Gundam Creator Scolds Otakus for Stealing His Robots for a March

Playing activist with artwork that isn't yours always ends badly. This Thursday, within the anime fan community, a director from the famous robot franchise Mobile Suit Gundam publicly scolded the organizer of a protest called the Otaku March Against War. The trouble erupted because fans used the series' giant robots without permission to invite people to the event on social media.

A bootleg poster

It all started when a user named Takahashi uploaded the official poster online to invite the community to protest against government policies. The big mistake was that the main image featured a robot nearly identical to the mechas from the Japanese series. The anime director saw the post online and sent a very direct message asking him to delete it immediately because he was stealing his work.

The irony of the peace message

The organizer got scared, deleted the image very quickly, and promised to upload a new drawing that didn't steal anyone's art. The funniest part of all this drama is the irony of the situation. The original Gundam series is world-famous precisely for its anti-war message and for showing how horrible combat is for ordinary people. Even so, the owners of the artwork do not forgive anyone when it comes to protecting their money and corporate image.

Japanese companies are unforgiving

Even if your protest has good intentions or shares the same message as the animated series, anime companies are extremely strict. They don't care about your social cause; if you use their characters without paying, they will force you to delete them. Due to this massive scolding, the march ran into the following problems:

• Advertising delay: Now they have to draw a new poster from scratch that doesn't look like anything that already exists on television.
• Image loss: The march became a joke online for failing to respect the work of the original animators.
• Strict surveillance: Now the companies will be closely monitoring what these fans do or shout on the day of the protest to avoid lawsuits.

Seeing that Japanese companies prefer to guard their characters' profits rather than support a message of peace, do you think the creators are overreacting by banning these fan-made drawings online?