A hack into Toei Animation's private network will affect the broadcast schedules of several anime, including One Piece and Digimon: Ghost Game.
The animation studio announced on its official website that it was hacked into by an unauthorized and unknown third part on March 6. The hack apparently resulted in the shut down of the company's internal private networks, which caused a delay to the production of numerous shows. Several shows, such as Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and Delicious Party Precure, have confirmed that they will air reruns next instead of the originally scheduled new episodes.
【お知らせ】
— ONE PIECE.com(ワンピース) (@OPcom_info) March 11, 2022
TVアニメ「ONE PIECE」3月20日以降の放送スケジュールにつきまして、お知らせがございます。
詳細は下記、ONE PIECE. comトップページにてご確認ください。https://t.co/rfO6sg3Sh9
【お知らせ】
— アニメ「デジモンゴーストゲーム」公式 (@digimon_tv) March 11, 2022
いつも「デジモンゴーストゲーム」をご視聴いただきありがとうございます
今後の放送予定に一部変更が生じる可能性がありますのでご報告させて頂きます
毎週放送を心待ちにされている視聴者の皆様に
ご心配をおかけいたしますことを深くお詫び申し上げます pic.twitter.com/wJZqskFXuU
The official Twitter account for the One Piece anime, which is also produced by Toei, suggested that the episode that was scheduled to air on March 20 may have been affected by the hack, and stated that it will update fans before that date on what they will broadcast at that time. A current schedule for the show suggests that the episode originally planned for that week was Episode 1015, entitled "Straw Hat Luffy - The Man Who Will Become Pirate King." A similar message was posted by the official Digimon Twitter account, which also suggests that the episode of Ghost Game that was originally scheduled to air on March 20 may also be delayed. Both series are being streamed outside of Japan by Crunchyroll.
Toei Animation is a division of Toei Company, a Japanese media conglomerate that also produces live-action movies, TV shows, books and video games. The studio was originally founded in 1948 and is one of Japan's best known animation companies, having produced some of the most popular and influential series in anime history, including Mazinger Z, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Toei also produced some of the animation that was used in numerous classic American cartoon series, including the original Transformers and the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
In recent months, the company has found itself embroiled in a number of controversies: the studio is known for its heavy-handed approach to defending its intellectual property rights, which was highlighted late last year when it used copyright strikes to remove over 100 reviews and drawing tutorials by YouTuber Totally Not Mark. While the copyright strikes were eventually dropped, the incident caused a massive backlash against the animation company and forced YouTube to reevaluate its approach to fair use protections. The company management was also accused of discriminating against an LGBTQ+ employee in February.
Source: Toei Animation, Twitter (1, 2)
