About the studio
Sotsu has one of the more unexpected origin stories in anime: it started in 1965 as Toyo Agency, the merchandising arm for the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, of all things. It became Sotsu Agency in 1977 and simply Sotsu in 2007. Based in Tokyo, it's not an animation studio at all, but a rights holder and planning partner, and its single biggest claim to fame is co-managing the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise's rights alongside Sunrise. *From baseball merch to one of the most valuable franchises in anime history, that's quite the pivot.* In 2019, Bandai Namco Holdings acquired Sotsu as a subsidiary, consolidating Gundam licensing under one roof. Sotsu might not draw a single mobile suit, but for anyone who's bought Gundam merchandise, watched a Gundam anime, or built a Gunpla model kit, its fingerprints are somewhere on that transaction.