Gainax (ガイナックス) (pronounced guy-nax ) is a Japanese anime studio most famous for the television series Neon Genesis Evangelion . Gainax is known for its commitment to experimental anime and twisting the conventions of typical anime genres. At the same time, Gainax has become infamous for some significant production and budget problems for several notable series, and sometimes had to rely heavily on limited animation. Gainax also has a strong, lingering merchandise force behind many of its series, most famously Evangelion , despite that series having ended nearly a decade ago.
In American fandom, Gainax popularized the term and usage of fanservice, and unusually precise animation of a woman s chest bouncing became known as the Gainax bounce or gainaxing .
Although until Neon Genesis Evangelion , Gainax typically worked on in-house stories, the company has increasingly been adapting existing manga, like KareKano and Mahoromatic , into anime shows. Gainax is also known for putting references of past series into new ones, and thus been typified as an otaku s company .
After a running gag where scenes were depicted in manga form on-screen, FLCLs characters make a tongue-in-cheek remark about the use of stills in animation (something for which Gainax had become notorious) being a cheap and annoying budget saving device.
Several Kare Kano animated sequences and clothing designs (the short of Miyazawa in Asuka Langley Sohryu s yellow dress) are remarkably similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion , as well as a handful of more overt references.
Fans note the unusally strong similarity of character designs from , although this may simply be an effect of having the same designer.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi contains dozens references to anime, including Gainax. The third episode features a giant robot suit up sequence using musical identical to the Evangelion (giant robot) launching sequence in Neon Genesis Evangelion .
FLCL features one of the leads dressing as the Daicon Bunny (see below).
= History =
The studio was formed in the early 1980s as Daicon Film by university students Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takami Akai, and Shinji Higuchi. Their first project was to make an animated short for the 20th Annual Japan National SF Convention, also known as Daicon III , held in 1981 in Osaka, Japan. The short is about a little girl who fights all sorts of monsters, robots, and spaceships from earlier science fiction TV shows (including Ultraman , Space Battleship Yamato , Star Trek , Star Wars , Godzilla , Genesis Climber Mospeada , and many others) until she finally reaches a desert plain and pours a glass of water on a daikon radish, which immediately grows into a huge spaceship and beams her aboard. While this animated short was ambitious, its animation quality was rough and low-quality.
The group made a much bigger splash at the 22nd Annual Japan National SF Convention, .
The mascot for Studio Gainax is an Super Deformed Characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion#Ritsuko Akagi.
= Works =
Gainax works include (year given is that of first broadcast, theatre showing, or publishing):
Wings of Honneamise (1987)
Gunbuster (1988) ( Top o Nerae! or Aim for the Top! )
(1990) ( Fushigi no Umi no Nadia )
Otaku no Video (1992)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) ( Shin Seiki Evangelion )
Love & Pop (live action) (1998)
His and Her Circumstances (1998) ( Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo or Kare Kano )
Modern Love s Silliness (1999)
FLCL (2000) (pronounced Furi Kuri, or Fooly Cooly in English)
Mahoromatic (2001)
Shiki-jitsu (2001)
Puchi Puri Yuushi (2002)
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002)
Melody of Oblivion (2004) ( Boukyaku no Senritsu )
This Ugly and Beautiful World (2004) ( Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai or Konomini )
(2004)
Diebuster (2004) ( Top o Nerae! 2 or Aim for the Top! 2 )
He is My Master (2005)
Gainax has also produced a number of computer games, most recently a strip mahjong game featuring Evangelion characters, and its most famous game Princess Maker , which was later adapted as Puchi Puri Yūshi.
=Daicon Tokusatsu Fan Films=
As Daicon Films, Gainax was also notable for making a series of tokusatsu fan film shorts in the 1980s, usually parodies of monster movies and superhero shows, which have gotten lots of favorable media coverage. These productions included:
Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon (愛国戦隊 大日本 - Aikoku Sentai Dai-Nippon) (1982) - A parody of the popular Super Sentai shows, which is also a satire of the Russo-Japanese War. The title team is based on Japanese culture (of course) and the villains, the evil Red Bear Empire led by Death Kremlin , are Russians. In this episode , Red Bear confronts our heroes with the giant shark monster, Minsk Mask, while attempting to brainwash the children of Japan by swapping out the pages of their textbooks with red paper. Shinji Higuchi worked on the special effects.
Kaiketsu Noutenki (快傑のーてんき - Kaiketsu Nōtenki) (1982) - A parody of Shotaro Ishinomori s Kaiketsu Zubat , and the name of the hero s alter-ego (Ken Hayakawa) is the same, but the hero wears a sillier costume! Daicon/Gainax producer Yasuhiro Takeda played Ken Hayakawa. It spawned three sequels: Kaiketsu Noutenki 2 in which he faces off against a mechanical clone of himself, Mecha Noutenki, Noutenki in USA where the hero walks around in San Francisco, CA, seeing the sights whilest in costume and a supposed role-playing video
Return of Ultraman (parody) (帰ってきたウルトラマン - Kaettekita Urutoraman) (1983) - A same-title parody of Return of Ultraman , with some impressive special effects, even for a low budget. The usual Ultraman derring-do ensues, only replace New Ultraman/Ultraman Jack with a giant Hideaki Anno in a vinyl Ultraman trick-or-treat outfit and glasses! Anno directed while Takami Akai directed the special effects.
Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushuu (八岐之大蛇の逆襲 - Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushū) (1985) - Daicon s epic 72-minute sendup of kaiju (giant monster) movies, with special effects by Shinji Higuchi. This was the most heavily promoted of their short films.
=External links=
*[
http://www.gainax.co.jp/ GAINAX NET] - Gainax s official Web site
*[
http://www.gainax.co.jp/menu-e.html Gainax Network Systems] - The English version of the site (no longer updated)
*[
http://www.gainax.co.jp/soft/daicon/ Gainax s Official Daicon Films Website] - Info on their classic tokusatsu & anime shorts (DVDs available there).
*[
http://www.gainaxpages.com The Gainax Pages] - a fan site
*[
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/daicon.htm Daicon III and IV Opening Animations] - a fan site about the Daicon shorts and the early history of Gainax
*[
http://www.sleepisfortheweak.org/pages/gainaxcult/ The Most Holy Gainax Cult] - another fan site