4 men accused of copying and selling design materials from the anime Strike Witches

The newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun revealed today that the Metropolitan Police department sent documents to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding four men’s suspicions of violating copyright law by illegally copying production materials from the anime. Strike Witches.

Copies of the material have reportedly been sold at online auctions since 2016, and the four men have generated around 10 million yen ($64,706) in sales.

It is revealed that the four men conspired between October 2019 and June 2020 to use a printer to reproduce production materials depicting the anime’s characters and background illustrations. Strike Witches in a rented office in the Toshima neighborhood. The four men are suspected of infringing the copyright of Kadokawa and three other companies. A Kadokawa filed a criminal complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department after receiving information that copies of the anime’s production materials were being sold.

The four men – who were university friends – are aged between 25 and 28 and include a 28-year-old man from Tokyo’s Bunkyo district, who denies the allegations, stating that “it is (production materials) not a copy, so It’s not a violation.” The other three men, however, admitted the charges.

The series Strike Witches is based on the illustrator’s mecha-girl illustrations Humikane ShimadaIt is Shimada is credited as the franchise’s original creator and character designer. The franchise began with a manga in 2005 and a series of light novels in 2006, both focusing on different characters from the eventual anime. Strike Witches. The anime premiered in 2008 and spawned a sequel, a film and an OVA. The franchise also gave rise to the anime Brave Witches in 2016, as well as several manga, novels and games.