Studio KharaStudio Gainax, one of the most influential and recognizable names in anime, has officially shut down after more than four decades. Now, one of its founding members and Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno has shed further light on its past controversies.
Founded in 1984 in Musashino, Tokyo, Gainax helped redefine anime with its experimental storytelling, producing original series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gunbuster, FLCL, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and Gurren Lagann.
Even as new studios emerged and the industry evolved, Gainax’s influence continued, with its alumni going on to launch giants like Studio Trigger and Khara. But behind that success, years of financial instability and internal mismanagement were quietly dragging it down.
This came to a head in May 2024, when Gainax filed for bankruptcy. The anime studio has now officially dissolved, and Khara founder Hideaki Anno has opened up about what went wrong.
Studio Gainax officially closes after 42 years
As of December 11, 2025, Studio Gainax has formally ceased operations following the completion of its bankruptcy proceedings, as confirmed in a detailed statement issued by Anno on Studio Khara’s website.
The announcement marks the end of nearly 42 years of operation for a studio that once stood at the center of the anime world.
Anno, who co-founded Gainax and remained a shareholder for more than two decades, described the closure as “a truly disappointing end,” but said that he’s “accepting it with a sense of calm.”
His statement confirms that Gainax’s debts, obligations, and materials have now been processed, with rights returned to the appropriate creators and companies after years of uncertainty.
The situation worsened after the 2019 arrest of then-CEO Tomohiro Maki, who was sentenced to two years and six months prison time the following year for sexually assaulting an underage voice actress.
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Anno wrote, “First of all, we would like to express our gratitude and respect to all the related companies who worked with us for nearly six years, free of charge, to rebuild and subsequently reorganize Gainax following the arrest of then-CEO Maki Tomohiro in 2019.
Creative Commons“Thanks to your cooperation, we were able to properly process the rights for each work, transfer the rights, and transfer all production results and other materials, and safely return them to the respective rights holders and creators.”
He went on to express gratitude to the final representative director of Gainax, stating that despite the fact that the previous management team “abandoned” the studio without taking responsibility, Yasuhiro Kamimura managed to prevent the rights and materials from being lost.
Anno said Kamimura inherited the rights “with the understanding of all parties involved, faced creditors sincerely, and did his best to the end, witnessing the studio’s demise. Thank you, Kamimura. And thank you for your hard work.”
Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno exposes behind-the-scenes issues
Although Gainax’s name is attached to countless beloved series, Anno’s statement paints a deeply troubled picture of the studio’s final decade.
Studio Gainax The Evangelion creator revealed that previous management mishandled rights transfers and withheld royalties – even after Khara provided emergency financial support to help the studio survive.
As part of the fallout, Khara filed a civil lawsuit against Gainax. The case concluded in early 2023 with a 100 million yen (approximately $640,000) settlement acknowledging Khara’s claims and including a formal apology from the defendants.
“When Gainax changed to a new management structure, contract documents and emails related to transactions were scrutinized in order to understand the company’s critical financial situation and to prevent the loss of rights and materials,” Anno continued.
“As the company’s largest creditor, we cooperated with the investigation. During this process, we witnessed firsthand the dishonesty of Gainax.”
Studio Gainax The dishonesty he’s referring to relates to repayments after Khara provided the emergency financing, as well as various “exchanges within the former management team that showed a lack of respect for Gainax’s works and staff.”
He described discovering internal emails and instructions that portrayed Khara as hostile and included attempts to deceive him and other staff.
One revelation – that then-president Hiroyuki Yamaga told employees to pretend he was hospitalized – left him “beyond anger to sadness,” shattering long-time friendships from his college days.
The studio’s decline accelerated through the 2010s, culminating in mounting debts and the 2019 arrest of Maki. By 2024, Gainax had declared bankruptcy, and its disbanding is now officially complete.
“The reason we agreed to the previous settlement as a company is because we did not want to waste any more of our time dealing with them,” he added.
“I have come to realize once again that our relationship with them will likely never return to what it was before, and I am truly sorry.”