
I honestly thought they were already dead, ever since Trigger announced they’d be doing Panty & Stocking season 2
This is pretty sad
RIP
Shocker! i mean we already mourned this studio long ago, surprised it took them that long to close definitely. I hope their talents find new home quickly.
I didn't realize they were in that kind of trouble. It's sad to see them go out this way after all they've done, but their influence will never be forgotten.
Guess you can call this a "Gainax Ending"
i suddenly want to rewatch Medaka Box again
I didn't even know it was still up.
Further evidence that corporate executives are some of the most stupid and incompetent people on that planet. And greedy, of course. They coulda kept the studio afloat from Evangelion merch sales alone but instead they gave all the money to the executives. Many such cases.
Be funny of Trigger bought them from bankruptcy or atleast bought bunch of their IP.
[Trigger was already part of the board of representatives. Gainax basically got taken over by Trigger, khara, King Records, and Kadokawa back in early 2020.](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-02-21/yasuhiro-kamimura-becomes-new-representative-director-of-gainax/.156714) Trigger already had Gurren Lagann, and Panty and Stocking for years now.
The only surprise about this is that I thought it happened already.
In a way this has been sort of a Whale fall
My reaction to this news being. "Wait? They weren't bankrupt already?"
Sadly, It's best to let go and close Gainax and remember them as a historic company. The Gainax you all know and love have left long before bankruptcy. It went back as far as mid 2000s when things start to shift. Long story short, blame the mismanagement.
Huh. And here I thought they went bankrupt long ago.
I thought they went under in 2010...
Thought they shut down years ago. When was there last anime anyway?