GAINAX, a Japanese animation company that has produced famous animation works such as "Royal Space Force", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "Man and Woman Seesaw", and "Gurren Lagann", earlier in TokyoDeclare bankruptcy.
GAINAX, founded in 1984, recently declared bankruptcy in the Tokyo District Court, ending its 40-year operation.
The main reason for the company's bankruptcy was its unplanned investment in restaurant operations and the establishment of a CG company in 2012. Coupled with the failure of its investment works, the management team's attempt to privatize the company, and the high-value unsecured loans taken out by senior management, the company's subsequent operations fell into trouble and faced a large number of debt problems. A large number of employees resigned, resulting in the loss of animation production capabilities. The transfer of company shares to people with no experience in video content production even caused related disputes, causing GAINAX to face greater operational difficulties.
Although GAINAX was subsequently assisted by another animation company, Khara, and re-established its management team in February 2020, it was discovered that GAINAX still had a large amount of loans and debt defaults, and had transferred and sold assets and content to former senior executives without consent. Even though attempts were made to restore normal management of the assets and content, the loan and default problems remained difficult to resolve.
Therefore, in the subsequent case of related debt collection, the GAINAX management team believed that the company could no longer continue to operate, so it recently filed for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court and apologized to the public.
After the company declares bankruptcy, GAINAX-related trademarks and remaining assets will be held by Khara.
