They've just been hoarding IP for a while, so this isn't a huge shocker 
You're telling me that you can't just keep making remake of Evangelion forever and survive?
If I recall those were entirely outsourced and Gainax existed just to license it, fail to pay the animation studio royalties, and get sued.
Those were all Studio Khara, which Anno spun off ages ago. I think the last thing that Gainax did was the weird Subaru car company sponsored show Wish Upon the Pleiades.
I only know about that one from a Giant Robot FM episode I listened to the other day lol
they were more or less a shell company as staff had already left to other studios (e.g studio trigger)
Until a week and change ago, apparently they have ceased all operations... Anything animation related is kind of still going on under Gaina Studios which split from Gainax years ago. I think it just kept existing to manage the royalties and licensing of Evangelion and anything else they didn't sell to friends of people who managed to get on the board. And getting sued, mostly for dodging royalty payments.
Gainax will continue to exist forever as the term "gainaxing," for the only thing gamers apparently find attractive and non-woke: giant breasts that defy the laws of physics in their absurd movement.
It's so frustrating when Gunbuster tries to have this emotional moment when Noriko reflects on how she and her space-traveling father have lived lives on completely different scales of time due to time dilation, but her breasts just have to roll around outside of her shirt to sell tapes to
sepisode 6 of Gunbuster spoilers
However, when she rips her shirt in episode 6, it's totally kino. Unnecessary, but it's still awesome to see Gunbuster rip its chest open like that
spoiler
And the robot does it too? Yeah, I forgot about the ick
factor because it was pretty badass lolYeah its also hard to
when you're crying so many tears at what's happening.The whole sequence, cutting to our Soviet queen crying, the final shout from Noriko
spoiler
To Kimiko how she won't see her anymore before the cut back to her and her granddaughter on earth
It's just so worth it.
rip I guess, all the talent they had is in Studio Trigger by now anyway
Recycled bits of Ultraman, Victory Gundam, and Ideon with a heaping scoop of
on topThe
part really surprised me.I guess if I was 15 I would've liked it but, at this point, just found it weird for an anime I always heard was so deep and intelligent.
Also thought the philosophical/religious stuff everyone always raves about for making it an "intelligent anime" was just really basic, surface level. Like someone got in a Wikipedia rabbit hole and just started naming and fashioning stuff after what they read about so it would sound smart but didn't understand any of it well enough so they couldn't synthesize it into a good story that primarily utilized those elements. I feel like it just produced more pretentious, horny teenage boys.
Also thought the philosophical/religious stuff everyone always raves about for making it an "intelligent anime" was just really basic, surface level. Like someone got in a Wikipedia rabbit hole and just started naming and fashioning stuff after what they read about so it would sound smart but didn't understand any of it well enough so they couldn't synthesize it into a good story that primarily utilized those elements.
You're not far off. It's a big mish mash of stuff that was in the pop culture of the time (like the dead sea scrolls) that Anno and Co thought sounded/looked cool with shit they liked from other anime.
Like, the reason the End of Evangelion has a mid-credits sequence is because Anno saw the theatrical release of the Ideon movies, which were played back-to-back with no intermission, and he liked that.
The only caveat is that the Gainax staff were mostly creepy otaku - there's an interview where Anno is weird and
about one of the Ghibli film protagonists (Nausicaa, I think), and that's the stuff going into their work. Shoji Kawamori has made similar "by otaku for otaku" anime (Macross), but it isn't nearly as leering at teen girls as Evangelion.I feel like it just produced more pretentious, horny teenage boys.
Yep, been one of those. Thankfully I grew out of it. I feel like Anno never did and that's the main problem with him lol
Hideaki Anno
