Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. is a Japanese entertainment company owned by Bandai Namco Holdings with its business focused on the planning, production, distribution, and management of anime and live-action films and television series, as well as character licensing. It was founded in September 1972 by former Mushi Production staff as Sunrise Studio, Limited, the animation studio branch of Shoeisha Co., Ltd. In 1977, it gained independence from Shoeisha and Tohokushinsha and rebranded itself to Nippon Sunrise Inc. In 1987, the studio rebranded to Sunrise Inc., a name that would remain in use for over 35 years. In 1994, the company was acquired by toy and entertainment company Bandai and was integrated into Namco Bandai Holdings in 2005. In 2022, as part of a major group restructuring of the Bandai Namco Group, the company would merge with the home video division of Bandai Namco Arts and Bandai Namco Rights Marketing to form Bandai Namco Filmworks. As part of this restructuring, Sunrise would continue to operate as a division within the company (officially known as a "brand") with the changes taking effect on April 1, 2022. Its current divisions include Sunrise (animation production), Bandai Visual (including its Emotion label, home video distribution), and Bandai Channel (streaming services) and currently owns other studios, such as BN Pictures, Actas, Eight Bit, the advertising agency Sotsu and the manga production company Echoes. It also holds international subsidiaries such as Bandai Namco Filmworks America, which handles distribution, licensing and marketing
Credited On
- JAM Project - JAM Project Hurricane Tour 2009 Gate of the Future - JAM Project, released September 25, 2009 (
LABM-7056). Distributed By.
History
From the en.wikipedia article Bandai Namco Filmworks (CC BY-SA 4.0), revision 1374501261.
From its establishment in 1972 until 2022, the company served as the legal operating entity for the Sunrise studio, acting as a full production company specializing in animation production and character licensing. On April 1, 2022, Bandai Namco Holdings adopted a new logo that had been initially revealed in October 2021. As a result, a major restructuring occurred, with Sunrise Inc. subsuming the anime and home video division of Bandai Namco Arts, which was dissolved that same day and rebranded to Bandai Namco Music Live with its music division, Sunrise Music being subsumed into Bandai Namco Arts' music operations, including Lantis in the process. Following this, the company adopted the same logo as its parent, and took the name Bandai Namco Filmworks. As of August 2023, the Sunrise name has been kept as one of the major brands of the company as an animation production division. On March 1, 2024, Bandai Namco Filmworks announced the acquisition of anime studio Eight Bit, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. On May 14, 2024, the company established a business partnership with animation studio Tsumugi Akita Animation Lab to jointly create further works and intellectual property (IP). On June 3, 2024, the company entered into a business partnership with LandQ Studios to strengthen further 3DCG animation production capabilities. On February 4, 2025, Bandai Namco Holdings USA announced the establishment of Bandai Namco Filmworks America to handle the company's licensing and brand management activities within the Americas, which will take effect on April 1. The announcement coincided with the start of the co-financing and co-production of the Gundam film with Legendary Pictures. On October 7, 2025, it was announced that the company would streamline its planning, production, and copyright management businesses as well as management of the Gundam series, that are currently overlapped within BNF and its subsidiary, Sotsu. As part of this, Sotsu would transfer its Gundam series-related businesses and its IP planning and production businesses to BNFW with the transfer being completed by April 1, 2026. In November 2025, Bandai Namco Filmworks announced a new "human resource strategy" for 2025–2027 in which it would train creators at its in-house animation schools, like "Sunrise Drawing School" and the "Sunrise Art School", to help combat Japan's shortage of animators.
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q854654.
- en.wikipedia, Bandai Namco Filmworks (revision 1374501261), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- ja.wikipedia, バンダイナムコフィルムワークス (revision 111173388), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photograph: Sunrise headquarter.jpg on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, by Moroboshi.
