Famed animator Hideaki Anno is one of the founders of Gainax, the studio behind the iconic Neon Genesis Evangelion. His latest studio, Khara, filed suit for over 100 million yen ($1,181,459) it claims Gainax owes.
[Image via Guille]
Anno co-founded Gainax in 1984 with fellow students he met at Osaka University of Arts, including current Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga. The studio hit it big with Neon Genesis Evangelion during the mid-1990s. Anno left Gainax in 2007 to set up Studio Khara, but both studios continued to collaborate.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Gainax is contractually bound to pay royalties to Khara for projects Anno worked on, but Gainax now owes a large amount in back payments. Moreover, Khara made a special loan to Gainax for 100 million yen ($1,181,459) in August 2014 and is now suing to get the unpaid amount back.
Mainichi reports that in the business period ending July 2016, Gainax made 240 million yen ($2.8 million), which is only 10 per cent of what it made five years ago.
Comments
8 responses to “Hideaki Anno’s Studio Just Sued Gainax”
We aren’t going yo get Evangelion 4.0 are we???? ?
Not at this rate.
The rebuild films are done by Khara, not Gainax
Very true, but who holds the rights to the series? Id wager Gainax and without royalties being paid, I question if they will continue to move on with 4.0.
Hope im utterly wrong, can’t wait to see the conclusion.
Everything I’ve found says that Khara own the current rights to the Rebuild and the original Evangelion series, so hopefully there is no way this can impact the release of the final Rebuild movie.
Gainax is a studio operating on life support and with Khara wanting to get their loan back they’re basically done.
They’ve been coasting on what money they get from Eva and their old popular series like Gurren Lagann but they haven’t put out a TV anime all this year and it’s been 4 years since they put out the last Eva movie or an anime that was really worth noting at all.
Most of their best talent already left either for Anno’s studio or others like Trigger. Hell as far as I can find out, they don’t even own Eva anymore, Khara/Anno bought that off them a while back.
This lawsuit is really just the last nail in the coffin for a studio that’s been dead for a while.
I just hope they don’t go down before the new Panty and Stocking comes out.
Interestingly, the Panty and Stocking project is being handled by a new studio, Gainax West. The point of the studio is that it exists separately from Gainax itself. Whilst they share the same name, it’s a different company, therefore if Gainax were to go bankrupt, Gainax West would still exist. It’s very sneaky.
– Mainichi reports that in the business period ending July 2016, Gainax made 240 million yen ($2.8 million), which is only 10 per cent of what it made five years ago.
Maybe now they will stop the moe shit.