My Hero Academia slammed for WWII reference

The hashtag #APOLOGIZE_HORIKOSHI is currently trending on Twitter regarding the backlash against My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi for introducing a character named "Maruta Shiga", as the name "Maruta" shares the same name of Unit 731, the Japanese prison cramp in WWII. Shonen Jump released the following statement over the incident.

Despite the above statement, some 'fans' are still calling for the cancellation of the MHA manga. It is worth noting that most of the backlash come from mainland China and South Korea. As such, the backlash is also being used as part of Anti-Japanese propaganda, and pushing the narrative that "Japan has not apologized/punished enough" for the atrocities happened in World War II.

Rurouni Kenshin Creator Avoids Jail Time For Child Porn

According a report translated by SoraNews, Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of the Rurouni Kenshin series, will not be facing jail time as per the Tokyo Summary Court.

Watsuki was arrested late last year for possession of child pornography. Under Japan's Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Law, possession of material depicting minors naked or engaged in sexual activity results in up to one year imprisonment or a fine of One Million Yen (over $9000). The statute exempts fictional minors depicted in anime, manga, and CGI.

On Feb 27th, the Tokyo Summary Court has sentenced Watsuki to only pay a fine of 200,000 yen (around $1900).

Japanese publisher Shueisha, who serialized the Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shonen Jump, has suspended the release of the ongoing sequel manga, while TV broadcasts of the Ruruoni Kenshin live-action movies are canceled in Japan, altogether.

Mob Psycho 100 Webcomic Finale This Week

ONE, the creator of One Punch Man, has announced on Twitter that his other series, Mob Psycho 100, is complete. The final chapter of the webcomic series will be released this week. Due to ONE focusing his work on Mob Psycho 100, the original One Punch Man webcomic has been placed on hiatus for several months.

Published in Ura Sunday as a digital webcomic series in 2012, Mob Psycho 100 is of the title character Mob, a naive teenager who happens to be the world's most powerful esper. Mob keeps his emotions in check to prevent his psychic abilities from being unleashed to its full potential as they extremely powerful and destructive. The webcomic was adapted to an anime series by Studio Bones (My Hero Academia) that aired in Japan in 2016. An English-dubbed version was produced by FUNimation that same year. A live-action adaptation of Mob Psycho 100 is planned for release on Netflix in 2018.

One Punch Man is an ongoing, self-published webcomic series in 2009. It depicts Saitama, an overpowered superhero who, after defeating his enemies with one punch, grows bored and seeks to find an opponent worthy of him unleashing his full power. It was proved to be so popular that in 2012, it was adapted into a manga series with illustrations by Yusuke Murata and published in Young Jump's Web Comics site. The manga remake would serve as the basis for the anime series produced by Studio Madhouse (Daeth Note, Black Lagoon, Hunter x Hunter) in 2016. The second season is planned for release in 2018 and will be produced by JC Staff (Food Wars, A Certain Magical Index). English versions of the manga and anime adaptations are available by Viz Media.

Alita Battle Angel Trailer Released

The first trailer for "Alita Battle Angel" is finally made available on Youtube.

The movie is an adaptation of the manga series "Battle Angel Alita" (known in Japan as "Gunnm") by Yukito Kishiro in 1990. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, it depicts a female cyborg brought back to life by a scientist. Having no memory of her past, the cyborg Alita becomes a bounty hunter in hopes of finding clues as to her origins.

A two-episode OVA (Original Video Animation), incorporating elements from the first two volumeso of the manga was released in 1993. Both the manga and anime received critical praise when released in the US. James Cameron, famous for directing movies like Titantic and Avatar, has long been a fan of Battle Angel and has acquired the rights to produced the live-action film.

Cameron serves as co-producer for the film, while Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) serves as director. The film stars Rosa Salazar (The Maze Runner, The Divergent Series) as Alita, and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, Spectre) as Dr. Ido. Other notable actors includes Jennifer Connelly (Betty Ross from Ang Lee's Hulk), and Mahershala Ali (Cottonmouth from Netflix's Luke Cage). The film is scheduled to be released in theaters in the Summer of 2018.

Rurouni Kenshin Creator Arrested

The creator of Rurouni Kenshin and Buso Renkin, Nobuhiro Watsuki, is arrested on possession of child pornography, according to Yahoo News Japan, and the Yomiuri Shinbun.

According to reports, police had uncovered DVDs of women aged 15 and under at Watsuki’s office in Tokyo, as well as inside his home. Watsuki quoted to the police “I liked girls from the upper grades of elementary school to around the second year of junior high school”.

Possession of child pornography is illegal in Japan (with the exception of lolicon or sexual depictions of fictional young women under the age of 18). If convicted, Watsuki would face one-year in prison, as well as having to pay a fine of 1 million yen (around $9000).

Serialized in Shonen Jump from 1994 to 1999, Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin depicts a former assassin defending the people of Meiji-era Japan, while vowing to never kill again. It was adapted to an anime series that aired in Japan from 1996 to 1998. Columbia Pictures Television (a division of Sony) would release the series internationally under the title “Samurai X”. Media Blasters acquired the rights for the US release and aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block in 2003. Three live-action films adapting the manga were released from 2012 to 2014.

In September of this year, Watsuki produced a sequel manga series of Rurouni Kenshin, which is serialized in Jump Square. Publisher Shueisha has announced that in light of Watsuki’s arrest, the Rurouni Kenshin sequel manga will be put on hiatus, according to a report from Buzzfeed Japan.

In addition to Rurouni Kenshin, Watsuki also created the manga series Buso Renkin, of a young teenager who uses the power of alchemy to combat various monsters. It was serialized in Shonen Jump from 2003to 2005, and was adapted into an anime series airing from 2006 to 2007.

Attack on Titan Season 2 Finally Announced

And it's in April 2017! Thanks Yonkouprod for the info.

Gintama Creator Gets No Money From Adaptations

If you live in the US and just celebrated Thanksgiving, I wish you guys a belated Happy Thanksgiving. If you happen to be living elsewhere and is, will be, or just finished whatever Holiday you have in your local area, Happy Holidays. Or otherwise, a good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on your time zone.

I myself recently finished my Holiday and I got plenty of time to kill before I get back to my ever-so-busy-real-life routine, I decided to make a few videos over the weekend and catch up on some things.

For this video I want to talk about a common misconception regarding manga and anime in which the creator ends up being incredibly rich if his or her title becomes a major hit. Be it Akira Toriyama from Dragon Ball, Kentaro Miura from Berserk, Hirohiko Araki from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, or in this particular case, Hideaki Sorachi, the creator of Gintama.

Before we move on a full disclosure: I have never read a single chapter of the Gintama manga, nor have I watched any of its adaptations. Gintama is one of the many anime franchises that is going on for so long, like One Piece and Bleach, I don't want to invest my time on it. I'm already investing my time on Dragon Ball Super, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and the Gundam franchise, to name a few. So I just can't get into Gintama. That being said, I hear it is a very good series and given that it's still around since 2003, it's quite popular.

 

According to the website RocketNews24, a Japanese Twitter user by the name of "beasty_baby" posted a scanned image from the 51st volume of the Gintama manga where author Hideaki Sorachi answered a question from a female fan if Sorachi received any money from the Gintama movies. Sorachi answered and I quote:

To tell the naked truth, regardless of how many people watch the film or how much the gross earnings are, not a single yen goes to the author. We are only paid an upfront license fee. The amount we’re paid is peanuts in comparison to the overall box office gross. The majority of the profits go to filthy unscrupulous companies such as Shueisha and Sunrise. Releasing individual manga volumes is way more profitable.
 
But the reason why I slog to fulfill these film adaptations, to the extent that I’m peeing blood, is because there is a place in this world that is more wonderful than a mansion at Roppongi Hills. And that place, ma’am, is in your heart.

If Gintama can reach the hearts of the masses, I wouldn’t mind living in a hill made of cardboard. The authors are the only ones who harbour such honest intentions with their creations.

So ma’am, if you’re feeling sorry for us, don’t just watch the movies, but also buy our books so that we can live at Roppongi Hills with the publishing royalties.

So to summarize, no. Apart from being paid a license fee, Sorachi doesn't get a single penny from the movies and most of it goes to Shueisha, the publisher for the Gintama manga, which also includes Dragon Ball and One Piece, and Sunrise, the animation studio for the Gintama anime, and is best known for the Gundam franchise.

From Sorachi's account, it's clear here that manga authors don't make up as much profit from adaptations of their works as the companies do. Even in the United States, those who write for Marvel and DC don't become millionaires from their stories of Green Arrow or the Inhumans, or whatever. Most of the profits goes to the comic book publisher and the writers either get a set salary, or an incredibly small amount of the comic book sale.

If the manga or comic book creator does his or her own publishing, then of course that person gets most of the profits, provided the work is a major best seller. But I honestly don't know anybody who had a successful manga or comic book that was self-published by the author. The one thing I can think of is Image Comics, the publisher behind popular works like Spawn and The Walking Dead, as their creators retain full control over the direction of their stories. I am not sure, however, if that also means the same when it comes to revenue from comic book sales.

Another would be the Doujinshi Community, where authors produce fan-made works and these are often self-published. Unfortunately, Doujinshi is only allowed in Japan, and everyone else can't publish one themselves without being slapped with copyright infringement. Plus, I don't know of any Doujinshi work that is extremely popular among anime and manga fans. Personally, I would love to publish a Doujinshi based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, where Aang gets a brutal beating by a Mary Sue villain, because he pulled a Deus Ex Machina to defeat Ozai in his story, which I absolutely hate about at the end of that series. But I cannot do that without Nickelodeon breathing down my neck, so the only place it can go through is my own headcanon.

So what does all this mean? It means no matter how many times you watch an anime movie in theaters, or if you get the entire DVD or Blu-Ray box set, not a single penny goes to the author of that series if it's based on a manga, unless its an entirely original anime work, such as Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress, for example, or the Studio Ghibli films. If you wish to support your favorite anime that is based on a manga series, or novel, or any of the sort, buy the original content. You love Dragon Ball Super, for example, and want to support Akira Toriyama, you buy the original Dragon Ball manga written and drawn by Toriyama.

It's understandable that a lot of people don't have access to the manga and would go with the adaptations instead, as they are easier to get. Even Sorachi is aware of this. Which is why he is blessed with anybody who do took their time, money and effort to purhase the Gintama mangas. So again, if you can, buy the mangas to support your favorite series. It's definitely far better than say, use Kickstarter or something like that.