Gonzo in the Red

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has formally placed Gonzo Digimation Holdings (GDH), the parent company of anime production studio Gonzo, on a one-year probation retroactively beginning on April 1, 2008, the beginning of the Japanese fiscal year. GDH has been determined to have financial liabilities exceeding its total financial assets. As a result, if GDH is unable to become profitable within a year, GDH stock will be removed from trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On May 30, GDH announced a net loss of 3.752 billion yen (about US $35.44 million) for the fiscal year that ended on March 31.

Regardless of what you think of Gonzo’s anime productions, it can’t be a good sign for the anime industry when one of Japan’s most progressive and successful anime and game production companies is losing money at a dangerous pace.