/anime/ - Anime

Hajime no Ippo mangaka George Morikawa sparked controversy on Japanese Twitter for complaining about art made by staff of the animated adaptation of his manga…
Morikawa's original posts were about him fearing counterfeits of his own art, but he went on to discuss artwork being done at overseas events, the fact that animators don't necessarily have the right to do it, especially if they profit off of it
This is actually a thorny, sometimes tightly controlled issue: last summer, at the Paris Japan Expo, animators Keiichi Ichikawa and Eisaku Inoue were forbidden to draw any One Piece or Saint Seiya art during signing sessions
This is also an issue in Japan. Another mangaka, Shoko Hamada, discussed not just illustrations and fan art, but artbooks sold as dôjinshi by individual animators. A good example would be Kerorira's Bocchi the Rock! artbook, one of the most prized publications of last summer's Comiket
Another infamous example of this kind of controversy is that of legendary animator and designer Tomonori Kogawa, who once sold original illustrations he made of characters from Galaxy Express 999, much to the ire of original mangaka Leiji Matsumoto….
God forbid exploited animators actually do something for themselves. I fucking love copyright law and "intellectual" property.