The film editing company Tokyo Laboratory is facing a crisis: when it shuts its doors in November, its many unclaimed anime masters will be destroyed resulting in thousands of classic anime being lost forever. With its shuttering set in stone, the only remaining question is how to preserve its extensive library of anime. More than just footage, the archive is a tangible record of production history: losing it all would be a major loss, historically and culturally.
Tokyo Laboratory is a subsidiary of TOHO. While not an animation studio, it has handled video editing, development, and archiving of anime since its founding in 1955. But after 67 years of service, it announced in November 2022 that it would finally be closing down amid restructuring in TOHO. One unintended casualty, however, is its large stock of unclaimed master shots for all the anime it has worked on. In a Tweet from the animation news site Catsuka, they lay out the situation, saying "Sad news : Japanese Tokyo Lab company, which is archiving many old animes since 1955, will close in November, and they'll have to destroy all the masters unclaimed by right holders."
According to reports from websites like AnimeNewsNetwork, there are some 20,000 masters not spoken for. Because of Tokyo Laboratory's extensive history working on all sorts of anime, this means that this stock could include some very rare material that still hasn't been remastered or re-released. The company's list of works it has worked on is a veritable A-Z of anime history, starting from 07-Ghost to Zone of the Enders: Idolo. If they are no longer stored and marked for destruction, it would mean the loss of some of the highest-quality renderings of rare anime, regardless of whether their owners want them or not.
Tokyo Laboratory's closure happened in the face of changing technology, with film moving towards digital storage and distribution. TOHO's restructure broke up Tokyo Laboratory's duties and transferred them to new departments that will continue with a digital focus. Archival duties will also continue under the auspices of an all-new company. This transition to digital archival might also be why TOHO is no longer willing to handle the 20,000 masters, not to mention the expense they incur: the unclaimed material costs $40,000 a year to store. Nonetheless, destroying so much anime could lead to hidden gems being lost forever.
Thankfully, Japan isn't blind to the problem; on his X account, politician Zenko Kurishita wrote about it. "Today, we spoke with a person from the Tokyo Development Center. The company is aware of the historical value of the film masters, which are the crystallization of 68 years of activities, and they do not want to dispose of them ..." the translated post says. With only two months left, time is limited to reach an arrangement with TOHO on what to do with the material. Hopefully, the end of Tokyo Laboratory won't mean the same for its repository of production history for classic anime.