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Lawyer Accuses Bengoshi no Kuzu Law Manga of Plagiarism
posted on by Egan Loo
Tokyo lawyer Masatoshi Uchida has accused Hideo Iura's Bengoshi no Kuzu (Scum of Lawyers) manga of plagiarism and petitioned the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday to ban sales of Shogakukan's Big Comic Original magazine. (Big Comic Original has been serializing the Bengoshi no Kuzu manga since 2004.) Specifically, Uchida accuses the manga's new story arc of plagiarizing a novel he wrote. That story arc began last December. He asked the court to ban the current issue, released on February 5, and the next issue, which goes on sale on February 20.
Iura's Bengoshi no Kuzu legal comedy manga centers on a maverick lawyer named Motohito Kuzu who breaks the rules to protect the people he represents. It was adapted into a 2006 live-action television series starring Etsushi Toyokawa (Night Head, Hula Girls, the upcoming 20th Century Boys) as Kuzu. Besides Bengoshi no Kuzu, Big Comic Original also carries Pluto by Naoki Urasawa (20th Century Boys), Like Shooting Stars in the Twilight by Kenshi Hirokane (Human Crossing), and San-chōme no Yūhi - Yūyake no Uta (Sunset on Third Street) by Ryohei Saigan. The magazine used to carry Urasawa's Monster and Kazuya Kudō's Pineapple Army.
Shogakukan told the NHK television news staff that it had no comment since it is still going over the petition.
Source: NHK
