Posts Tagged ‘china’

More Chinese Plagiarism of Japanese Anime?

A video compares scenes of the Japanese anime “Hikarian: Great Railroad Protector” with a Chinese cartoon called “高鉄侠”:

It is painfully obvious that the Chinese cartoon is a copying the Japanese cartoon. The discovery was made by Chinese netizens, who found clips of the cartoon online and questioned its origin after noticing that it used a map of Japan and its main character ate Japanese-style onigiri

Japan’s NTV sent reporters to the Chinese animation company that created the cartoon:

The side-by-side clips are shown to random Chinese people, all of whom seem to agree that it’s a blatant copy. We are also shown angry comments from netizens who disapprove of the plagiarism. The incident is compared to Chinese state television’s unauthorized use of “Top Gun” footage.

They visit the offices of the animation company (its English name is, ironically, “Creativity Pictures”). Its walls are lined with prizes and awards. Apparently it is one of China’s top 10 animation companies. Two animated series from the company are currently airing on Chinese television.

The vice president of the company tells them that the clips being shown on the internet are pre-production “samples” that were created during the planning phase for the cartoon. She doesn’t know how they made it onto the internet, but she claims that the final product will look totally different from the “sample” clips.

An online advertisement for the cartoon shows characters from the “sample” that copied the Japanese anime. When shown the ad, the woman claims it was for promotional purposes, and her company is currently working on a totally original bullet train cartoon.

NTV found a blog post written by a former employee of the animation company. He writes that government subsidies are handed out to companies that can create huge quantities of animation, so the company cuts corners by copying old cartoons.

An article from SearChina contains more excuses. A company representative questioned critics by suggesting that it wouldn’t make sense for a Chinese cartoon about new Chinese bullet trains to copy a Japanese cartoon about Japanese trains from the 1990′s.

The Chinese cartoon was originally scheduled to air on television in August. Now, for unexplained reasons, the air date has been pushed back to October.

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Fake Anime & Disney Characters on Parade at Snow Festival in China

Japanese TV networks are having a blast reporting about the latest batch of hilariously blatant trademark violations coming out of China. Both NTV and FTV were at the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, were a large group of knock-off characters were on parade:

In addition to the Mickey Mouse shown at the top of this post, they also had Donald Duck:

A Doraemon knock-off:

A Pikachu knock-off:

Something that looked like Crayon Shin-chan:

Astroboy with hair coming out of his neck:

And Ultraman:

As in the case of the fake Disneyland, the people wearing costumes saw no problem with removing their headgear and taking breaks in front of tourists.

Update: Here’s a slightly longer FTV clip:

In this clip they call up the organizers of the event, who seem to be saying that the characters are indeed knock-offs, but it’s okay because they made the costumes themselves.

The report also mentions the infamous Gundam knock-off in another part of China, which was quietly dismantled after its theme park had vehemently denied accusations that it was a copy of the popular Japanese mobile suit:

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Toshiba makes an appearance in Chinese military parade

A Japanese company’s name appears in the background of the military parade celebrating the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic of China:

[hat tip to Rick Martin]

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Chinese plagiarism of Japanese anime

Simon Scaraffiotti of The Observers reports on an “original” work of Chinese animation that copied scenes from a Japanese work:

Same set, same features, same hairstyles – manga fans were not fooled. Several scenes from the 52-episode cartoon were copied directly from “Byousoku” (Five Centimetres per Second), a popular Japanese animated film by Makoto Shinkai released in 2007.

CCTV, China’ state-owned television network, says it was not aware that the production violated copyright. China’s propaganda department, which co-produced the cartoon, had billed it as an educational programme. “Soul’s Window” was supposed to teach children a lesson in ethics.

Replying to the accusations, the cartoon’s producer, Lanhai, recognised that roughly 1 percent of the 2,500 scenes mirrored parts of “Byousoku” and offered an apology. The company said it would launch an inquiry in order to “identify those responsible and draw lessons from this case”.

More screen capture comparisons can be found here.

[hat tip to 空]

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Protest against “Tibet -Treasure from the Roof of the World” exhibit

The Ueno Royal Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of Chinese government-owned Tibetan artifacts, and “Free Tibet” activists are not happy about it. Here’s a video from a protest held yesterday:

The exhibition, “Tibet: Treasure from the Roof of the World,” has been traveling throughout the world since 2004 and now it has been exhibiting in Japan. This exhibition does not present the accurate modern history and culture of Tibet. Our aim is to let the world know that this exhibition is a collection of stolen treasure that is organized by the Chinese govenment who has been trying to justify the Chinese rule in Tibet.

The activists wanted the exhibit to include information about the Chinese conquest and occupation of Tibet, but their request was rejected. Exhibition committee representative Taisuke Tsurumaki told activists that, “There is no such a thing as ‘Tibetan person.’ There is a Tibetan tribe (in China).”

[via FG]

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Chinese people don’t know about Japan’s giant jellyfish problem

“Mezamashi TV” investigates the giant jellyfish invasion taking place in the Sea of Japan:

The jellyfish originate in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. No one is entirely sure of why the giant jellyfish population is increasing, but it has been argued that global warming or Chinese pollution has killed off some of their natural predators, allowing them to grow to an enormous size before leaving Chinese waters and heading into the Sea of Japan.

Their reporter took the streets of Qingdao to ask Chinese people about their views on giant jellyfish. Nobody seemed to know about the problem facing Japanese fishermen:

The report hints at a solution: using the jellyfish as a food instead of treating them like worthless pests. Jellyfish cookies are mentioned as one type of food. A new post over at Pink Tentacle reveals that high school students in the town of Obama have also created jellyfish caramels.

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