What You Need to Know:
- According to multiple media outlets across Japan and multiple blogs pulling tweets from across Twitter, Production IMS, the animation company, has begun procedures for legal liquidation of their assets.
- Production IMS is an animation studio that was in charge of shows like Date A Live II, Inari, Konkon Koi Iroha, Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu, Active Raid, Haifuri, Masou Gakuen HxH, Takunomi, and others. The studio was founded in 2013, but it seems that they were not able to turn anime into revenue on the sales of DVDs and Blu-rays. Last November, their second studio in Nerima, Tokyo was essentially vacated almost overnight and an announcement was then placed on the studio's homepage here stating that the space was available for rental starting February 2018.
- The studio has also been plagued online where alleged former animators have complained that they still had not been paid years later for series that they had worked on previously. According to what appears to be an official statement on news sites like this one here and here, they are leaving the sorting of their assets to their lawyers. How much debt they have is currently under investigation.
They are not kidding when they say that DVD/Blu-ray sales really are what makes the money in this industry.
And another one goes down. It's really bad that studios are struggling to get money because they need to make returns on disc sales. Is this a sign of things to come?
