Farewell, Studio Gainax: 10 Essential Anime From Its Pre-Bankruptcy Era

Well, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: Studio Gainax is officially gone. After roughly four decades of shaping anime, the company has finished bankruptcy proceedings and been dissolved. That’s not 'taking a break' dissolved — it no longer exists as a corporation.

What actually happened

On Thursday, Dec 11, 2025, Hideaki Anno announced on the website for his studio, Khara, that the Gainax bankruptcy case has wrapped and the company is legally dissolved. According to Anno, the rights to Gainax’s works, materials, and products have been transferred to their rightful owners and the individual creators. That’s the end of the company itself, not the end of its catalog.

How it fell apart

Gainax had been in trouble for a long time. The company says its finances started sliding back in 2012. It was reportedly tossed from production committees after failing to pay royalties, which triggered a stack of lawsuits. Then came the mess in December 2019 when Tomohiro Maki, Gainax’s representative director at the time, was arrested on allegations of semi-coerced indecent acts. None of that exactly inspires investor confidence.

Last year, Gainax filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo District Court. Now, as of Anno’s update, the court process is over and the studio is formally shuttered.

Who they were and why this stings

Gainax launched in 1984, founded by a murderers’ row of talent: Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Takami Akai, Toshio Okada, Yasuhiro Takeda, and Shinji Higuchi. If you’ve watched anime for any length of time, you’ve felt their fingerprints: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Gunbuster, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Gurren Lagann — and a lot more. The company’s management may have imploded, but the work is still the work.

Ten Gainax projects that defined the studio

• 1) Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995, 26 episodes)
  The big one. A genre-redefining mecha series about Shinji Ikari, a lonely teen piloting a bio-mechanical weapon against otherworldly Angels. Starts as apocalyptic robot battles, spirals into trauma, identity, and connection. It later expanded into multiple films and iterations.
• 2) Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990–1991, 39 episodes)
  One of Gainax’s early calling cards: Nadia, a circus girl with a mysterious blue pendant, and Jean, a young inventor, racing across seas and continents while uncovering ancient tech and a shadowy enemy. It even got a follow-up film set three years after the series and was restored by GKIDS in 2022 with a 4K release.
• 3) Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987, film)
  Gainax’s first full-length feature and a statement of intent. Years in the making, it follows Shirotsugh Lhadatt, a would-be pilot tapped to become his nation’s first astronaut. It’s about ambition, doubt, and launching into the unknown — literally and artistically.
• 4) Wish Upon the Pleiades (2011 web shorts; 2015 TV, 12 episodes)
  Gainax’s final series before the end. Started as a short YouTube project, then became a TV anime in 2015 via a partnership with Subaru. Subaru (the girl) joins a group of magical girls and a tiny alien to collect scattered engine fragments — while a rival hunts the same pieces.
• 5) Mahoromatic (2001–2002; specials in 2002 and 2009)
  Co-produced with Shaft. A former combat android, Mahoro, decides to spend her limited remaining life as a maid for a teenage boy. Past battles won’t stay buried. The show picked up more love over time, including additional episodes and the two-part 2009 special 'Mahoromatic: I’m Home Special'.
• 6) Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002, 13 episodes)
  With Madhouse. Two childhood friends slip into a parade of alternate worlds, each one a themed funhouse. Comedy, isekai, and affectionate parody, all wrapped in that early-2000s Gainax energy.
• 7) This Ugly yet Beautiful World (2004, 12 episodes)
  Another team-up with Shaft. Two high school boys encounter a glowing, amnesiac girl with strange powers. Romance and sci-fi crash into supernatural weirdness as normal life erodes under mounting threats.
• 8) Corpse Princess (2008–2009; two seasons: Aka and Kuro, plus specials)
  Produced with Feel. Makina Hoshimura returns as an undead warrior tasked with defeating 108 other undead to move on. Violent showdowns, a young monk partner, and a lot of scars from past lives. One of Gainax’s darker, more action-heavy entries.
• 9) Magica Wars (2014, short episodes)
  Based on a video game franchise. Bite-sized episodes introduce magical girls representing regions across Japan. Quick-hit stories, small character beats, and brisk magical scuffles.
• 10) Gurren Lagann (2007, 27 episodes; 2 compilation films)
  A late-era breakout. Simon and Kamina drill out of an underground village in a tiny mech and end up fighting on a scale that outgrows Earth itself. The two compilation movies retell the story with extra scenes. Loud, bold, and still beloved.

So where does that leave everything?

Gainax the company is gone. The artists and rights-holders still own their creations, and those works will keep circulating. The path to this ending was messy — unpaid royalties, lawsuits, and a very public arrest will do that — but the legacy is undeniable. For better and worse, few studios changed anime the way Gainax did.