Toei Animation Internal System Hacked, One Piece, Digimon Airing Schedule Affected

Toei Animation, the studio behind anime like Dragon Ball, and Sailor Moon, has said that they’ve shut down part of their internal IT system after confirming that their network had been hacked by a third party on the 6th of March.

The studio has revealed that this will affect the schedule of their currently airing anime projects. These include Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, Delicious Party Pretty Cure, Digimon Ghost Game, and long-running anime One Piece.

“We deeply apologize for any anxiety caused to our viewers who are looking forward to the broadcast every week.” The studio said in an official statement on their website.

Speaking about One Piece, in particular, Toei posted a statement on the anime’s website that “this has caused problems with the progress of program’s production and has also affected the future broadcast schedule.” The studio says they will continue to update viewers about any schedule changes on the One Piece website and across their various One Piece social media accounts.

A similar statement was also posted on the Digimon TV Twitter account:

【お知らせ】
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

— アニメ「デジモンゴーストゲーム」公式 (@digimon_tv) March 11, 2022

“Thank you for always watching “Digimon Ghost Game” We would like to inform you that there may be some changes in the future broadcast schedule. We deeply apologize to all the viewers who are looking forward to the weekly broadcast.”

In regards to their systems being hacked, Toei said that they are currently investigating the issue:

“We are currently investigating the details, and we are also working with an external IT security company to confirm whether data regarding customers, business partners, and personal information were also affected.”

This likely means that there will be delays in the airing of One Piece and Digimon Ghost Game. Hopefully, this won’t lead to internal information being leaked, something that could potentially jeopardize Toei’s anime projects even further.