News
Company Apologizes for Allegedly Traced Moe Art
posted on by Egan Loo
Nippon Kanko Shoji (Nikkan), a company that specializes in the Japanese tourism industry, posted a letter on Thursday to address the controversy over moe artwork allegedly traced from K-ON!, Haruhi Suzumiya, and other franchises.
Nikkan had launched Go-Tōchi Moe (Our Local Moe), a product line decorated by characters linked to various Japanese locales, such as "Naniwa Moe" for Osaka, "Akiba Moe" for Tokyo, "Purika Moe" for Hokkaido, and "Chura Moe" for Okinawa. However, the company acknowledged that it did not exercise due diligence to ensure that the artwork did not infringe on other companies' copyrights.
Nikkan decided that it would be "inappropriate" to continue selling its current designs. It decided to pull these designs from the market, dispose of them, and redesign them. The company offered its apologies over the matter.
The Naver Matome site archived the comparisons that online forum users made between Go-Tōchi Moe and K-ON!, Haruhi Suzumiya, Utawarerumono, and other properties.
