CATDOLL: Japanese animator's remarks sparked controversy: There is nothing wrong with stealing pictures

In the animation industry, using other people's works to trace and re-create is obviously the most intolerable form of plagiarism. However, a Japanese professional artist recently believed that stealing pictures is not an excessive thing, which sparked controversy among netizens.

Although it is in the name of "learning and borrowing", it is a very serious act in the creative world to plagiarize other people's works, create them by tracing, and publish them on social networking sites as your own works to gain reputation. However, recently a Japanese professional animator "Shinya Kuwahara" made a shocking statement about the tracing incident, which caused controversy.

Hisa Kuwahara has participated in the drawing of episodes 6, 8, and 9 of "That's the Voice Actor", as well as the storyboard, performance, and first original drawing of episode 12, and served as one of the animation supervisors for episode 8 of "Ao no Kanata Quartet". In addition to participating in animation production in the industry, he also publishes secondary creations in his own name. Although he is also a creator, Kuwahara does not think that there is anything illegal about tracing, which has also attracted doubts from other netizens.

Professional animator Kuwahara Hisaya tweeted on March 28 that tracing is not a big deal

Animator Hisahi Kuwahara posted a message on his personal Twitter: "Even if someone else traces the drawings, it will not affect the original author's drawing skills. And if the tracer continues like this, he will become a person who can only draw by tracing, which will not benefit him at all. As an outsider, is it meaningful to specifically investigate this point?"

The tweet sparked a heated debate. After all, Kuwahara is a professional animator, and it is unacceptable for him to say such things. Some netizens pointed out that as long as the data for tracing comes from someone else's work, there may be copyright issues. For example, in 2014, the author of "No Game No Life" Enokimiya Yuu was suspected of tracing, which also caused heated debates on both sides at the time.

The suspected tracing incident of "No Game No Life" author Enoki Yuu in 2014

Indeed, tracing does not affect the artist's skills, but many tracing controversies are caused by the tracer publishing the work under his own name, claiming the hard work of others as his own original work. It is no wonder that it attracts criticism from others.