The Japanese government's Kanpou paper reported on August 11 that the anime production company Office AO filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court on July 28. Ken Aoki founded the Tokyo-based company on March 1, 1991, and he continued to head the company up until the bankruptcy filing.

Office AO is best known for producing the Hula Kapper (Furu Kappā) television anime series. It also co-produced Seven of Seven, Girls Bravo, Hajime no Ippo, Silent Möbius, Alien Nine, Kaiketsu Zorro, and other television anime. The company worked on the animation for Aquarion, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Eureka Seven, Fafner, Inuyasha, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, NieA_7, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl, XXXHOLiC, and numerous other projects.

Another anime studio, Group TAC, had filed for bankruptcy on August 31. The financial research firm Teikoku Databank reported that more medium-sized and small anime production companies reported a drop in revenue compared to the larger companies last year.