North Korean animators may be involved in the production of some Japanese and U.S. anime and western cartoon shows,.
Projects Identified
The files related to a range of projects, suggesting several animators were likely involved in the work.
Over the month we observed this traffic, the apparent identity of some of the projects became clear. They included:
Season 3 of “Invincible,” an Amazon Original animated series produced by California-based Skybound Entertainment. A document on the server carried the name of the series and “Viltruminte Pants LLC,” which appears to be part of the Skybound group.
“Iyanu, Child of Wonder,” an anime about a superhero created by Maryland-based YouNeek Studios and being produced and animated by Lion Forge Entertainment for airing in 2024 on HBO Max.
“Dahliya In Bloom” (魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない), a Japanese anime series scheduled to air from July 2024.
Files named “猫” (Cat) that also carry the name of Ekachi Epilka, an animation studio in Hokkaido, Japan (Figure 1).
Video files that appear to be from “Octonauts,” a BBC children’s cartoon. The files had no additional identifying information and appeared to be completed, so it is possible these were not worked on by the animators.
An unidentified animation series with documents that refer to Dalian’s Shepherd Boy Animation (大连牧童动漫).