RIP GAINAX

Latest Information

2024.06.07

Regarding the Announcement from GAINAX Corporation

Following the announcement on the official GAINAX website regarding bankruptcy proceedings, we would like to provide additional context from our company's perspective. This comment is made considering our relationship with GAINAX’s current management and is published on our official site.

GAINAX was previously the company of our representative director, Hideaki Anno, before he established Khara in 2006 and subsequently left GAINAX in 2007. Since then, Anno has held a shareholder position in GAINAX.

We have long been aware of GAINAX's managerial difficulties and debts and have expressed concerns and provided suggestions for improvement. However, these were not accepted over the years. Despite this, we accepted proposals from the then-management and provided support loans from Khara. Nonetheless, GAINAX’s situation continued to deteriorate and worsened further when the then-representative director was arrested in 2019 for a criminal case unrelated to company operations.

After the arrest of the former representative director of GAINAX, our representative director, Hideaki Anno, sought the cooperation of KADOKAWA, King Records Co., Ltd., and Trigger Inc., appointing directors from these companies to overhaul the management, understand GAINAX's internal circumstances, and resolve unpaid dues to other studios, writers, and creators in the animation industry. This was done to prevent the dissipation of intellectual property and materials.

However, as GAINAX’s release indicated, upon understanding the internal situation, it became clear that the company was in an unsalvageable state of insolvency, making it difficult to continue operations.

Given this situation, with the assistance of various production committees, we made efforts to verify and organize rights concerning works and intellectual property to ensure that creators and original authors could continue their work. We aimed to transfer these rights to the most suitable companies or individuals.

We also considered providing support from our company to mitigate debts owed to many industry stakeholders, but it resulted in an unreasonable situation where we would also have to cover the debts of the former management, making it difficult to fully address the debts.

We thank the directors of the new management and affiliated companies for their cooperation in the orderly transfer of intellectual property and future operations, prioritizing the interests of writers and creators. We also extend our gratitude to the production committees for their efforts.

Lastly, it is deeply regrettable that an animation studio with nearly 40 years of history has come to such an end. As per GAINAX’s official release, we have acquired and manage the trademark and name of GAINAX.

Additionally, “GAINAX Corporation” is a separate entity from similar companies such as “Gaina Inc. (Studio Gaina)” and “Fukushima Gaina” (formerly “Fukushima GAINAX”), “GAINAX International,” “GAINAX Kyoto,” “Yonago GAINAX,” “GAINAX Niigata,” and “GAINAX WEST.” We have no trademark licensing agreements with these similar companies.

Please refer to past articles on Diamond Online for more information.

Notice

On May 29th, our company, GAINAX Corporation, filed for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court, and the petition was accepted.

Since our establishment in 1984, our company has been involved in the production of animations and the development and sale of game software. We were fortunate to have several hit works, including "Neon Genesis Evangelion" (currently copyrighted by Khara Inc.). However, from around 2012, due to overly optimistic management of restaurant businesses, the ill-planned establishment of a CG company, large uncollateralized loans to company executives, and failed investment projects, the company’s financial condition worsened as the management and executives ran the company as if it were their personal property.

Due to the significant debts created by the past management, we faced hardships such as expulsion from committees due to unpaid royalties and lending lawsuits. During this time, several related companies bearing the GAINAX name were established in various regions under the leadership of these executives or their associates, causing a significant number of employees to leave and resulting in the loss of our animation production capabilities. These related companies declared their disassociation from us, abandoning management responsibilities.

Moreover, in 2018, the then-management approved the transfer of shares from the long-term representative director in office since 1992 to an individual without any expertise in video production. Subsequently, in 2019, this individual was arrested for sexual misconduct with a minor shortly after assuming the position of representative director. This resulted in a complete loss of operational capacity amid significant debts.

To resolve the chaos stemming from the former representative director’s misconduct, we restructured the management in February 2020 with the support and goodwill of Khara Inc., one of our creditors. Under the new management, we worked to identify and understand the actual situation by reviewing the remaining materials. As a result, we discovered substantial borrowings from financial institutions, breach of obligations to various companies in the animation industry, and unauthorized sales and transfers of intellectual property and materials to companies and individuals associated with the former management. We began working to normalize these issues.

With the cooperation of Khara Inc. and new directors, we have been working to verify the rights of key works with various production committees and protect the rights of authors and creators. We have also been striving to correctly manage and utilize the intellectual property and materials that were at risk of dissipation. However, the presence of many former management members as shareholders and the significant debts accumulated under the previous regime prevented us from fully resolving the financial burdens.

This May, we were served with a debt collection lawsuit from a debt recovery company. Given our inability to continue operations, we decided to file for bankruptcy.

We deeply regret that we could not fully achieve our goals and had to opt for bankruptcy, and we sincerely apologize to our creditors, cooperating companies, and fans.

As the former management continues to utilize the GAINAX brand without regard to our predicament, we express our heartfelt gratitude to the new directors and affiliated companies who cooperated without compensation and to Khara Inc., which prioritized intellectual property organization and transfer for the benefit of authors and creators.

Furthermore, we sincerely thank our fans for their 40 years of support.



Postscript:
To prevent the misuse and abuse of our company’s name and brand, the trademark "GAINAX" has already been transferred to and managed by Khara Inc. GAINAX Corporation is unrelated to other entities such as "Gaina Inc. (Studio Gaina)" and "Fukushima Gaina" (both formerly "Fukushima GAINAX"), "GAINAX International," "GAINAX Kyoto," "Yonago GAINAX," "GAINAX Niigata," and "GAINAX WEST." Any operation of the GAINAX trademark without permission from Khara Inc. in the future may constitute illegal use.

As for the future management of works under our control, we will provide further notification after the completion of bankruptcy proceedings.

Zarutaku said:
@tsukareru ok, so it's not a good show released after TTGL? not sure what you are getting at.