Summary
On June 16, 2025, atUniversal StudiosHollywood, California, there was a fire that started that affected the entertainment industry in a most profound way. A blaze began on a backlot resulting in the destruction of numerous buildings, sets, and sound stages. Beyond the visible destruction, the fire also caused significant archival losses. It was revealed later in a New York Times Magazine article that the fire had also obliterated a vast collection of master recordings owned by Universal Music Group (UMG).
Original masters from artists such as Elton John, Billie Holliday, and even Sheryl Crowe (who suspected her entire discography was lost in the fire) no longer exist. The loss of such music and films was tragic. This is an event well worth remembering though, as something very similar is about to happen to the anime industry, with the additional tragedy that it will be entirely preventable.
What is Tokyo Laboratory?
According to the official website of Tokyo Laboratory:
We’re a post-production house that primarily deals with video. We offer services for both film and digital media. In addition to film development and archiving services, we have the latest grading, conforming, and data management systems as well as an in-house VFX team, allowing us to offer an array of video services that includes digital cinema support for theaters.
It is important to note that a post-production house is a company that primarily deals with video. Their main focus is on tasks that are executed after the principal filming or recording is completed. Post-production houses typically handle the following:
In short, post-production houses play a crucial role in the filmmaking process, turning raw footage into polished, finished products. As you may have noticed, one of the tasks that they mentioned on their website description is that they are involved in “film development and archiving services.” This is where things are about to become very, very tragic.
What Does Film Development and Archiving Entail?
Film development and archiving services refer to the processes of both converting photographic film into viewable images and then storing those images in a manner that ensures their longevity and preservation. The Film Development process involves the following steps:
Alright, so that’s film development (you can see why digital photography is a much easier process now), but once that is all done, what happens next? Once the film is processed and worked on, the next step is to store and archive said film. This is to properly preserve the master. Archiving services often entail:
Film development and archiving services are essential for photographers, movie studios, and anyone who values the preservation of photographic memories (this includes anime companies). That being said…this is CLEARLY not the mainstream way to make things anymore! Anime itself is no longer being made with ink and paint but is (in most cases) beingdrawn and colored on digital tablets! These circumstances have led to these businesses being far less profitable than they used to be, and Tokyo Laboratory has basically decided it is just not worth running that division anymore.
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What Does Tokyo Laboratory Ceasing Film Production Mean for Anime?
Alright, so Tokyo Laboratory is ceasing a division of their business. So what you may be asking? Here’s the thing: Tokyo Laboratory was extremely prolific in the field of anime. While the list is too long to revel here, according to Anime News Network the company has been involved in HUNDREDS of anime productions! Many of them are well-known likeNarutoandCase Closed. Others are less known likeAlien NineandFull Moon wo Sagashite. Still others are even more obscure likeFumoon,Good Morning Athlea, andJunk Boy.
While it is true that movies likeInuYasha the Movie: Swords of an Honorable Rulerare likely safely kept in a vault somewhere, the reality is that Tokyo Laboratory’s services were so convenient that many anime studios simply let them store the master copies of the anime and movies they worked on for decades. Now with Tokyo Laboratory shutting down that division, they are no longer going to be storing these masters. This is where a scary announcement was made onX (formerly Twitter):
It is now official that Tokyo Laboratory is looking to return the master tapes to whoever the copyright holders are. If they can not be located, have gone out of business, or simply no longer want these tapes, Tokyo Laboratory will be forced to discard them. What’s worse is that the deadline is shockingly close: October 31st, 2023. As of the time of this writing, that’s just alittleover a month for the copyright holders of hundreds of anime to get their master copies.
Those in film restoration understand why this is bad on multiple levels; even if the anime is of something popular likeLupin III: Dead or Alive, it still creates preservation problems. Old movies do show their age, and when new technology comes around, if studios want to re-release that old property in a new format they go back to the master to restore the project every time.
The reason the recent 4K remaster ofDisney’sCinderellalooks so pristineis that the Walt Disney Company has the original masters to go back to restore it, and the same method is used to upgrade music (remember the story about the Universal Fire at the beginning…yeah, THAT’S why it was so devastating)! So if the master tape to a popular anime is lost, while the show itself may be available in some form, it can never be restored to a higher resolution for future audiences.
Worse, if a master tape is discarded that hasn’t received a home media release at all…well, then that show or movie islikely gone for good. Right now, we have no idea what tapes are going to be discarded or how many. We also have no idea if the information on the discarded tapes will ever be disclosed. There is SOME positive news:
While it IS nice to know that the issue is being looked at by people who are knowledgeable about the situation, it is also disheartening to realize how much work and money the project will be. As readers can see from our long description, this is neither an easy process nor would it be cheap. While it IS preventable, there are still many obstacles to actually putting a good saving effort into gear.
It appears Yoshiyuki Kurishita (Appointed Chairman of the 22nd Proportional Branch of the Constitutional Democratic Party of the House of Councilors) is looking for wisdom and help on the situation, so maybe some of you can be of some service there. In the meantime though we just have to wait to see if we find out what has been saved and what has been lost.
