The Japanese animation studio GAINA has been renamed to BENTEN Film. It also has a new owner, thanks to the Kinoshita Group selling all shares to Creator’s X, a young company founded in 2024 that’s linked to animation and AI.
According to Creator’s X’ website, its activities include 2D and 3D animation production, background art production for anime and games, and development of systems that assist in anime production. The development of AI-using software is also mentioned.
In late 2024, Creator’s X made K&K Design (which it described as a pioneering existence in the realm of AI anime production) a subsidiary and established the background art studio Studio SAIGA, and said that it wanted to support creators’ passion with AI and mature as an existence that depicts a new era for animation production.
GAINA has an older and more complicated history, beginning as a regional offshoot of GAINAX (which filed for bankruptcy in June 2024) called Fukushima Gainax. The anime it has produced include Piano no Mori, The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting (co-production with feel.), Grendizer U, and Babanba Banban Vampire.
Source: GAINA website (via Animation Business Journal)
