The story of studio Gainax is quite an inspirational one of dreams and success being made by passionate fans. Founded in early 1980s , Gainax started out as Daicon Films- a small studio that make opening animations for festivals and ads - by a group of university students university consisting of Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto,Hiroyuki Yamaga, Takami Akai, Toshio Okada, Yasuhiro Takeda and Shinji Higuchi, all considering themselves massive otakus ( the term coined for fans of anime and its culture ).
The first years of the studio involves doing short animation for Japan SF Convention , named accordingly as Daicon III and Daicon IV. They got their big break when Bandai , a hugh company at the time , proposed funding them for bigger project , with the promise of getting good revenues back. And so studio Daicon is officially acknowledged as a talented anime studio albeit a small one. The studio name was changed in 1985 around the time the fund came to Gainax -the name Gainax is based from the Japanese word of "Gaina" meaning big , with an X at the end to make it sound cooler ( The good old Japanese naming technique).
The first job under the Gainax name was Royal Space force : The Wings of Honneamis, a critically acclaimed movie til this day , but wasn't a commercial success. That, came later in the form of the Gunbuster Original Video animation.
Gunbuster (1988)
After some troubles with staff leaving and finance , in 1995, the studio started work on its biggest ever project ,and undoubtedly one of the most well-known and critically-acclaimed anime of all time : Neon Genesis Evangalion. From beautifully animated scenes to a story that would melt your brain the first time around, Evangalion started out shaky but ended up being a major success for the studio , which would be followed by 2 featured movie and MASSIVE product licensing , earning the studio an amount that it has never seen before. So much so that because it didn't know how to deal with such money , the studio came under investigation for tax evasion , with one of the directors at the end being jailed. This came as a shock to the entire studio who had no idea of the financial situation. But despite that , the studio moved on , with its reputation higher than ever and remained one of the most renowned and active studio to this day , with a row of hit series following EVA like , Flcl , Gurren lagann , Panty and Stocking ,... Moreover , staffs who later on leave the studio to followed their own ambitions would eventually create other notable name like Studio Kara and Trigger ( who made their own significant contribution to the industry ).
If there is a world to describe Gainax animation style , it would be over-the-top. The characters of Gainax moves with such freedom and expressive ness, especially in action-heavy sequences ,which create a very unique dynamic that add to the impact of that scene. Of course that is to say it depends of who the animator is , as realism is also part of Gainax earlier production :
But they weren't afraid to try new things, which led them to creating new and more exciting forms of animation , which include that stylized over-the-top movement , which is not only limited to the character , but to also the environmental elements , such as flames, smoke , .... Again , this style fits in beautifully with the more than often ridiculous plots of Gainax's anime which in turn really add to the feeling of the story , inciting the sense of rush and strength of the action , or the emotional intensity of the character at that point of time. This unique style would set them apart as THE studio of the action genre and would be passed on to newer names like Trigger.
Overall , Gainax is a true success story of fans making what they love and a true inspiration to me. Moreover , their style and its awesome expressiveness is something that I really want to try and hopefully mastered in the future.
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