Some anime and manga series are all about maintaining the status quo, their whole appeal wrapped up in allowing fans to leisurely spend time with the settings and characters established in their earliest segments. That’s not the case for "Attack on Titan," though, whose rollercoaster ride of mysteries, betrayals, and warfare is about to come to an end.
The final chapter of creator Hajime Isayama’s tale of fearless heroes and pantsless monsters is set to be published in the next issue of manga anthology Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. No matter how "Attack on Titan’s" conflicts resolve themselves, though, publisher Kodansha is making it very clear that its fight against manga pirates continues, and will be a worldwide one as well, as shown in a tweet from Shintaro Kawakubo, the Japanese editor for the "Attack on Titan" manga.
While Kawakubo doesn’t mention "Attack on Titan’s" final chapter specifically, the timing, coming just a little more than a week before the next Bessatsu Shonen Magazine issue’s street date, can’t be a mere coincidence. Of particular note is the assertion that Kodansha will pursue legal action against unauthorized uploads “regardless of country,” implying that the company is in no way willing to turn a blind eye to uploaders located in countries where the final chapter is yet to go on sale and/or local fans may object to the pricing and/or localization choices of the officially license version.
▼ The same statement was issued in Japanese (with the Japanese tweet currently having some four times as many likes as the English version).
"Attack on Titan’s" series finale will appear in the May issue of Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, which actually comes out on April 9.
Source: Twitter/@ShingekiKyojin via Otakomu
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2021/03/31/kodansha-promises-worldwide-prosecution-of-illegal-uploaders-of-attack-on-titan/
20 Comments
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Michael Machida
"Kodansha promises worldwide prosecution of illegal uploaders of 'Attack on Titan'"
Who will take this challenge?
proxy
Seeking legal action against fans of your product is a downhill slope. Let's sue our customers!
Kag
@proxy How are they customers when they didn't pay for anything?
A Johnson
i’m uploading tomorrow from Japan VPN. Maybe they’ll let me back into Japan to appear in court bu 2021....
commanteer
I would agree if they took action against downloaders, as Sony and others have done. Punishing fans who cant wait to see their product is a bad business model. It should be made available to them.
If they keep it confined to uploaders, as they said here, that's another story.
Sven Asai
Does anybody else know or need it? It seems to be an announcement for a soon to come publishing, packed into a loud warning to make the product more wanted or give it a virtual rare image. Otherwise probably no one would have noted or really missed it. lol
gakinotsukai
So true, i remember this period.
Tomorrow : China
snowymountainhell
On the topic of IP rights, infringement, illegal downloads and correlating data, this isn’t a “Crime” story. It’s a “Pre-Crime” warning. Credit is due to @Toasted & @Lazarus for bringing up “Minority Report” earlier today. Shortly, we’ll also get to “have our say” on a similar topic about ‘who condones what’. In the meantime, if you want to avoid jail-time, “AOT:TFS and 2 Live actions are “On Netflix”.
GBR48
So Kodansha are going to become an international law firm that occasionally employ artists and does a bit of publishing on the side?
Just produce quality goods at a fair price - most fans will buy them.
The Korean wave was built on fansubbing and hooky downloads, and it has proved to be a huge revenue generator as well as a soft power machine for South Korea. It's much harder to access Jdrama with subs, because the industry can't or won't produce it, and charges rip-off prices for boxed sets. Hence, a much more limited Japanese wave for TV.
By all means go after commercial pirates, but once you start prosecuting kids, see what it does to your image.
kokontozai
Kind of ironic, seeing how up to the 1990's Japan was one of the world's leading violators of intellectual property rights.
If possible, please show me your evidence of "leading violations".
By the way, after watching "Attack on Titan", I feel bored on even "Game of Thrones" and "Breaking Bad".
Mark
Dear Kodansha, You will have as much luck as the rest of the entertainment industry which is ZERO LUCK.
Goodlucktoyou
Nerds
Hiro
@expat, isn't it normal? Nations develop and change with time. Is not like they can always stuck with the past. Is like saying the EU is being ironic because in the past they enslave others but now they fight for human rights. Every nation had some sort of dark past before they actually improve and try to do better. You all gotta start somewhere. Just because certain things were tolerated in the past doesn't mean these days we had to accept them.
wtfjapan
i’m uploading tomorrow from Japan VPN
proxy server from China or Russia, whats Japan going to do about that. lol
wtfjapan
By the way, after watching "Attack on Titan", I feel bored on even "Game of Thrones" and "Breaking Bad".
oh please, firstly, latter 2 actually have real actors. Attack on Titan, dont see any record international audience
Kei Kurono
Good job kodansha jail all those American criminals.
Speed
Mah, with that attitude, maybe I'll just skip watching it all together.
mmwkdw
Be wary now of SCAMs relating to this, I bet we will start seeing con-artists sending emails to account accusing them or a member of their family of having uploaded something, and asking for money to settle the matter.... just like what happened in the UK
Boku Dayo
It's too bad it wasn't all that good (just like a lot of MAPPA titles).