Forum:Bleach plagiarised

I am sure most of you have heard by now but for those who haven't. Nick Simmons, the son of Gene Simmons, has been accused of plagiarising Bleach in his comic: Incarnate. On his twitter account, Kubo made the following twits (credit for translation goes to Maaru of FLOL) regarding the matter.

なんか、昨日の夜から今朝にかけて、すごい数の海外のファンから「アメリカにBLEACHの真似をしてるマンガがある！」的な返信が入ってた. で、サイト見たら英語よくわかんないけど、どうも「ジーン・シモンズの息子のニック・シモンズが描いてるマンガだ」みたいなことが描いてあった.

Actually, from last night til this morning, a huge number of foreign fans were saying "This American manga is ripping off Bleach!" or something like that. Well, I looked at the site, but I can't really read English, and it's a manga made by Gene Simmons' son.

正直似てるかどうかより、ジーン・シモンズの息子が漫画家ってことのほうが気になる…

Actually, whether it's plagiarism or not, I'm more worried about the fact that Gene Simmon's son is a mangaka.

For more information on this and on how Bleach has been plagiarised, please go here. Thank you. Tinni  (Talk)  11:19, February 25, 2010 (UTC)

Are you serious? Is this guy really that shallow? I mean, ripping of Bleach and other anime is enough...but ripping off DeviantArt artists?! You've got to be fucking kidding me! Maggosh 12:11, February 25, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, he apparently is I have seen his wiki page, I have seen the various forums. The detail in which he blatantly ripped off Bleach as well as other manga is just ridiculous. It goes far beyond mere coincidence, this stuff is spot on tracing over work clearly done by others. Its sad to find that talent is not always genetic. Sometimes people are just really messed up. There is no doubt that Nick Simmons has committed plagiarism and Kubo should sue the the hell of him. Supposedly Viz Media has taken notice as well and stating something to the effect that they are looking into the situation. Salubri (Talk)  12:37, February 25, 2010 (UTC)

Viz media through their twitter account released the information that they have a team on the matter. The publishers of Incarnate have also stopped all further work on the series. As Salubri said, it is actually stunning how much ripping off has gone on. He didn't just steal character art but he essentially stole the characters as well. The Kenpachi looking character actually has Kenpachi's personality as well! In a page of the Incarnate comic I saw, another character (the protagonist?) actually said in reference to the Kenpachi character "he's a monster". The Orihime looking character too is a total rip-off of Orihime. She even has Orihime's defining characteristic of empathy. Not only that, some of Orihime-clone's lines come directly from Orihime as well. It's actually so blatant that I am surprised he thought he could get away with it. Tinni  (Talk)  12:50, February 25, 2010 (UTC)

Tite Kubo, the author of Bleach, one of the mangas specifically named, has made a Twitter post twice on the situation, first to comment on the number of people outside of Japan commenting on the accusations and later to note that he is more interested in Gene Simmons's son being a comic creator than he is in whether any of his work was actually copied. Salubri (Talk)  18:42, February 26, 2010 (UTC)

Wow... i dont know what to say. When i first saw the picture i thought it was bleach colorized or somthing. Caucasaifro 09:13, February 27, 2010 (UTC)

Can someone pass me my spleen? It fell out while I was laughing; I don't think Kenny'd been seen dead with that hairstyle. TomServo101 11:46, February 27, 2010 (UTC)

I don't know why but this made me think of NCIS when McGee writes a book so obviously based on his co-workers.

I can only imagine what it'd be like of that wasthe situation here. "Nichigo was so close to saving Tukia from the tower in the Mole Society, when he was stopped by Sempachi Baraki, a man that loves fighting. Meanwhile Tad, Suryu and Morihime..." Jason D 07:21, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

Nick Simmons has reportedly made the following statement via a representative. -- Yyp (Talk) 14:38, March 9, 2010 (UTC)

"Nick Simmons"

- Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium.

I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me.

Im sorry but thats a huge joke and I doubt anyone will except that apology. There is a significant difference between doing something similar and blatant plagiarism. There is alot of homages between when a creator does a new series with similarities to his old series or when a creator makes a homage to those other series from other writers that he admirers. He is now trying to say thats what he was doing and downplay the situation by saying words like "perceive" and "similarity" making the vast amount of people who have seen it seem crazy or as if they have overreacted. Just admit your tracing the manga. He didnt borrow someones personality points. He took direct copies of someone elses style and work, changed the color and names and created fan fiction based around characters someone else made. Now he insults everyone by trying to say that its their perception thats wrong. What a loser. He needs to learn what homage and similar means because he seems to confuse them with plagiarism. Nice try but get some real skill no one copies to that level when making a homage to other series. Salubri (Talk)  14:51, March 9, 2010 (UTC)

How ridiculous!! paying a "homage" would be creating a story with a well established story (chivilrous boy with uptapped potential meets cute girl with great power etc etc) and building on that as means, i can think of at least three well established stories that start this way (this, taboo tatoo, kenichi). From what i saw this is just a panel from an incredibly popular manga repeated!! and if this Bull**** statement had been released BEFORE everyone had called him on it then it might have had a shred of truth to it. As it stands Nick Simmons got caught blatanly stealing and is trying to dig his way out!. Nick D Wolfwood 15:18, March 9, 2010 (UTC)

Its very annoying to have one person copy a idea but to have a entire character, personality and design stolen is taking too far. This guy should have to pay a fine or something. Naruto195 15:51, March 9, 2010 (UTC)