Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社バンダイナムコフィルムワークス, Hepburn: Kabushiki gaisha Bandai Namuko Firumuwākusu), previously and still famously known as Sunrise Inc., is a Japanese company owned by Bandai Namco Holdings with its business focused on production, planning and management for anime.
History
According to an interview with Sunrise members, the studio was founded by former members of Mushi Production in 1972 as Sunrise Studio, Limited (有限会社サンライズスタジオ, Yugen-kaisha Sanraizu Sutajio). 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.[4]
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 Magic God Hero Legend 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.
In February 1994, Sunrise Inc. became part of the Bandai Group.[5]
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.[6] Its music division, Sunrise Music, has similarly subsumed Bandai Namco Arts' music operations, including Lantis, and changed its name to Bandai Namco Music Live.[7] The Sunrise name has been kept as one of the major brands of the company as of August 2023.[8]
On March 1, 2024, Bandai Namco Filmworks announced the acquisition of anime studio Eight Bit, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.[9][10]
Sunrise
Logo for the Sunrise brand, used since late 1996. It was also used as a corporate logo until 2022.
The company's primary division, Sunrise (サンライズ, Sanraizu), is an animation studio founded in September 1972 and is based in Ogikubo, Tokyo.[11] Its former names were also Soeisha, Sunrise Studio and Nippon Sunrise.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14]
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 have it merged with Sunrise.[15]
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.[19]Right Stuf agreed to distribute and re-release Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn on DVD in North America.[20] 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.[21]
Anime studios founded by former Sunrise animators
Studio Deen (founded in March 1975) by Hiroshi Hasegawa and Takeshi Mochida.
Studio Dub (founded in January 1983) by Masa Yahata, taken over and became as BNP Iwaki Studio in 2019.
Lifework (founded in 1984) by Yutaka Kanda and Masahiro Toyozumi, today closed.
Studio Takuranke (founded in September 1987) by Yasuhiko Kondō and Hiroyuki Yamada.
Studio Gazelle (founded in September 1993) by Ikuo Sato.
^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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