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Sunrise Establishes Sunrise Beyond Studio at Xebec's Current Address

Sunrise announced on Tuesday that it established a new company named "Sunrise Beyond" on March 1. The new company will focus on producing screen content (primarily animation), producing and utilizing IP, and managing rights. Sunrise producer Masakazu Ogawa is the company's representative director, while the interim board members include Sunrise representative director Makoto Asanuma, Xebec president Nobuyoshi Habara, and Sunrise board member Naoya Masaki.

The new studio is located near the Tanashi train station in Nishi-Tokyo, at the same address as Xebec studio's current address. Sunrise previously revealed in January that it will establish a new company to take in Xebec's operations on March 1. In the previous January announcement, the companies outlined their plan to sign the finalized agreement on March 11, and formally transfer the operations on April 1 (the start of the Japanese fiscal year).

IG Port, the parent company of several anime studios including Production I.G and Wit Studio, announced in November that it will transfer most production operations of its Xebec production studio to Sunrise. However, the production of the Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND anime will remain under IG Port. IG Port will transfer Xebec's photography department and Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND's XEBECzwei studio to its Production I.G subsidiary, and will then rename XEBECzwei to IG zwei. In addition, IG Port will transfer Xebec's coloring department to Signal.MD, another IG Port group company.

XEBECzwei is the primary animation production studio handling Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND, although the main Xebec studio is still credited for creating the Fafner franchise. The first three of 12 episodes in Sōkyū no Fafner THE BEYOND will open in theaters on May 17.

The final film in another anime, Xebec's Star Blazers 2202 (Uchū Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi), opened in theaters on March 1.

Xebec has been in operation since its founding in May 1995. Its many works include Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202, Martian Successor Nadesico, Hana Kappa, and Future Card Buddyfight. Its current president is Nobuyoshi Habara.

Sunrise was founded over 40 years ago in 1972 as Sunrise Studio, before renaming itself as Nippon Sunrise and eventually just Sunrise. It is now a group company of Bandai Namco Holdings. Its many works include Mobile Suit Gundam, Code Geass, Love Live!, and Cowboy Bebop. Its current president is Yasuo Miyakawa.

Source: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)