Evangelion Studio Khara Sues Gainax for 100 Million Yen in Royalties

The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported on Friday that Studio Kharahas filed a lawsuit against Gainax regarding a 100 million yen (about US$878,777) debt that Gainax allegedly owes Khara.

According to the filing at the Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa Branch, Khara and Gainax had an agreement that Khara would earn royalties from income Gainax received on works and properties that Kharafounder and Gainax co-founder Hideaki Anno had worked on. Kharaalleges that Gainax has delayed on paying these royalties. Gainax incurred a large debt with Khara. Khara loaned 100 million yen in August 2014, but has yet to receive repayment and is suing for about that amount.

Gainax declined to offer a comment to the Mainichi Shimbun, and Khara's lawyer also refrained from offering details.

According to a private credit research company that the Mainichi Shimbun quotes, Gainax had an income of 240 million yen (about US$2.10 million) during the period ending in July 2016, a tenth of what it earned five years ago.

Hideaki Anno and current Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga were friends and schoolmates at the Osaka University of Arts. They, along with Toshio Okada, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Shinji Higuchi, Yasuhiro Akeda, and Takami Akai, co-founded Gainax in 1985 (the company was formerly named Daicon Film after the anime shorts they made for the Daicon III and IV sci-fi conventions). At Gainax, Anno directed some of the studio's most iconic franchises, most notably Neon Genesis Evangelion, but also Gunbuster, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, and Kare Kano.

Anno left Gainax in 2007 to found Studio Khara, where he worked on the new Evangelion anime film series in collaboration with Gainax. Anno has since directed the Shin Godzilla film alongside Gainax co-founder Shinji Higuchi.​