Gainax Studio President Arrested on Allegations of Sexual Misconduct with Aspiring Teenage Voice Actress

Spencer Baculi   |  

Dec 10, 2019

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Tomohiro Maki, the 50-year old president of Japanese anime studio Gainax, was arrested last Thursday on accusations of inappropriately touching and photographing a teenage voice actor.

According to reports, Maki has been accused of taking illicit photos of a teenage female in four separate incidents, occurring between Feb 6^th and Feb 23^rd, at his condominium in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward.

Maki allegedly told the teenage female that his residence was the “Production Girls’ Dorm” of a voice acting development and production agency owned by Maki.

During these photoshoots, Maki would take topless photographs of the teenager, telling her it was “practice for when you become famous and people take pictures of you.” Maki is also accused of molesting the teenager, allegedly by insisting that he needed to massage the teenager due to her legs being ‘puffy’.

Maki has denied the accusations, stating:

“I was asked to take the photographs. The reality of it is different.”

In response to the news of Maki’s arrest, numerous anime studios with a relation to Gainax and its most famous production, the original Neon Genesis Evangelion television series, issued statements regarding the incident:

• Studio Khara, the studio currently producing the ‘Rebuild of Evangelion’ films, noted that all staff who had worked on the original Neon Genesis Evangelion series and popular anime Gurren Lagann, have moved on from Gainax and that Gainax has no part in current Evangelion productions, along with issuing a request that the media stop associating Evangelion with Maki’s arrest in their reporting.
• Gaina, formerly Gainax Fukushima, stated that they were no longer affiliated with Gainax after being acquired by Kinoshita Group and changing their name to Gaina, and stated that they would not be answering any questions regarding the incident.
• Gainax Kyoto’s managing director, Yasuhiro Takeda, himself an original founder of Gainax, explained that Gainax Kyoto and Gainax were completely separate companies which shared “no capital relationship.”