If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.
Evangelion studio Gainax files for bankruptcy and its current director aired all their dirty laundry to explain why
Dodgy loans, failure to pay royalties, and a director being arrested for sexual assault all contributed to the studio closing
Popverse's top stories of the day
- The working week are wolves at the door (literally) in Oni Press's new 2025 graphic novel The Lost Sunday
- What's coming to Rings of Power season 3? Here's what we think, based on the season 2 finale
- What does the ending of Joker: Folie à Deux mean? We've got a theory
For decades, Gainax was one of the most celebrated studios in anime history. However, it has been on the decline for more than ten years, losing the rights to many of its more iconic shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion while taking on more and more debt of questionable legality. Now, years of mismanagement have caught up with it; Gainax has filed for bankruptcy proceedings, bringing the storied company to an unceremonious end.
The writing has been on the wall for years now – it has been an open secret that Gainax, who produced anime like FLCL, Gurran Lagann, and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, was saddled with debt and was in freefall. However, on June 7, 2024, a press release on the Gainax homepage explained just how badly their executive board had damaged the company.
Yasuhiro Kamimura is the Representative Director who signed the letter that announced that Gainax would be ceasing operations and he held nothing back. In a rare moment of openness about the company’s failings, Kamimura laid the blame for Gainax’s downfall firmly on the executive board, who allegedly had seen the company removed from production committees for not paying royalties, overseen loans that couldn't possibly be paid back, and the illegal sale of the company's intellectual property. Following the company head being arrested for sexual assault of a minor in 2019, Gainax underwent a corporate restructure which, according to the press release, was when the full scale of the company's mismanagement came to light.
All of this culminated in Gainax being sued by a debt collection company in May, forcing the board to make the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy. In the end, Kamimura ends the letter by thanking the new board who worked with him “without compensation while the former management continued to work using the Gainax brand without regard for this predicament,” which is basically corporate speak for closing their argument with a giant middle finger to the people who got them in this mess.
It isn’t a surprise that Gainax has finally closed its doors, but the tone and openness of the letter are both enlightening and shocking. Kamimura clearly had reached What Are You Going to Do? Fire Me? levels of frustration with his predecessors and made no effort to avoid naming names and explaining to fans who was ultimately responsible for the celebrated animation studio closing its doors.
For now, the Gainax trademark has shifted to Khara, who has been working with the company to sort through its mess of intellectual property woes. Eventually, the few rights that the company does retain will revert to individual creators or studios, but, until then, we have to simply marvel at the self-destructive behavior that brought a titan of anime history to its knees.
Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out our guides to upcoming movies, upcoming TV shows, upcoming comics, and upcoming comic conventions. If you're looking for specific franchises or genres, we have all the upcoming MCU, upcoming Star Wars, upcoming Star Trek, and upcoming DC movies & TV for you. If you're a fan of superheroes and not specific to just Marvel or DC, we have overall guides to all the upcoming superhero movies and upcoming superhero TV shows (and new seasons) as well.
Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news
Find out how we conduct our review by reading our review policy
Let Popverse be your tour guide through the wilderness of pop culture
Sign in and let us help you find your new favorite thing.
Comments
Want to join the discussion? Please activate your account first.
Visit Reedpop ID if you need to resend the confirmation email.