Gainax, the animation studio behind works comparable to Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, and Gurren Lagann, has filed for chapter.

In response to the Automaton report and translation, Gainax acknowledged a Could 29 Tokyo District Courtroom submitting had been accepted. The corporate acknowledged its trigger for chapter was on account of mismanagement that started round 2012. These troubles reportedly surfaced when administration and executives started working the corporate to go well with their non-public targets, which concerned numerous unprofitable ventures and taking out dangerous loans.

Hideaki Anno and Gainax

Evangelion collection creator Hideaki Anno has all the time been identified for having a difficult relationship along with his work and particularly its followers. The issue would possibly’ve been brought on or fueled by Gainax itself. Regardless of the success of Evangelion, Anno claims he ended up by no means receiving truthful compensation for the income the collection had earned. Anno ended up leaving the corporate in 2007.

Anno went on to type studio Khara, which then acquired the rights to Evangelion and made the Rebuild collection. This all unfolded as a part of Gainax’s try to remain afloat by promoting its in style IPs, however that was removed from the painless separation one may need anticipated.

In 2019, Gainax president Tomohiro Maki was arrested for sexual misconduct. Anno had lengthy departed the corporate, however was nonetheless related to Gainax within the public eye. The Evangelion creator went on to publicly thank these affected for talking out.

The gradual finish of Gainax

Although the studio is understood for animating a library of classics over its 40 years of existence, it was by no means a stranger to turmoil. Even again in 1992, when Gainax was seemingly on the high of its recreation in the course of the heyday of Evangelion, it noticed the departure of necessary figures comparable to Shinji Higuchi, the identified filmmaker and namesake of Evangelion’s Shinji Ikari.

Mismanagement brought on Gainax to enter a gradual decline within the 2010s, and what stored it from going underneath earlier than was the help acquired from Anno’s Khara. Nonetheless, the corporate’s management was incapable of coping with the massive quantity of debt that the corporate had gathered over a few years of poor choices.

It’s disappointing to see the studio fall, however finally, it had been in decline for years earlier than its monetary damage. The Gainax of 2024 is a stark distinction from the times of Evangelion, FLCL, and Gurren Lagann.