We are receiving multiple reports that Tear Studio has seemingly vanished, leaving artists unpaid and production staff for Fragtime unable to contact them.

On December 9th, numerous freelance artists who claim to have been hired by the studio took to Twitter, stating they had not been paid [1, 2, 3].

“No way, the theatrical anime production company not only didn’t pay (cry), but I didn’t expect them to remove their Twitter account, and I didn’t expect it to become a mess (cry).”

“Then I’m done for too…”

“Nice to meet you, I also seem to have been done…”

It should be noted “泣” can translate as “cry” or “tear”. One of the artists (GSX750S1) claims they did not get a deposit, and that “The drawing director commission for the first half of this year was paid, but the bill for the end of October was not yet available.”

As mentioned above, Tear Studio’s Twitter account was also deleted. As the account does not say it was suspended, it likely means the user themselves deleted it. We are also seeing reports that the company’s official website was also offline. As of this writing it is online, with its last news post from December 3rd.

On December 12th, the official Fragtime website posted an announcement that they had reached out to Tear Studio’s representative for a status update- considering the news on social media. Rather worryingly, they received no response.

Tear Studio was founded in 2013, operating under Next-Batter’s Circle with Jun Katou as their representative director. Fragtime was the company’s major theatrical anime release, premiering on November 22nd of this year. They have also worked on the anime film The Royal Tutor, and anime series Lord of Vermilion: The Crimson King, and Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher!?.

We will keep you posted as we learn more.