On October 20, Two Japanese men were arrested in Japan for suspected violations of copyrights. They possessed with intent to sell anime T-shirts of The Quintessential Quintuplets that have been created without the permission of the copyright owner, Kodansha Company announced.
41 year-old and 38 year-old men arrested by Yamaguchi Prefectural Police possessed 50 anime T-shirts of The Quintessential Quintuplets, and Girls und Panzer. Asahi Shimbun reported the Police also announced that they admitted the allegations and imported the T-shirts from China. They tried to sell them on a shopping website that the 41 year-old built.
In the announcement, Kodansha Company refers to the situation that Copyright Infringements have been happening in a wide range of fields. Furthermore, they stress [it is also extremely malicious to produce and sell goods without receiving permission from the copyright owner, such as the T-shirts of this case, as it neglects value of creating of artists like Manga artists].
They have been combating the crimes not only for the sake of protecting the profit of the copyright owners and those who purchase genuine products, but also preventing further spread of copyright violations. Kodansha Company concludes they will [continue to act with resolute attitude, filing criminal and/or civil lawsuits].
The Author’s Reaction
Haruba Negi, the author of the manga The Quintessential Quintuplets, touched on the news, but with humor on Twitter. On October 21, he posted an illustration with a caption “Did you create the T-shirt?”. It features one of the main heroines in the manga, Nakano Yotsuba. For some reason, she is being questioned by the police. It is worth noting that she is wearing a T-shirt with a three digit number, 428, on the chest part. It can read like her name Yotsuba in Japanese.
https://twitter.com/negi_haruba/status/1318740315625332736
The tweet received comments from fans of the series and the manga artist:
You can make humors about such thing?! I see! You must be a god!
It’d be perfect if she wears a wooden sword there. lol [With an image that says she has once been questioned by the police when she carried one.]
I love it when authors take care of the kind with humor by themselves lol
Read more about The Quintessential Quintuplets here or in the link below!
[Via – Kodansha Company, Asahi Shimbun, Haruba Negi Official Twitter, Reaction 1, 2, 3]
[Thumbnail: Asahi Shimbun, taken by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Police]
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