Earlier today I ran across an article with the blazing headline "China Rips off Pokemon, Naruto, and Digimon", and being a fan of all things, I had to take a look. Central China Television, a state-run broadcasting company, has recently started to air a series called "Dragon Baby". It's an anime about dinosaurs, but supposedly it borrows heavily from the characters and plot devices of such "classic" animes as Pokémon, Naruto, and Digimon.
The heads of the CCTV company showed a lot of gaul on the situation, too. When confronted about this so-called anime rip-off buffet, they responded first by saying that the issue was with the anime's producers and not the broadcasting company (which is very true), and then by letting the public know that they didn't see a problem. Said a spokesman for CCTV: "This is a rip off? What's being called a rip? What's being called a copy? Please think first, then talk."
I went snooping for another one of the anime's supposedly ripped off, and I was shocked when I discovered "Soul's Window".
The original article made mention of rip-offs of "Crayon Shin chan" and "5 Centimeters per Second", so I went looking for some examples of these knock-offs. And I certainly found one in the Chinese anime "Soul's Window". This anime isn't just another rock in the Cliché sea anime -- "Soul's Window" is an almost frame-for-frame plagiarism of "5 Centimeters per Second". Apparently it's garnered a lot of hatred from the anime community, but as a writer and storyteller, I have no tolerance for such blatant plagiarism.
Take a look at some images of the Chinese "Soul's Window" and the Japanese "5 Centimeters per Second". "Soul's Window" images are on top, and "5 Centimeters per Second" images are below them:
Soul's Window
5 Centimeters per Second
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Soul's Window
5 Centimeters per Second
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Soul's Window
5 Centimeters per Second
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Souls' Window
5 Centimeters per Second
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Soul's Window
5 Centimeters per Second
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What can you say about this?? D: sad isn't it??