The saga surrounding the cancellation of the Tokyo Babylon 2021 anime continues. According to information from the ANN GoHands studio has filed a lawsuit seeking 450 million yen from King Records (approximately US$4.1 million) for the canceled production of the Tokyo Babylon 2021 anime.
In the contract, GoHands studio states that it agreed with King Records to produce the anime, delivering 13 episodes by the end of November. The production cost was around 314.6 million yen (approximately US$2.87 million). The payment schedule was between December 2020 and August 2021. However, the studio claims that the contract was unilaterally canceled in January, with only the first installment paid .
The lawsuit is not only for the remaining 281.6 million yen (approximately US$2.57 million) of the contract, but also for 171.82 million yen (approximately US$1.57 million) for episodes 14 to 21. King Records had not formally signed the contract for the remaining episodes.
Regarding the plagiarism surrounding the cancellation of the anime Tokyo Babylon 2021
The anime adaptation of CLAMP 's Tokyo Babylon manga was announced in October 2020 ( see here ) and revealed the character designs on November 19th. However, on November 20th, the team received a warning of possible plagiarism regarding the anime's costumes—specifically, an outfit from the Korean girl group Red Velvet and a Volks doll outfit. The team apologized in December for referencing costumes of two characters from other sources without permission.
The team postponed the anime, which was planned for April 2021, before announcing its complete cancellation in March. ( Check it out ). The production committee, which also included King Records, cited an investigation that revealed further examples of plagiarism, resulting in a "loss of faith in the production studio."
King Records told the Asahi newspaper that it had not received the legal complaint, so it declined to comment on the matter.
Furthermore, GoHands' lawyer, Tomonori Sugō, states in the defense that anime productions always make references to existing designs, but the studios confirmed that there were no copyright infringement issues with the mentioned clothing. However, the person responsible for copyright clearances in this production became unavailable due to a "sudden illness," so the designs in question were not sufficiently examined.
Finally, Sugō said:
We sincerely apologize to the fans for the oversight. However, the studio was already moving forward with the revisions as requested. We are a much smaller company than King Records, so we suffered a severe economic blow.” Sugō added that the delayed payments are prohibited under Japanese laws regarding subcontracting.