In April, a report by 38 North revealed that many animated works had parts that were accidentally outsourced to North Korea. Among the titles named was the upcoming anime Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, which prompted the announcement of an investigation.
The newly released results do not confirm the involvement of North Korean animation studios but instead say they cannot deny the possibility. What the investigation determined was Typhoon Graphics, one of Dahlia in Bloom's animation studios, initially subcontracted some work to another Japanese company, which then transferred that work to a Chinese studio. The Chinese studio then sent some of the workload to another studio in the country.
A request for a list containing the names of employees who worked on this animated film was sent to subcontracting companies, but one company did not comply with it, leading to the current conclusion. in.
The statement added that relevant parts of the anime will be remade by Japanese staff and proper production procedures will be strictly followed from now on.
A separate statement said the anime will still premiere in July as planned.
38 North learned about the outsourcing situation through files on a “misconfigured North Korean Internet cloud server” that was initially discovered by Nick Roy of the North Korea Internet blog. “Often the files contain comments and editing instructions in Chinese, perhaps written by the production company, along with a translation of those instructions into Korean,” it said.
In 2022, the US State Department, US Treasury and FBI issued advisories warning of “reputational risks and the possibility of legal consequences, including the designation of sanctions by agency has United States and United Nations (UN) jurisdiction, over individuals and entities engaging in or supporting activities involving North Korea's IT personnel and processing related financial transactions. ” Mentioned in the advisory is “graphic animation.”
Source: @dahliya_anime
