This is funny news : a UK girl had a tattoo meaning "supermarket." When you use Kanji characters on your tattoo, please make sure of the real meaning with a native. I had a similar story.
Shonen Sunday is one of the major manga comic magazines. Then one new manga, "LOST + BRAIN," became a big topic because a story was really close to Death Note. (Can you tell which one is Death Note?) A super smart boy is bored with his life. One day he learns a kind of hypnosis that allows him to kill the person whose name he calls during the hypnosis. Hmm, not only the story, the character looks like LIGHT YAGAMI too. When "FAIRY TAIL" was released, we called it a "FAKE ONEPIECE." But "LOST + BRAIN" looks worse for me. We will see what will happen.
The tattoo story is funny! I'm from the UK, too, and my sister got the kanji tattoo for "woman" because she thought it was cool. She was disappointed when I told her the same symbol was on toilet doors all over Japan.
Posted by: Roaf | Monday, December 17, 2007 at 11:59 AM
I assume that plagerism is illegal in Japan and those who are caught will be prosecuted.
Speaking of illegal activities, there is a big scandal here in the US over the use of steroids in major league baseball (MLB). A gongressional panel just released their invesigational report which named over 50 players who have allegedly tested positive for or admitted to using steroids. No Japanese ball players were named (those who play for US teams), but I am wondering if Mari-san or anyone else who reads this blog knows if steroid use is a problem in Japanese pro baseball? (or any other sports in Japan)
Posted by: Heidi | Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 01:32 PM
If you put every anime/manga side-by-side, you're going to see a *lot* of similarities, everywhere. Unless the author's name is something along the lines of "Shirow", "Otomo" or "Takahashi" (or 美水かがみ if you're a らき☆すた fan, like I am) there's going to probably be some quite obvious ripping-off-other-works. Just look at Pokemon/Digimon/whatever-monster-battle-TV-show-where-kids-summon-beasts, am I right?
Posted by: | Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 03:15 AM