Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc.[a] is a Japanese entertainment company owned by Bandai Namco Holdings with its business focused on production, planning, and management of anime. It was founded in September 1972 by former Mushi Production staff as Sunrise Studio, Limited,[b] the animation studio branch of Shoeisha Co., Ltd.[4]. In 1977, it gained independence from Shoeisha and Tohokushinsha and rebranded itself to Nippon Sunrise Inc.[c] In 1987, the studio rebranded to Sunrise Inc.,[d] a name which would remain in use for over 35 years. In 1994, the company was acquired by toy and entertainment company Bandai and was integrated into Namco Bandai Holdings in 2005.
In 2022, as part of a major group restructuring of the Bandai Namco Group, the company would merge with the home video division of Bandai Namco Arts and Bandai Namco Rights Marketing to form Bandai Namco Filmworks. As part of this restructuring, Sunrise would continue to operate as a division within the company with the changes taking effect on April 1, 2022.[5]
History
According to an interview with Sunrise members, the studio was founded by former members of Mushi Production in September 1972 as Sunrise Studio. Rather than having anime production revolve around a single creator (like Mushi, headed by Osamu Tezuka), Sunrise decided that production should focus on the producers. The market for mainstream anime (such as manga adaptations, sports shows, and adaptations of popular children's stories) was already dominated by existing companies, so Sunrise decided to focus on robot (mecha) anime, known to be more difficult to animate but which could be used to sell toys.[6]
Sunrise has been involved in many popular and acclaimed anime television series, including Mobile Suit Gundam (and its spin-offs and sequels since 1979), the Mashin Hero Wataru series (1988–1997), the Brave (1990–1997) and Eldran series (1991–1993), both of which were co-produced with Takara Tomy, and the Crest of the Stars series (1999–2001). They produced the apocalyptic Space Runaway Ideon in 1980.
By November 1976, Shoeisha and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation decided to exit the animation production business by selling Sunrise Studio, reorganizing themselves as an independent studio known as Nippon Sunrise Inc. and started outsourcing animation production for several animated series produced by Toei and Tsuburaya Productions.
In 1981, Nippon Sunrise's first president Yoshinori Kishimoto suddenly died due to poor health. Following Kishimoto's death, Masanori Ito became Nippon Sunrise's second president.[7][dead link]
In February 1994, multinational toy manufacturer & distributor Bandai had acquired Sunrise and effectively became part of the Bandai Group as toy manufacturer Bandai entered the film & television animation production business and gained an official animation studio with Bandai's management including Satoru Matsumoto joining the studio.[8]
In June 2002, Sunrise launched their own music publishing division Sunrise Music Publishing Co., Ltd that would manage all of Sunrise's music copyrights for music development.
In October 2005, Sunrise's parent company & toy manufacturer Bandai merged with multinational video game and entertainment company Namco to form Namco Bandai Holdings with Sunrise becoming Namco Bandai's animation production & entertainment company as they would expand its production activities with adaptations of several Bandai and Namco properties.[8]
Before Bandai Namco Holdings established Bandai Namco Filmworks, Bandai Namco Entertainment had its first television production based on the Pac-Man franchise titled Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, in partnership with producer and former Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad through Arad Productions in June 2010.,[9] By September 2011, Bandai Namco partnered with American production company and distributor 41 Entertainment to distribute the series worldwide except for Japan where Bandai Namco would distribute.[10]
On April 1, 2022, Bandai Namco Holdings adopted a new logo that had been initially revealed in October 2021, and with it, a major organization shuffle occurred, resulting in Sunrise subsuming the visual arts division of Bandai Namco Arts, which was dissolved that same day. Following this, the company has adopted the same logo as its parent, and adopted the name of Bandai Namco Filmworks.[5] Its music division, Sunrise Music, has similarly subsumed Bandai Namco Arts' music operations, including Lantis, and changed its name to Bandai Namco Music Live.[11] The Sunrise name has been kept as one of the major brands of the company as of August 2023 as an animation production division.[12]
On March 1, 2024, Bandai Namco Filmworks announced the acquisition of anime studio Eight Bit, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.[13][14]
On February 4, 2025, Bandai Namco Holdings USA announced the establishment of Bandai Namco Filmworks America to handle the company's licensing and brand management activities internationally, which will take effect on April 1. The announcement coincided with the start of the co-financing and co-production of the Gundam film with Legendary Pictures.[15][16]
Sunrise
Logo for the Sunrise brand, used since late 1996. It was also used as a corporate logo until 2022.
Sunrise,[e] the trade name of the company's IP Production Group division, is an animation studio founded in September 1972 and is based in Ogikubo, Tokyo.[17] Its former names were also Soeisha, Sunrise Studio and Nippon Sunrise.[18]
Most of their work are original titles created in-house by their creative staff under a collective pseudonym, Hajime Yatate. They also operated a defunct video-game studio, Sunrise Interactive. Sunrise launched a light-novel publisher, Yatate Bunko Imprint, on September 30, 2016, to publish original titles and supplement their existing franchises with new materials.[19] Anime created by Sunrise which have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix are Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 and the first half of 1980, Space Runaway Ideon in the second half of 1980, Crusher Joe (a co-production with Studio Nue) in 1983, Dirty Pair in 1985, Future GPX Cyber Formula in 1991, Gundam SEED in 2002, Gundam SEED Destiny in 2004 and 2005, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion in 2006 and 2007 and Code Geass R2 in 2008, making Sunrise the studio which won the largest number of Animage Awards.
Studio 4 was created in 1979, and notable works include The Ultraman anime. The studio became inactive in 1987. The current Studio 4 began as support for Studio 2, and was known as Studio Iogi (井荻スタジオ) (named after the pseudonym of longtime Sunrise director Yoshiyuki Tomino). The studio's first major work was 1985's Dirty Pair, and other notable works include Planetes, s-CRY-ed and Code Geass.
Sunrise Origin Studio (サンライズオリジンスタジオ) is Sunrise's in-between animation studio that does in-between animation for other studios' anime titles such as My Hero Academia to The Boy and the Beast.
White Base is a new studio that recently opened in November 2021 and is named after the famous battleship from the original Gundam.[20]
Former
Sunrise Beyond Inc. was a subsidiary of Sunrise established after the majority purchase and closure of Xebec. Some of their works include Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise and King's Raid: Successors of the Will. In January 2024, it was announced that the studio will be dissolved and be merged with Sunrise.[21]
Most anime produced by Sunrise and Bandai and licensed by Bandai Visual in Japan was licensed and distributed in the United States by Bandai Entertainment and in Europe by Beez Entertainment, but both companies shut down in 2012 after Bandai Entertainment's restructuring. In North America, distributors such as Funimation, Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks, NIS America and Aniplex of America, as well as Sunrise USA, have licensed Sunrise properties. In Europe, Anime Limited and Manga Entertainment (in the UK) and Kazé (in France) have begun to distribute titles distributed by Beez and other unreleased Sunrise productions. In Australia, Sunrise productions are licensed and distributed by Madman Entertainment. At Anime Boston 2013, Sunrise confirmed that they would begin licensing anime in North America and were negotiating with Sentai, Funimation, and Viz to distribute their titles on DVD and Blu-ray.[29]Right Stuf agreed to distribute and re-release Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn on DVD in North America.[30] In 2014 the deal expanded, releasing the Gundam previously licensed by Bandai Entertainment (Mobile Suit Gundam, Turn A Gundam) and several works not released in North America (including Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ) in 2015.[31]
Anime studios founded by former Sunrise staff
Studio Deen (founded in March 1975) by Hiroshi Hasegawa and Takeshi Mochida.
↑ Animage Editorial Staff (August 1987). "Arata na michi o mosakusuru orijinaru robotto anime no sōhonzan" 新たな道を模索するオリジナルロボットアニメの総本山[The main office searches for a fresh original robot anime]. Animage (in Japanese). Vol.110. pp.60–65.
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