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NEWS: Fractale Manga Artist Apologizes to Director, Committee


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jmaeshawn



Joined: 08 Feb 2011
Posts: 175
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:10 pm Reply with quote
She was simply expressing her opinion on the work, so there's really nothing to apologize about...

That line should say "The editors of Gangan Online also offered a short apology and stated that actions are being taken to prevent similar incidents of freedom of expression."

Then again, I guess she wanted to keep her job.
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ArsenicSteel



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:23 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The editors of Gangan Online also offered a short apology and stated that actions are being taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.


What sort of actions? Drugs in the water cooler? Artists are banned from making personal opinions on the open?
WTH everyone knows Akira Toriyama didn't like working in general and Miyuzaki despises...everything. What sort of precautions can a company talk to prevent a person from having an opinion.
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inu-liger



Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 67
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:33 pm Reply with quote
That's just being spineless being forced to apologize for expressing your personal opinions!
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Anime Remix



Joined: 16 Dec 2009
Posts: 354
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:54 pm Reply with quote
Seems like personal opinions can get you in trouble now, lawl.
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angieness



Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 162
Location: Columbus, OH
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:56 pm Reply with quote
I don't know why people are surprised. While it sucks, this happens in the art world. Before graduating from art college, in my portfolio class my teacher told us to never ever ever talk about a project negatively (or the people you're working with too) especially in a public setting. There was a graduate from my school who had gone on to work for Dreamworks. He made the mistake of badmouthing a project he had been put on on the internet and got fired and blacklisted and now can't find work.

You are free to have your opinions, but when doing art professionally, one of the big no nos is openly badmouthing projects or clients. Animation and comics are surprisingly small and close knit, this stuff can come back and bite people in the butt. While I've had mixed feelings about projects I've been put on, I have a policy to keep it to myself because of stuff like this. Companies and clients don't want someone that bites the hand that feeds them working for them.

Thems the breaks in the art world.
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:57 pm Reply with quote
It has nothing at all to do with freedom of expression nor personal opinion.

She was the primary creator tasked with completing the manga. She made a comment which warranted or not was not her place to make. The comment would obviously dramatically effect sales, if the person making the thing says its boring.

If your favorite author suddenly said one day they were sick of their book, it was really boring; but they were going to sell it to you anyway - would you go out and buy it? She should leave such comments to word of mouth and the critics.

Sure it stinks to have no creative control over the direction of the project (she is only the artist, not the writer). But publicly criticizing it instead of simply quitting is simply silly.

Such statements show that she is obviously uninterested and probably not taking her job as seriously as she should. If you paid me money to make something. Then I did a half-hearted job because I was not interested in it - then midway through turned around and publicly stated, this is crap no one should buy it. Would you be inclined to continue to give me money?

If she had a problem with the work she should have brought it up with her editors and removed herself from the project. However thoughtless idiocy seems the norm with the internet these days.

What I am surprised by is that they appear to have allowed her to keep her job. She obviously really needed this job, if she is apologizing to keep it, which makes her statement even more thoughtless. And I know I certainly will not be inclined to buy a copy with an artist working on it that is not interested in her work.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:16 am Reply with quote
Sounds like she had her Megan Fox "Michael Bay is like Hitler" moment and certain people just wanted to punish her for no one liking the show. Rolling Eyes
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:46 am Reply with quote
I'm also really surprised that everyone is... surprised.... about this. What she did was ridiculously unprofessional. It's fun to talk about freedom of expression and all, but it doesn't extend to your work and never has. It doesn't matter WHAT industry you work in. If you went on facebook or something public and bashed your job doing spreadsheets or teaching math or flipping burgers or whatever, and your boss found out, you'd be in hot water. This is the same concept.

It's also incredibly rude toward the other people on the project. I could sort of understand if she wasn't a contract artist (ie, if it was her story entirely), but even then it would still be totally unprofessional toward her publishers. As it is, she's basically said, "The writers on this story have created a boring story, and I'm only drawing it because I want money." I'm shocked she didn't get canned. I'd have fired her. There are plenty of artists out there who would be grateful for the work, even if it wasn't the most interesting thing they'd ever done.
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sokpupet



Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 133
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:16 am Reply with quote
Saturn wrote:
I'm also really surprised that everyone is... surprised.... about this. What she did was ridiculously unprofessional. It's fun to talk about freedom of expression and all, but it doesn't extend to your work and never has.


This bit of precedent says otherwise. Will it prevent employers from visiting swift retribution upon those who would slander their good name? Only if the employee doesn't have a really good lawyer and the money to pay for one.


Last edited by sokpupet on Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:36 am; edited 1 time in total
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bob_loblaw



Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
Location: Tanning in Hell
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:18 am Reply with quote
I'm just left shaking my head at the "freedom of opinion" posts. Really, folks? Thankfully, others have chimed in and stated just how serious a breach of professionalism Mutsumi Akazaki's comments were; it was tantamount to career suicide. She should be very thankful she still has a job. However, she might find it somewhat difficult to find work AFTER 'Fractale', but that remains to be seen.
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jtiskool305





PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:44 am Reply with quote
Bob Loblaw wrote:
I'm just left shaking my head at the "freedom of opinion" posts. Really, folks? Thankfully, others have chimed in and stated just how serious a breach of professionalism Mutsumi Akazaki's comments were; it was tantamount to career suicide. She should be very thankful she still has a job. However, she might find it somewhat difficult to find work AFTER 'Fractale', but that remains to be seen.


^this
It seemed to me that she didn't want her job. She is one lucky person to still have a job. Raise a glass of whine because your boss is one hell of a nice person.
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ArsenicSteel



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:49 am Reply with quote
Calling a job uninteresting is not a "breach of professionalism" nor is it a fireable offense, unless a company wants to waste money fighting a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. I don't know what sort of business world you people claiming she is lucky to still have a job live in but her comment never put her job in actual jeopardy.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:03 am Reply with quote
ArsenicSteel wrote:
Calling a job uninteresting is not a "breach of professionalism" nor is it a fireable offense, unless a company wants to waste money fighting a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. I don't know what sort of business world you people claiming she is lucky to still have a job live in but her comment never put her job in actual jeopardy.

Wrong. Badmouthing the project you are working on CAN affect sales in a negative way. Thus, such actions CAN and ARE seen as sabotage. It is a very fireable offense, even in America. Go ahead, go post on your blog, where clients of your workplace come, and say that your work on the current book is boring and that the book itself is boring. You'd be fired so fast it would make your head spin.
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potatochobit



Joined: 26 Aug 2009
Posts: 1373
Location: TEXAS
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:39 am Reply with quote
I've had jobs to do before that I found uninteresting

but that does not mean the quality of my work was compromised in anyway
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:40 am Reply with quote
potatochobit wrote:
I've had jobs to do before that I found uninteresting

but that does not mean the quality of my work was compromised in anyway

But did you go online and talk about how uninteresting it was?
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