Bankruptcy of Gainax──Color, led by former staff member Hideaki Anno, commented, "We are sorry to see this end.

On June 7, Gainax, an animation studio that has produced many historical anime such as "Neon Genesis Evangelion," "Nadia of the Mysterious Sea," "Gurren Lagann," and "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Oneamis," announced on its official website that on May 29, it filed for corporate bankruptcy in the Tokyo District Court, On June 7, Gainax announced on its official website that the petition was accepted by the Tokyo District Court.

The official website of GAINAX stated, " Although we were blessed with several hit works such as 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' (the copyright of which is currently held by Color Co., Ltd.), from around 2012, the management team and executives of GAINAX have been engaged in the management of a restaurant business with poor prospects, the establishment of unplanned CG companies, high-cost unsecured loans to individual management executives, lost orders for invested works, etc. "Due to the large amount of debt created by the management team, the company was in dire straits, including expulsion from the committee due to non-payment of royalties and loan lawsuits, and a number of affiliated companies bearing the name of GAINAX were established in regional areas, headed by the executives concerned and their related persons, and a large number of employees left the company. These companies lost their animation production function as a studio and a large number of their employees retired. These companies have declared that they have nothing to do with our company and have abandoned their management responsibilities," the report states, describing the gradually deteriorating management situation.

He added, " The transfer of shares from the representative director, who had held that position for a long time since 1992, to a person with no knowledge of animation production was carried out in 2018 with the approval of the management at the time. Furthermore, in 2019, that person was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor immediately after assuming the position of representative director, and with a large amount of debt, the company completely lost its ability to operate," describing in graphic detail how it was losing its function as an animation studio.

After that, Gainax was restructured with the cooperation of Color, but " we discovered that it had borrowed a large amount of money from financial institutions, defaulted on its obligations to companies in the animation industry, and sold or transferred intellectual property and work materials to companies and individuals in the management and operating executives mentioned above without the permission of the rightful right holders, and we have begun to normalize those activities. We have started to normalize the situation.

In addition, despite our efforts to rebuild the situation in cooperation with related companies and the production committee, " in addition to the situation in which many former management members remained as shareholders, we were unable to eliminate the high level of debt that had accumulated under the previous management system.In May of this year, the company was sued by a debt collection company for debt claims, and we have decided that it is difficult to continue our business operations, so we have filed for bankruptcy," he said.

Finally, he concluded, "We would like to express our gratitude once again to the newly formed board of directors for their cooperation despite their lack of compensation, to the companies to which they belong, and to Color and other related companies for their efforts in organizing and transferring intellectual property with the writers and creators first, while the former management team continued to operate under the Gainax brand without any regard for this predicament. I would like to express my gratitude once again" and " Above all, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to our fans for their support over the past 40 years. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my fans for their support over the past 40 years," he added.

I n response to this announcement, Color Corporation, represented by Hideaki Anno, who had been a member of GAINAX until 2007, also released a statement saying, " We regret that an animation studio with a history of less than 40 years has come to such a final end.