Japanese anime production company Studio KAI has announced that it recorded a net loss of 565 million yen (about $3.54 million USD) in the fiscal year ended December 2025. As reported by GameBiz, the company now faces insolvency due to the widening deficit throughout the years.
A subsidiary of ADK Emotions and a full-fledged member of the Japan Animation Association, Studio KAI has been around since 2019. Notably, the company was the primary animation studio for the second and third seasons of the Umamusume: Pretty Derby TV anime series, as well as 2025’s Sentenced to Be a Hero anime adaptation.
Counting 133 employees as of December 2025, Studio KAI is known for housing a large number of industry veterans and doing a high proportion of its production in-house (as opposed to outsourcing) thanks to its philosophy of hiring animators as full-time workers (source: Famitsu). News of the company’s large-scale deficit and insolvency has been shocking for fans in Japan, especially considering the high quality of the studio’s output. Sadly, Studio KAI is far from the only anime company that’s struggling financially, as 2025 brought the third consecutive year of growing anime studio bankruptcies and closures.
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