Gonzo (company)

Gonzo K.K.
株式会社ゴンゾ

Type	Kabushiki gaisha
Industry	Animation studio, planning and production
Founded	September 11, 1992
Founder	Mahiro Maeda Shinji Higuchi Shouji Murahama Hiroshi Yamaguchi
Headquarters	Naritahigashi, Suginami, Tokyo
Key people	Tetsuo Karasawa (President and CEO) Shinichiro Ishikawa (Executive Vice President)
Owner	Iwakaze Capital (80.62%) Shinichiro Ishikawa (1.71%)
Number of employees	46
Subsidiaries	Gonzino
Website	www.gonzo.co.jp

Gonzo K.K. (株式会社ゴンゾ, Kabushiki-gaisha Gonzo^?) is a Japanese anime studio established on September 11, 1992 by former Gainax staff members. Gonzo is a member of The Association of Japanese Animations.

The studio had a financial problem in their closing account in the 2008-2009 term and stated its deficit was estimated over 30 million dollars. The Tokyo Stock Exchange announced that on July 30, 2009 Gonzo would be delisted from the exchange. This delisting is the conclusion of a notification made to investors in March 2008 that the studio's financial liabilities exceeded its total financial assets. Since Gonzo was unable to reverse this, paperwork for delisting was filed at the end of June.

The studio is still able to operate, and its parent company GDH has absorbed it in an effort to consolidate management. The combined company now simply refers to itself as Gonzo. By April 2009, the merger was complete.

As part of the restructuring, GDH also sold the Gonzo Rosso game development subsidiary, GDH Capital financing subsidiary, and remaining shares of Tablier Communications initially acquired in March 2006. Gonzo Rosso K.K. was sold to Chushou service kikou kabushikigaisha (division of Incubator Bank of Japan, Limited) on 2009-03-31.

Since this deficit, Gonzo has started to post better earnings due to the release of titles such as Rosario + Vampire to western online streaming websites such as Netflix. The marketing of these products to western audiences has returned Gonzo to financial stability, and Gonzo posted higher than expected profit margins in the April–September 2012 period.

Many of Gonzo's titles were licensed for North American distribution by Geneon, ADV Films, and Funimation Entertainment. ADV Films UK branch was the UK distributor for Gonzo titles licensed by ADV, with the exception of Gantz, as it was licensed by MVM Films. Gad Guard, Hellsing, and Last Exile, which were titles originally licensed by Geneon, were also licensed by ADV Films UK, although they're no longer licensed since the company's closure. MVM Films was the UK licensee for the majority of Gonzo titles licensed by Funimation in the US, with the exception of Afro Samurai, which was initially distributed directly in the UK by GDH and later by Manga Entertainment UK who also licensed Strike Witches (season 1), Origin: Spirits of the Past, and recently Last Exile and Hellsing. Welcome to the N.H.K., Pumpkin Scissors, and Red Garden, which were originally licensed by ADV Films UK, were re-licensed by MVM Films.