“My work has been plagiarized, I am deeply hurt“. A famous anime director received an anonymous protest via a social media service. The woman, a complete stranger, sent similar messages to her co-workers and the situation escalated to the cancellation of a related event. The director sued the woman for compensation and took her to court. On her mind was the recent Kyoto Animation case and her fears for the future of the industry.
It all started in April 2022. A direct message reached the Twitter account of Kunihiko Ikuhararecognized for his work in many popular animes such as “Mawaru Penguindrum”, “Shoujo Kakumei Utena”, “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon”, among others. The sender was a woman who claimed to be a voice actress and illustrator. When a person related to the working group with Mr. Ikuhara posted on Twitter an illustration of a character from one of the director’s series, the woman pointed out that the illustration was a carbon copy of her own work and, therefore, an infringement of their copyright.
After comparing the illustration with the drawing that the woman had sent, Ikuhara disagreed with her, stating that they did not match at all. However, he said this response caused an escalation in the woman’s behavior. The woman claimed that Director Ikuhara’s refusal to apologize constituted “defamation” and an “insult.” Mr. Ikuhara’s employers (major publishing houses, record labels, animation companies, entertainment agencies and illustrative artists) also received emails from the woman one after another.
Fearful, director Ikuhara went to the police, who began patrolling the area around his house twice a day. In June 2022, director Ikuhara filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court seeking compensation of 3.3 million yen (more than 22 thousand US dollars) from the woman, alleging that she had sent threatening messages to his work, damaged his reputation. and obstructed their businesses. Although Ikuhara was concerned about going public with the lawsuit, he was more concerned that his colleagues would receive similar treatment.
The number of threatening acts against anime creators has increased rapidly in recent years. Director Ikuhara, who has been in the animation sector for more than thirty years, has the feeling that the industry is currently in crisis. There have always been opportunities for the public to express their opinion to animation studios or production companies through letters or phone calls. However, the emergence of social networks and the development of Internet services has reduced the distance between the public and the creators themselves, skipping several steps.
Fountain: Mainichi Shimbun
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