Sorry for adding to this old thread, but it seemed all too relevant. I have written an article about the history of Sunrise. So far, I only covered the creation of the studio in 1972 till the success of the Mobile Suit Gundam films in 1981/82. This is only the first part of the series of articles covering the history of Sunrise.
This is pretty much a shameless plugin but people who want to know more about the studio and its past can read the article here:
http://www.goboiano.com/read-more-news.php?id=972
I have also produced a series of articles about the history of Production IG;
http://www.goboiano.com/read-more-news.php?id=868