GONZO K.K.

🛠

This subject is work in progress. What is being worked on: Company history Please bear with us while improvements are being made and assume good faith until the edits are complete. For information on how to help, see the guidelines. More subjects categorized here.

🛠

GONZO K.K.
General information
Key people	Shinichiro Ishikawa
Founded	February 29, 2000
Status	Active
Location	3rd floor, Ogikubo Fukuchi Building, 1-10-6 Kamiogi, Suginami-ku, Tokyo
Service	Global
Type	Animation planning, production, sales and import/export of animation Content investment, investment in artworks, copyright management, etc.
Products	Jasper Otobe Hisui
Affiliation	Techno-Speech, Inc. Studio ENTRE Inc. GEMVOX
Website	https://www.gonzo.co.jp/

GONZO K.K. (株式会社ゴンゾ Kabushiki-gaisha Gonzo), formerly GONZO Digimation Holding K.K. (or GDH K.K.) and currently also stylized as Gonzo K.K., is a Japanese anime studio owned by ADK that was established on February 22, 2000. GONZO is a member of The Association of Japanese Animations. The company's predecessor Gonzo Inc. was established on February 11, 1992, by former Gainax staff members, but was later absorbed into its parent company GDH K.K. on April 1, 2009, and it would assume the Gonzo trade name for itself.

GONZO has not released a major animation project since 2020, with Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle being the studio's latest major work.

About

GONZO is a global company that delivers the next generation of visual culture through its international network. GONZO strives to "leverage its outstanding creative staff, international marketing capabilities, and the GONZO brand power to take on innovative challenges as a leading company in the next generation of digital visual content."

On August 5, 2024, a collaboration project between GONZO K.K. and Studio ENTRE Inc. (a company with the goal of creating new businesses by combining the broad entertainment business with technology) announced the formation of a new A.I. singer label, "GEMVOX". GEMVOX was announced to be a next-generation label that includes A.I. singers, all named after gemstones, developed using the latest voice synthesizer technology aimed with the goal of having new works created daily by various creators and to provide a series of captivating "AI Singers" that inspire creators' imagination, curate the works produced, and encourage collaboration among creators. The project was launched together with Shinichiro Ishikawa, president of GONZO, who continues to pioneer the use of technology in the anime industry, while also taking advantage of the activities of the AI research group "ARS" (AI Resonate Society). The first announced vocalist of the company was Shimon Topaz, a mysterious girl with a dark appearance who has a beautiful and clear voice and is trilingual, fluent in Japanese, English, and Korean. At the time, it was not specified which synthesizer Topaz would be developed for. Topaz was also announced to be featured as the main vocalist for the theme song for the upcoming anime PV, "Gloria". On August 21, the president of Studio ENTRE Inc., Norikazu Yamaguchi, followed up on a blog detailing further details of Topaz's development, confirming she would be sold as a bilingual Japanese-English singing voice database for Synthesizer V Studio (which did not support Korean). The technology was not only to be linked to Dreamtonics Co., Ltd., but would also be collaborating with Techno-Speech, Inc. and Yamaha Corporation, intent to create AI singers for various platforms and are preparing various projects.

After Topaz, three other AI vocalists, all of them then-unnamed, were being hinted on the GEMVOX homepage, with no mention of any specific synthesizer engines for them. While silhouettes were only shown for two of those vocalists (packed together as a pair over the placeholder name "???"), an image of a masked man was being shown for the remaining vocal (also temporarily labeled as "???"). On October 13, Yamaguchi revealed that the second AI vocal project would be a masculine singer named Shiraki Jasper; although he was announced to be releasing in November, his target engine was left out unspecified. On October 25, in an article covering the release of Topaz's second anime PV "Wafu", Yamaguchi went on record to reveal that the second project was being developed for VoiSona. After being delayed from his original November release during a live talk at the Tokyo Musical Instruments Expo 2024 (held at the Science Museum on November 3), Jasper was given by Yamaguchi a December 11 release date.

Voice Libraries

Released

VoiSona

Jasper

Upcoming

VoiSona

Otobe Hisui

External links

• Official website
• Official YouTube Channel (@gonzo)
• Official YouTube Channel (Alternate, @GONZODOGA)
• Official Twitter (@gonzo_anime)
• Official Twitter (International, @GonzoAnimeIntl)