Legendary Anime Studio, Gainax, Has Filed For Bankruptcy

In news that comes as a massive blow to the entire anime industry, Gainax has filed for bankruptcy after operating for almost 40 years. With this bankruptcy, Studio Khara will be responsible for transferring the rights of all of Gainax's IP's to "suitable owners." Gainax is probably best know for being the studio behind the anime works of Hideaki Anno like Gunbuster, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and Evangelion. During the 2000s the studio created critically acclaimed works like Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, FLCL, and Gurren Lagann as well as productions in the 2010s like Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.

While definitely disappointing news, it's not exactly surprising. Gainax has not produced or published a full television series since 2015's Wish Upon the Pleiades. They also unexpectedly cancelled a film trilogy based on the works of Leiji Matsumoto (i.e., Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999). Likewise, Gainax has been a poorly run company built upon a shaky financial foundation since its inception. Back when Evangelion first aired on television, Gainax's president was indicted on tax fraud and a full investigation by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau revealed that Gainax's upper-management was "paying closely related companies various large fees, ostensibly to pay for animation expenses, but then immediately withdrawing 90% of the sums from the other company's accounts as cash and storing it in safe deposit boxes. Then in 2016, Studio Khara, the new anime studio founded by Hideaki Anno, sued Gainax for unpaid royalties amount to ¥100 million and won. Then in 2015 a board director of the company and former president was arrested and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for indecent exposure and sexual assault. Finally, even if you have enjoyed the EVA movies, new FLCL OVAs, or are excited for the sequel to Panty & Stocking; Gainax had nothing to do with those works and was largely coasting on royalties form its older works as it repeatedly attempted to restructure itself to finally get new productions off the runway. The fact that it was able to stay alive for as long as it did speaks volumes to how phenomenally important its early works were to millions around the world, EVA in particular.

Gainax would not be the first nor are they the only anime studio to fall into this "zombie" status. Currently, it appears that another previously well-regarded anime studio, Gonzo, has fallen into this category as their last official anime production, Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle, concluded airing in 2020. Similar to Gainax, Gonzo transferred many of its intellectual property rights to another studio, in this case Studio KAI, in 2019. Additionally, Gonzo was formed by former Gainax employees.

I feel sorry for those who lost their jobs, though considering they weren't actually producing anime for the last decade I'm not sure what those jobs were (janitors and accountants maybe? Are those functions contracted out in Japan like they often are in the US?) But I'm sure some people's lives were disrupted, and that sucks, and it all seems to be the fault of some absolutely terrible management, which seems pretty common in Japanese media.

But there doesn't seem to be much cultural loss here. The licenses of the important stuff will be sold off elsewhere and there wasn't new stuff coming out anyway. The big creators had all moved on and hopefully as many of the less famous artists had as well (or will now, to a place that will actually put their art out into the world.)

And the toxic executives will hopefully retire and never be heard from again. There seems to be a lot of really bad behavior by Gainax's leaders over the years.

This is a shocker. I hope they are able to recover. Gainax is one of the heavyweights in the Anime scene. But at the same time, the state of Anime itself is not a shocker. It has really gone downhill since the 2000s, with the 80s and 90s arguably being the genre's golden years. Too many Anime's with boring and predictable plot lines, like the latest boy stuck in a video game trend that is almost every show now. Too many shows that drag on forever with padding and filler, instead of telling a straight forward story from beginning to end, so the creators can milk the show for all it's worth. While I still occasionally watch Anime, it has to be a special show to get my attention. Most of the mainstream shows I fell off hard, except Jojo and Hunter X Hunter, and even those shows I watch in spells when I'm in the mood.

@av_gamer: Gainax hadn't made any anime in like 10 years and lost all its big creators. This is not really about the state of companies that make anime (though of course there are issues with the industry), it's about one company that had coasted for many years off past successes and was being mismanaged and in some cases even stolen from by executives.

I also don't agree that all anime has gotten stale. You can set whatever golden age you want, and yeah I'd agree that the 80s, 90s, and 2000s had more variety and fewer copycat shows, but I think there's still quite a lot of good stuff coming out. The Netflix co-productions like Blue Eyed Samurai, Dorohedoro and Pluto have a lot in common with 90s stuff, and are short and to the point. I think Delicious in Dungeon is a fantastic and very different show as well. And those are just some very recent shows.

You can prefer whatever era you want and whatever shows you want, but not everything is a bland Isekai, and the 90s had their trends too, like the absolute glut of harem shows.

I'll give you Pluto. It is a good show and I have to finish it. The Samurai show with the lady dressing as a man has great animation and fight scenes, but it didn't keep my attention for some reason. And while you're right about the Harem shows in the 90s, most of them were either very good, or good enough to stick with until the end. I can't say the same about the boy stuck in a video game shows. The first season of Sword Arc Online, which arguably started the trend, even though .Hack/sign came first was the best example of it. And of course, this is just my opinion, just like with music. Some people believe the music of today is completely garbage and was much better decades ago, while others think It's just fine and the ones complaining are old, grumpy, and out of touch. While I'm close, I don't consider myself old just yet, but I might be one of the grumpy one hanging on to the so-called glory days.

@av_gamer: I have some of that same grumpy old(ish) man impulse myself, though I try to fight it.

Honestly I think it's hard to say whether the shows of the past were better than they are now, or we just got the better ones brought over so the quality seemed better (even if you were into fansubs there weren't many of the worst shows that got those), or they just better fit with my particular preferences because I was more in touch with the zeitgeist then, or it was just that anime was newer so it seemed more exciting.

I honestly don't know.

I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop was, in fact, a stone cold classic, but was old Trigun better than new Trigun? I like old Trigun better (though I think new Trigun is...okay) but I was exposed to it at a totally different point in my life and it had a tone that matched my sensibilities because it's from that time.

I think it's really hard to compare.

That's why I just focus on finding whatever new stuff I do like, and I think there's a fair amount of genuinely good stuff still being produced, even if I agree with you that the video game shows are mostly not to my taste. I did enjoy Darwin's Game, but that was a slightly different thing. I also liked High-Rise Invasion. Not sure if you checked that one out. Both were short and didn't have a ton of filler.

Anyway Gainax hadn't made anything in a long time and its properties are being dealt off to studios who do still make anime so even if you have nostalgia for its old peak its hard to be too broken up about this.