Tokyo Babylon 2021 plagiarism controversy and cancelation
On October 25, 2020, an anime adaptation of Clamp manga series Tokyo Babylon was announced, to be produced by GoHands in cooperation with King Records. A presentation for the project, entitled Tokyo Babylon 2021, was held on November 19, 2020, confirming that the series would be directed by Shingo Suzuki and Susumu Kudo and premiere in April 2021. A day later, however, on November 20, 2020 the anime production committee was accused of plagiarizing outfit designs from the Volks Doll company, and the K-pop group Red Velvet.[3][4] After an investigation, on December 4, 2020, the anime producer apologized on their official website and announced that they would be changing the designs.[5] Due to the necessary changes to be made, on December 24, 2020, the anime production committee announced that the series was delayed to an unspecified date.[6] After more cases of plagiarism surfaced through an internal investigation, on March 29, 2021, the production committee announced that the current TV series would be canceled, while a new anime production would be produced by a different studio.[7]
On August 3, 2021, it was reported that GoHands was suing King Records for ¥450 million for failing to pay the expenses they previously agreed to pay. In the lawsuit, it was revealed the GoHands series was planned to have run for 21 episodes. According to the same lawsuit, the first 13 episodes were completed by November 2020.[8]
