About the studio
Bandai Namco Filmworks carries forward one of anime's longest, most storied lineages, tracing directly to Sunrise's founding in September 1972. Sunrise went independent in 1977, was acquired by Bandai in 1994, and folded into Namco Bandai Holdings after the 2005 Bandai-Namco merger, before finally merging with Bandai Namco Arts' home video division and Bandai Namco Rights Marketing on April 1, 2022 to become Bandai Namco Filmworks, with Sunrise continuing on as an internal brand. *Five decades of anime history compressed into one increasingly complicated corporate flowchart.* Based in Suginami, Tokyo, its catalog spans Mobile Suit Gundam, Code Geass, Cowboy Bebop, Love Live!, and Inuyasha, essentially the greatest hits of Sunrise's entire history. Whatever the current name on the letterhead, this is functionally still the studio that basically invented modern mecha anime, just operating under one more corporate umbrella than it used to.