Studio Khara Evangelion Production Company
Khara, Inc, is the Japanese animation studio known for the Rebuild of Evangelion film franchise. The studio was founded by the creator of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, Hideaki Anno in May of 2006, and was made public when the studio posted job openings for the studios main headquarters in Suginami, Tokyo, Japan later in August of that year. The name, Khara, is derived from the Greek word “joy” and was developed by Anno’s wife, Moyoko Anno.
History and Key Contributors
Anno founded the studio after working at the studio GAINAX and realizing that anything he created would not only never be his own, but that much of his work would actually hinder other creators at the studio, and he wanted to have a space of his own to work. The studio originally was going to be a personal office, with Anno simply renting out a room in Nishi Shinjuku in Tokyo. From there, he had asked his friend Takahashi Tsutomu from Nihon TV for advice on what to do from there, and Tsutomu was the one that decided to turn the office into a company by getting all the right paperwork and registration forms, taking them to the Office of Legal Affairs, and getting Anno to sign the documents.
Hideaki Anno
Founder Hideaki Anno, who was born on May 22nd, 1960, was first noted as an artist while he attended Yamaguchi Prefectural Ube High School and began creating short films for Japanese Cultural Festivals. His career really started while attending the Osaka University of Arts, when he became an animator for the anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982-1983). Working for the anime consumed so much of Anno’s time that he was eventually expelled from the school. Anno later gained recognition upon the release of his work on Hayao Miyazki’s film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Anno continued on with his career by co-founding the animation studio GAINAX in December of 1984, where he became Gainax’s premiere anime director working on the Evangelion TV anime series.
Kazuya Tsurumaki
The assistant director of the animation studio is Kazuya Tsurumaki, who was born on February 2nd, 1966 in Gosen, Niigata Prefecture. Tsurumaki is Anno’s protege and was also a longtime animator at the studio GAINAX. Tsurmaki was hired at GAINAX in 1990 as an animation director for the TV series Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, and continued to direct at the studio, eventually working under Anno as assistant director on the hit series Evangelion TV anime series, which he not only assistant directed, but also handled production, art director, and setting assistant on a few episodes. He even directed episode 25 of the original Evangelion series, which was the first half of the series’ cinematic conclusion. He followed Anno to his new studio, Khara, to help work on the new Evangelion films, of which he is currently a director.
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Khara, Inc’s key character designer is Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who was born on January 29th, 1962 in Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Sadamoto is not only a character designer, but also a manga artist, and was also one of the founding members of the GAINAX animation studio alongside Anno. He was also the key character designer in the original Evangelion franchise, which is one of Sadamoto’s most notable works. It is often noted that Sadamoto is a perfectionist and true to his work, only drawing art that he is comfortable drawing without needing any studying, meaning that the Evangelion Units in Evangelion are something that he must be quite familiar with. In August of 2019, Sadamoto was the center of criticism due to his comments of Statue of Peace (2011), which depicted a comfort woman (sex slaves used by the Japanese Imperial Army). Sadamoto’s claim was that the statue was dirty and vulgar propaganda, which have been viewed as offensive. The character designer has helped with the Evangelion Rebuild series since Khara was founded.
Shinji Higuchi
The studio’s key storyboard artist is Shinj Higuchi, who was born on September 22nd, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan. Higuchi is known to be one of the top special effects supervisors in both anime and tokusatsu projects in all of Japan, and is best known for his work on Shusuke Kaneko’s Gamera trilogy. He was also one of the four founders of GAINAX. He was a key member of the team in creating the original Evangelion TV anime series where he was a writer and art director/storyboarder. Uncoincidentally, he is also the namesake for the series’ protagonist, Shinji Ikari. Higuchi has not only directed storyboarding, but has also been a head director, visual effects director, special effects director, and a writer. Higuchi is one of Hideaki Anno’s closest friends.
Shiro Sagisu
Anno had also brought in Composer Shiro Sagisu, who was born on August 29th, 1957 in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. He is both a music producer and composer, with a 35 year career in music. He also helped collaborate on the Evangelion franchise, and was brought into the Khara studio to continue his work, where he eventually won the Tokyo Anime Award for Best Music in 2010 for his work in Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.
The studios long anticipated fourth and final film in the Rebuild series, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0, is set to release to Japanese audiences in 2020. Their live action film Shin Ultraman is set to release in 2021.