The Indestructible Studio Gainax: Part III

Welcome to Part III of our continuing history of Studio Part Two right here.

It would be a lie to say that the problems the GAINAX staff had with Yasuhiro Takeda later referred to him as a “hindrance” to their new anime productions. But removing Okada wasn't a simple fix to all of GAINAX's problems and what followed was the worst year in the studio's history, saved by one remarkable show.

1992 - General Products’ Worst Year

It's difficult to determine if Toshio Okada was a good studio president or not, but history tells us that at the very least, he was an important studio figure and one of the main forces behind the studio's Takeshi Sawamura who was the president, a job he'd already been ing Okada with for the past two years.

This was the first step in turning GAINAX into what Okada later regarded as an “ordinary company”. In some ways, financial responsibility, sensible work hours and organised schedules is antithetical to the core of Studio GAINAX as a studio. But on reflection, the studio would not have survived the following years with Okada's chaos strategy. They'd just finished work on one of their most difficult projects, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, only to face the worst year of the studio's lifetime.

Up until now, General Products could be considered a t company with GAINAX. Whilst they were ed financially by GAINAX and had the same head management, General Products had an entirely separate reputation, image and goals. One of their largest accomplishments was the establishment of the figure and merchandise convention Tokyo Wonder Festival in 1985, following a successful smaller event the year prior at the General Products store. The event initially took place on the third floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center and over the years grew until the venue was the whole building itself.

However, whilst General Products were amazed by the turnout, it wasn't how they envisioned the company. Although WonFes (Wonder Festival) was popular, General Products’ garage kit sales were faltering. The event was loved by fans of figurines, Kaiyodo in 1992. Twenty-five years later in 2017, Kaiyodo's WonFes boasted an attendance of 50,000+.

This wasn't General Products’ only failed attempt to promote their own products. In 1989, they Animate and marking them up to sell in the US, a strategy that got them blacklisted from Animate before they'd even started.

With terrible communication between the US and Japan sides, very little merchandise actually being shipped and US staff not being paid, General Products USA was one of GAINAX's most mishandled projects. However, their attempts towards capturing the American market did result in the creation of AnimeCon ‘91, the first American convention to be sponsored by a company within the Japanese anime industry. Whilst AnimeCon only lasted a year, it was subsequently turned into Anime Expo in 1992, the largest anime convention in the US today.