Anime Studio Evaluation #2: Gainax

Gainax began as a group of fans, making short videos for anime conventions, called Daicon (1981). Bandai was impressed with their work and gave them lots of money to create a high budget movie.

The result was The Wings of Honneamise in 1987. A coming of age story occasionally expanding to religion, philosophy and social critique. It is a very light film, many consider it boring, and many others hate it for a scene of attempted rape. It is still very inspirational, with great animation and no empowerment fantasy nonsense.

The following year they created Gunbuster (1988), which is also a light and inspirational coming of age story, but not boring by including bouncing boobs, huge robots, and gigantic explosions. Very entertaining and still one of the best mecha titles of all time. Its sequel Diebuster is not as good but it doesn’t deserve the hate it gets by many simply for not being amazing. It didn’t ruin the original like most sequels have done, so even that is an indication of quality.

The economic crisis of the 90s was a very hard time for anime. The inspiration and vision were there, but it’s as if they stopped caring midway because there was no market to promote their work. Nadia The Secret of Blue Water in 1990 began as a great action adventure and ended very unimpressive, as if they felt it was a lost cause.

Otaku no Video in 1991 was their way of expressing their frustration of wanting to create great animation but everything is holding them back. The anime fans of that time were also using them as escapism instead of inspiration for achieving greatness. Thus they created a pseudo-documentary, presenting the dark side of the fandom, while also having a segment of someone aspiring to achieve his dreams. Very dry as a watch and ridiculously optimistic if you see how the industry evolved over the years, but its message is something that very few even dared to talk about at the time.

This concept evolved further into one of the most iconic anime titles, Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1995. It combined the rule of cool from Gunbuster and the anti-escapism message of Otaku no Video, while also expanding to a dozen topics full of weird terminology for the pretentious overthinkers. It has many issues in terms of pacing, animation quality, and a plot that leaves most background information unexplained, but it completely changed the way anime are broadcasted and inspired every other studio to make dark science fiction that deals with the effects of technology and religion. GAINAX achieved what it was going for, which is why it’s such a praiseworthy studio.

So what do you do once you achieved your dreams? Kare Kano in 1998 was a fresh take on school romances, since it was focusing a lot on the psychology of the characters instead of being a 200 episode cocktease that goes nowhere and is just excuses for fan service. It runs out of steam the more it goes on but for its time it was once again exceptional.

After that, they went for comedy with Furi Kuri in 2000, which despite seemingly being completely random, it still manages to be an allegory about coming of age and facing the chaotic emotions of teenage life. It once again inspires the audience to use jokes and imagery to tell an important message, instead of being pretty colors with nothing behind them.

The same things apply to many of their lesser works. Although the message is often lost under constant referential humor, fan service, and episodic structure, they are still comedies that aim to be far more than plotless bullshit. They have a message and it’s not just otaku pandering.
2002: Abenobashi
2004: Re: Cutey Honey
2010: Panty and Stocking

Of course they also had their share of bad series when they weren’t trying to tell a message and were simply making softporn garbage for the quick bucks. Nobody cares about those titles, they were quickly forgotten because they had nothing of value to say.
2001: Mahoromatic
2004: This Ugly yet Beautiful World
2005: He is my Master
2008: Corpse Princess

Their swan song was Gurren Lagann in 2007, the best tribute to super robots ever made, and for once again being inspirational. Isn’t it funny how Toei and Sunrise have produced hundreds of mecha titles and almost none of them are as good as the two mecha series from Gainax? That’s how talented they were.

Sadly, said talent was centered in only two people. As soon as Hideaki and Imaishi left the studio, everything fell apart and Gainax is a living corpse ever since, making only moeshit and pretentious bullshit.
2011: The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
2012: Medaka Box
2013: Stella Women`s Academy
2014: Mahou Shoujo Taisen
2015: Wish Upon the Pleiades

As a whole, Gainax was the most influential studio of all times when it comes to anime. It easily passes the Sturgeon test and has one of the best roster of titles in general.