About the studio
If Gundam means anything to you, thank Sunrise. Founded in September 1972 (originally as Sunrise Studio, an animation branch of Soeisha, staffed by Mushi Production veterans), the studio took its independent identity in 1977 as Nippon Sunrise and settled on simply Sunrise in 1987. It's been the home of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise since 1979, along with Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass. Bandai acquired Sunrise in 1994, and after Bandai and Namco merged in 2005, it became part of Bandai Namco Holdings. *The corporate lineage gets complicated after that.* In 2022, Sunrise's production arm merged into what's now Bandai Namco Filmworks, though the Sunrise name lives on for its IP. Based in Suginami, Tokyo, this is a studio that basically invented the modern mecha genre and then spent five decades refusing to let anyone else take the crown.