The official website for the Tokyo Babylon 2021 TV Anime released a statement today reporting that its production has been cancelled.

After investigations of unauthorized use of materials in characters’ costumes that surfaced late last year, followed by a postponement, the production committee has decided to cancel production altogether with the justification of lack of trust with the current production company.

The statement confirms that there is still a desire to turn Tokyo Babylon into an anime series, with a different production company. CLAMP and the production committee are currently searching for a different production company to take the project on. This tweet from Young Ace magazine says that details will be announced in CLAMP-NET.COM and Kadokawa‘s website in due course.

They apologized to CLAMP and all the Tokyo Babylon readers who were looking forward to this project.

Source: https://tokyobabylon2021.jp

As hard as this may hit some of you who were looking forward to this, I think this was the wisest decision to make. I can completely understand that their trust has been compromised, plus I never thought GoHands was fit for this project to begin with, I am sure many of you agree with me. There is also the fact that CLAMP themselves were not involved on the production and seemingly not very excited for it — at least that’s how it looked like since they acted on their social media as though nothing was happening, which was always really strange to me, considering how Tokyo Babylon is important to them.

Tokyo Babylon has a huge, solid community of devoted fans and it’s a very important work in CLAMP’s catalog. It should be treated with all the respect and decency it deserves.

I hope this will represent an opportunity to deliver a Tokyo Babylon anime series that will do justice to this brilliant CLAMP masterpiece.

Today the Tokyo Babylon 2021 TV Anime production team has released an official statement announcing that the beginning of broadcast, which was originally scheduled for April 2021, has been postponed.

Here’s a rough translation of the statement:

Important report

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your continued patronage.

The [Tokyo BABYLON 2021] committee takes the issue of imitation very seriously.
A compliance team was set up within the committee to reflect deeply and take strict measures.
We will continue to work on further legal compliance.

Therefore, we will postpone the broadcast of this work, which is currently scheduled to be broadcast in April 2021.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to CLAMP, everyone who loves the original “Tokyo BABYLON” work, everyone who is looking forward to and supporting the TV anime “Tokyo BABYLON 2021”, and everyone involved.

We pledge to deliver entertainment that fans can enjoy with peace of mind, and the production committee will work together to produce it.

We will seriously and sincerely make works that everyone truly loves, so thank you for your cooperation.

All of TOKYO BABYLON 2021 PROJECT

The decision comes after incident of using unauthorized materials for Subaru Sumeragi’s ceremonial robes and Hokuto Sumeragi’s pink outfit. Back then, the two previously released PVs were removed from YouTube, as well as all visuals have been removed from the official website and all Tokyo Babylon 2021 social networks. Since then, the team has been reworking on these.

The production team did not announce the new air date at this moment.

Source: Tokyo Babylon 2021.

However unfortunate, I feel this is the right decision to make in order to have an adaptation that feels right at least in that regard. It is somewhat expected that this would happen, considering that a lot of the work had been done already (the voice actors were already dubbing the scenes). It makes me wonder if there were other cases, other than the two ones reported, that they identified.

Today the Tokyo Babylon 2021 TV Anime production team has released an official statement addressing received allegations of unauthorized use of materials in characters’ costumes

The statement, which was posted on the Tokyo Babylon 2021 official website, chronicles the events since the first allegations were reported by fans, the investigation that was carried out within the production staff, acknowledging the mistake and down to an apology to CLAMP, Tokyo Babylon readers, the cast, staff and everyone who has been supportive of Tokyo Babylon 2021. The statement assures that the production team is committed to prevent this from happening again.

Unauthorized materials had been used for Subaru Sumeragi’s ceremonial robes and Hokuto Sumeragi’s pink outfit.

As immediate actions that were taken, the two previously released PVs have been removed from YouTube, as well as all visuals have been removed from the official website and all Tokyo Babylon 2021 social networks. The team will likely rework these and release them again in the future.

Source: Tokyo Babylon 2021.

This was an unfortunate event but at least the flaw has been humbly acknowledged, they are working on fixing the mistake and committed to prevent it from happening again. I hope this time they will base the designs on CLAMP’s source materials, which we all love so much.

Earlier today a press conference was held in Japan to introduce the main cast and staff for the upcoming Tokyo Babylon 2021 TV Anime.

MAIN CAST

Subaru Sumeragi: Shouta Aoi
Hokuto Sumerari: Nana Mizuki
Seishirou Sakurazuka: Yuuichirou Umehara

STAFF

Original work: Tokyo Babylon (CLAMP)
Direction: Shingo Suzuki / Susumu Kudo
Series Composition: Jun Kumagai
Character Design: Makoto Furuta
Chief Animation Direction: Makoto Furuta / Keiji Tani
Main Animation: Takayuki Uchida / Hiroshi Okubo
Mecha/Prop Design: Hiroshi Okubo
Edition: Chinami Watanabe
Sound Direction: Fumiyuki Go
Music: Noriyuki Asakura
Music Production: King Records
Animation: GoHands

Opening Theme: Shouta Aoi (Subaru’s voice actor)
Ending Theme: Nana Mizuki (Hokuto’s voice actress)

Dubbing has already started and broadcast will premiere in April 2021.

New character designs for the main trio have been revealed:

Addionally, a new, longer PV has been announced:

More information: tokyobabylon2021.jp

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I really enjoyed the cast choice, specially Subaru and Seishirou. It’s worth noting that none of the staff members have previously worked in a CLAMP anime adaptation. I am also under the impression that all of them are male, but that needs to be confirmed.

Unfortunately, CLAMP themselves are not involved in the staff. I was also surprised by the fact that CLAMP did not leave any comments to the staff and cast, as they usually do. In fact, CLAMP have been really silent regarding this anime adaptation so far, which is a bit odd considering how dear to their heart Tokyo Babylon is.

I liked the new PV better than the first one, even though it seems to be a bit too much action-oriented than what Tokyo Babylon asks for. The music sounds good. I also liked slightly more the new character designs that have been revealed today, however Seishirou remains being the one that I like the least.