24
votes
Anime studio Gainax files for bankruptcy, and co-founder Hideaki Anno's current studio Khara acquires "Gainax" trademark
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- Title
- Anime Studio Gainax Files for Bankruptcy
- Published
- Jun 7 2024
- Word count
- 879 words
That got a genuine double-take from me. Gainax is one of those big names that everyone knows, and had a major influence on the industry. A bit sad to see it formally shutting down, even if they haven't released anything recently.
It was basically a husk of a company that just owned some of the IP and trademarks. All of the talent left to two other animation companies.
This will be shocking to many as we believed they were happy making tomato products. Still at last Anno got something from them.
For those as confused by that statement as I was
...That actually gives me MORE questions. Like, why farming? Why tomatoes?
Gotta diversify that portfolio?
I'm guessing one of them thought "We just invested in tomatoes, now all we need is a good brand name to market them under. We own some trademarks. What is the biggest one we have?"
Gainax has had serious issues with tax evasion and misuse of funds for many many years. Alum have gone on to found plenty of other famous studios like Khara, Trigger, David Productions, etc. I think everyone knew something like this would eventually happen.
That is an absolutely intense and strange semi-recent corporate history, looks like the executives in charge decided to take on as much debt as possible from banks and other lenders, and then paid themselves out ludicrous (I imagine) sums before they jumped ship, leaving other executives to repeat, until they had to file for bankruptcy.