Akira Watanabe is a 54-year-old living in Aichi Prefecture, and when police came to his door to arrest him, he didn’t deny the charges. In fact, he confessed to them. What was he in trouble for? Threatening the lives of Sega employees and their families. …Read more »
Pokémon isn’t something that’s usually discussed on the U.S. Department of Justice website, but that changed when a man was caught using his COVID relief funds to buy a $57,789 Charizard card. The man, Vinath Oudomsine, had applied to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for …Read more »
Stealing Pokémon cards is sad enough as it is, but it’s doubly pathetic when said thievery impacts a locally-owned small business like Forest Lake, Minnesota’s Punch Out Gaming. On February 10, the game and card shop was robbed in an unusual manner, as a thief …Read more »
A 28-year-old man named Kohei Ohori is on trial for breaking into schools and stealing items. Ohori is up-front in confessing that, yes, he did do these things, but the reason he gave is unusual: he says he did it because of the Love Live! …Read more »
Ah, Florida, the Sunshine State. It’s also the place you’re most likely to see a man attempt to rob a bank while wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog mask, which is exactly what went down in DeLand, Florida on February 2. Local police were dispatched to …Read more »
Thanks to a recently published court document, we know that a pair of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were fired for a handful of reasons, primarily centered on playing Pokémon GO on the job. Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were being investigated for a …Read more »
Piracy is a major issue hitting the manga and anime worlds, especially during COVID with so many people homebound. Take a look at these numbers: from January to October last year, piracy in Japan bilked creators and publishers out of 800 billion yen (about $6.92 …Read more »
22-year-old Ayumu Kuroda was a member of the idol group Junon Superboy Anothers, but now he’s been arrested for alleged fraud. Both he and 26-year-old Ryoya Yatsubayashi (who is not a member of the group) were arrested on January 5 by Aichi Prefectural Police’s Toyokawa …Read more »
Please Tell Me! Galko-chan author Kenya Suzuki was recently arrested on suspicion of importing child pornography from Germany, and as a result, manga publisher Kadokawa has taken action. The company’s ComicWalker service announced that the serialization of the Galko-chan manga will be suspended following “multiple …Read more »
Ken Akamatsu, the mangaka behind Love Hina, Negima! and more, recently expressed an interest in running for public office to protect creators’ freedom of expression. Whether he does that or not, he’s already doing other work that’s meant to protect creators. He put a lawsuit …Read more »
One of the manga creators in the Chara Chara Makiart creative unit has been found guilty of sexual assault on a minor. Kodansha, the unit’s publisher, shared this news. Kodansha has decided to stop publishing the current series from the unit, Harapeko Penguin Cafe and …Read more »
Hikaru Kondo, the founder, representative director, and president of ufotable, has been officially found guilty of tax evasion. The Tokyo District Court said that Kondo cheated by not paying 138 million yen (about $1.25 million) that he owed in taxes. In terms of sentencing, he …Read more »
The site of the arson attack on Kyoto Animation may receive a memorial monument in the future. The studio met with victims’ relatives in a meeting to discuss this option. It sounds as though most of the family members weren’t against the idea of a …Read more »
In the world of copyright violation in Japan, any number of items could be a potential infringement, and that applies to anime cakes. In the case of a 34-year-old Shibuya-based woman, those cakes just so happened to be based on Demon Slayer, and Tokyo Metropolitan …Read more »
Last month, video game developer ARIKA—known for fighting games like Fighting Ex Layer, as well as developing recent Switch multiplayer titles Tetris 99, Pac-Man 99, and Super Mario Bros. 35—announced that someone had sent them a threat, which promised to both harm the company and …Read more »
Danica Davidson
Joseph Luster
