Quantcast
Rumor: GAINAX and Evangelion remakes splitting up? - JAPANATOR
DestructoidJapanatorTomopopFlixist


REMOVE ALL ADS?
Guaranteed contest entry?
A new video show?
Something else?

Vote in our membership poll


Rumor: GAINAX and Evangelion remakes splitting up?


11:00 PM on 06.03.2010
Rumor: GAINAX and Evangelion remakes splitting up? photo



The impact that GAINAX, Evangelion, and its creator, Hideki Anno have had on the anime industry is huge. From the popular anime series to the recent movie remakes (or sequels, depending on who you ask), there have been few properties that had the influence of Eva. The merchandising has been a particular issue that fans will focus on, sometimes loving the latest Asuka figure, or complaining that it's the 146th one this week. And that's actually where our issue starts, somewhat.

This going to be a big one so click through. It's very possible that Neon Genesis Evangelion will be separated from the studio it began its life with, GAINAX, very soon.

 

The issue as a whole surface on February 9th, when Suzuki Shunji (animation director for Eva, Nadia, and Eva 2.0, chief animation director for Eva 1.0, and animator for a bunch of other Gainax shows) made several tweets about a potential problem that was brewing at GAINAX.

He claims that this issue really got started when the decision to turn Gunbuster into a pachinko machine was made without consulting Hideki Anno. This upset him quite a bit, as his name was used on the machines and in the commercials for said machines. This, he writes, "may" be the last straw for Anno, who Suzuki said could be cutting off all ties with GAINAX.

Suzuki also wrote that at GAINAX's current level of production and current staff, they would be unable to stay afloat and would fail within 2-3 years without new Evangelion movie licensing rights (this seems more than a tad exaggerated to me, but I don't know the inner financial workings of GAINAX). He also says that it's almost certain that Yasuhiro Kamimura, a behind-the-scenes guy at GAINAX since the Daicon days, and his wife have quit the company. 

 

A Japanese blogger did some extensive digging, and found that Yasuhiro Kamimura's wife, Noriko Kamimura (who with her husband were point-of-contact people for licensing Evangelion within GAINAX) has stopped posting on GAINAX's mail order merchandising blog since February 5th. Not only that, the Evangelion Store contact page no longer lists Noriko's name and has been changed to Fukunaga Yuki.

Additionally, the page for the Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records and Works, which is coming out this summer, is listed as being produced by Khara and sold by Ground Works.

Said blogger writes that Yasuhiro Kamimura appeared to be managing the copyrights for Evangelion to GAINAX, and his wife was similarly involved in the Evangelion Store. He follows this up with another link to an article about a copyright situation between GAINAX and Khara. In it is an interview with Noriko Kamimura, which states that the rights for the new Evangelion movies belong to Khara. However, due to the confusion that might occur in merchandising both the movies and the original TV series, Noriko was acting as a go-between the two companies to simplify negotiations and keep records straight. 

Thus, with Noriko and her husband leaving GAINAX, the rights for the recent Evangelion movies might have gone with them.

 

Now, remember that Ground Works company from earlier? On the Eva T store's legal information page, the "Sales Company" is listed as Ground Works and the person of contact is Noriko Kamimura. In addition, the Eva Racing page also credits Ground Works for consenting to the project. Where else is Ground Works popping up? Their name has also shown up beside Khara's on the Radio Eva information page.

Given all this information, we're lead to believe that Ground Works is a new company set up to manage the recent Eva film's copyrights, primarily run my Yasuhiro and Noriko Kamimura. 

Lastly, in a recent guide for new pachinko machines, GAINAX's name is conspicuously absent from the Evangelion machines. Only Khara's is listed.

---

Summary: two prominent members of GAINAX who manage the Evangelion movie copyrights have left and formed a new company called Ground Works to manage those rights. GAINAX's name has been left off of a huge portion of new Eva materials and merchandise, replaced by Ground Works. Thus, GAINAX and the recent Evangelion films may be splitting up. It's not like Hideki Anno's anger helped, either.

---

So, while this is still all rumor, we've got a lot of evidence that's beginning to add up to some very depressing news. I'm sure we'll see some more news show up soon, and we'll be sure to keep you posted on any developments that occur. GAINAX could still stay involved with the Eva films if Ground Works will license to them, but the question is if they will or not.

So, what do you guys think? Can GAINAX survive without the Eva remakes? Or is Suzuki Shunji's ridiculous statement that GAINAX will fail without the Eva movies in 2 to 3 years true? While the rights for the original TV series will still reside with GAINAX, how big a deal is their absence from the remakes if this is all true?






Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)


Eva is pretty lucrative, so this would hit them pretty hard. If they can keep making hits like Gurren Lagann, then they should be okay. Unfortunately, this underpants thing does not sound promising.
i hope this doesnt hurt Eva 3.0 and 4.0 ... my soul will be crushed.
Anno's a pretty emotional guy, ain't he?

The problem with this, as you pointed out, is the point that GAINAX relies on Evangelion so much for merchandising and revenue in general. Without that, they very well might end up defunct. I'd say it depends on how they handle their newer shows - would they be able to try oddball shows like "Pansuto" if there was no guarantee they would get boatloads of cash from Eva?
...Wow.

This was not a legal battle based shitstorm I was ever expecting to brew ever. ._.
I will pray to god that Gainax will survive...even through Armageddon!
I had no idea that the Eva copyrights were held by someone other than Gainax. It would be really bad if Gainax and Eva split up. If they do, then who is going to animate 3.0 and 4.0? Would Ground Works and Anno go to another animation studio? Would we see an exodus of animators from Gainax form a new company to animate these Eva movies?
Ummm, I'm confused. Hasn't it been known since the Rebuild movies were first announced (back in _2006_) that Gainax would have little to no involvement? They didn't really do anything for Rebuild 1.0 or 2.0, other than give Anno the okay to do the movies on his own. If Gainax isn't involved in 3.0, then nothing's changed. The Rebuild movies aren't the work of Gainax, never have been.
bottom line is that Gainax should be kissing the asses of this power team not acting greedily. But since they seem to be doing exactly that then i say more power to the creators and be damned with the power hungry money grubbing eliets! DAMN THE MAN SAVE THE EMPIRE!
Wouldn't that be a kick in the teeth. I don't know if it'd be the absolute death knell for Gainax, but it would certainly knock it down a few pegs from legendary studio to just part of the pack.

This also sounds like a lesson in why you never let your wallet grow bigger than your heart.
Finish the movies. Finish the movies. Finish the movies!
While all this sucks the first thing that comes to thought is. Finish the movies and make sure they are what they should have been had this not happened.

I don't wanna see the vision of these movies compromised because of something stupid like this.
Drama for yo okaasan
I swear to God if GAINAX dies...
It would be as if a million otaku cried out and were suddenly silenced.
Wow. We could actually be looking at the death of Gainax?

That would be pretty huge. And bad. Very bad. God knows what this would mean for the industry as a whole.

Guess I better start buying Gainax merch now. This is what I get for holding off on all those Nadia figures I wanted.
I'm less concerned about the companies survival than the actual creative teams. I agree that a huge portion of revenue from Gainax is Eva, but that's because they whore out that franchise. I would expect to see a strong push from Gainax for any of the creative properties the company wholly owns.
What surprises me most about this whole affair... EVA Racing? What?
Well I dont know how long they will stay afloat but even after all the remakes are completed, arent there supposed to be 3-4 in total Ive heard 3 a few times and 4 like once or twice, not sure*. Anyway after they have been finished wouldnt that mean Gainax would die 2-3 years after that or rather stay afloat for a few years because of the income made from the movies but then ultimately die off.

I mean if without the movies they are doomed the same could be said a few years after the income from said movies has been used up. If they have money to stay afloat now and they've only made two movies so far I think they'll be fine with or without them. But again that's just my thoughts it can go either way. Plus I think fans will be pissed if Gainax isnt included for the next remakes.

It still sucks horribly though that the pachinco thing set off the fuse. I hope they reconcile and team up again. I believe the rights to anything Eva should reside with Gainax since they created the whole thing its their IP after all. Regardless on how that turns out if Ground Works doesnt license Gainax to produce the next Eva remake or two* I dont know how good it will turn out, safe to say the quality and style wont be the same. I mean yes there are other studios out there that can produce great work but this was birthed at Gainax and it should stay that way until they themselves lose their way and somehow destroy everything Evangelion is. If they dont I think things should stay with them.

phew...
This...is not the best of news to hear. I'm serious, out of all the studios in Japan, losing Gainax would be the one of the biggest blows to both the industry and to otaku all around the world. Gainax has established themselves as an unparalleled studio in terms of quality and creativity, to see them die, especially in this economy, would be very troubling.

I hope Gainax doesn't die anyways. If we never get more Gurren Lagann, I'll be very disappointed.
Please!!!... We want Eva 3.33 and 4.44
Yeah, I've seen Khara's name on this stuff for a while now. Years, actually. It's nothing new. Then other companies have a share, like Sega and Starchild Records, and whatever studios actually make the animation. Everyone wets their beak.

The company logos that get put before the animation aren't as important as the people actually making it. If the actual production staff stays the same [Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Hideaki Anno, this Shunji guy, etc], then there's no problem if someone else owns it.

I don't see having a different set of producers being able to mess up Eva, especially since they seem to be sticking pretty closely to the source material in what I've seen so far.

So, no matter who's funding it, it's still Evangelion.
Well, GAINAX will probably die without the eva franchise. Gurren Lagann has pretty much died down, and they aren't making anything that reaches that level of fandom anytime soon. They have maybe a year or two when they completely loose eva before they shut down.
^Yeah guys, the Evangelion rebuild movies aren't really Gainax products. They're produced by Studio Khara and Klockworx, and made with the cooperation of Gainax. (Meaning they blessed it, as well as do some Animation Work on it, with many other Studios that all do animation, just as on any other Anime movie or series.)

I think this "fallout" is old news, and doesn't really affect the movies since after all, it's not their movies. I am interested in hearing more about this Gunbuster machine story though...
Thank you
Satılık daire ilanları emlak listesi ve satılık arsa ilanları emlak ilanları sitesinde bulunmaktadır.turkcell, Vodafone ve avea parça TL dakika İkinci el otomobil emlak haberleri emlak piyasası haberleri çorlu vidanjör vidanjör satılık ilanlar daire kiralık ilanlar arsa emlak sitesi bilgileri emlak siteleri gayrimenkul
emlak ilan çorlu vidanjör
emlak mobilya

8:00 AM on 05.23.2013

Beautiful Streamers: Analyzing Daisuki and AnimeSols

When AnimeSols and Daisuki launched last week, the North American landscape for streaming anime has changed. Sure, at this early point, both services are nascent, offering only some basic services rather than the full range o...

Jeff Chuang

12:30 AM on 05.23.2013

Annotated Anime: Spring 2013 Week 7

"Hello there, and welcome to the seventh installment of Annotated Anime, Japanator's weekly Japanese cartoon roundup," writes Josh, fingers clacking over the keyboard. "We have a healthy lineup of new shows and insightful com...

Josh Tolentino

5:30 PM on 05.22.2013

One Piece Unlimited World Red to drop anchor on the 3DS

For a good while, I've been in the mood to play a new One Piece game that uses the same system as One Piece: Unlimited Adventure. Unfortunately, the sequels known as the One Piece: Unlimited Cruise games never ...

Salvador G-Rodiles

3:00 PM on 05.21.2013

Shonen Showdown 5-21-2013

Hello and welcome to another week of Shonen Showdown, the regular battle anime and manga roundup that's--uh-oh, guys, it's making that face again! Clear the area! Oh right, Hunter x Hunter, Fairy Tail, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece recaps are below. Take cover there as well!

Josh Tolentino

10:00 AM on 05.21.2013

Japanator Interviews: DAISUKI.net's Eri Maruyama

You might of heard that there is a new streaming site that has just launched out of Japan. It is being backed by some big names in the anime world like Aniplex, Sunrise, and Toei. What could that exactly mean for you, you ask? Well, let me let Eri Maruyama (International Business Development) at DAISUKI answer that as well as many more burning questions that I had about the new service.

Josh Totman

8:00 AM on 05.21.2013

Review: Blood-C

When I watched Blood C in Summer of 2011, I thought it was a show that had a lot of promise. It started out with the distinct feeling that something wasn't right in an idyllic town that was being pressed upon by nightmarish b...

Pedro Cortes

9:40 PM on 05.20.2013

Rejoice! J-POP Summit to create a Japanese film festival

Aw snap, the J-Pop Summit Festival is launching the Japan Film Festival of San Francisco on July 27th through August 4th at the New People Cinema. The best part about this event is that a good chunk of the films are going to ...

Salvador G-Rodiles

6:30 PM on 05.20.2013

Upgrade Complete: Viz obtains the master license for K

Oh wow, I never expected for me and K would cross paths again. Back when K premiered last year, the series had to potential to become a show that felt like a Ryohgo Narita (Author of the original Baccano! and D...

Salvador G-Rodiles

4:30 PM on 05.20.2013

Licensing GET: Media Blasters grabs YamiBo

It looks like Media Blasters has gotten a hold of a new license, and there's a chance that it will make yuri fans rejoice. That said, Media Blaster's acquisition is going to be Yami to Boshi to Hon no Tabito (Often ...

Salvador G-Rodiles

7:00 PM on 05.19.2013

First-ish Impressions: My Teen RomCom Snafu

Jumping into this season a little late, I agreed to tackle My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, which Josh called "the highlight romantic comedy of the season," and "the show where all the main characters are assholes." He only sai...

Brad Rice




Facebook Shares





From other sites around the web
















Back to Top



Advertising on Japanator is available: Please contact them to learn more