| A few days ago, another new Megazone 23 reboot project called Megazone DAO was announced… but by new random upstarts GCT Japan and ASYSTA RIGHTS? But now AIC RIGHTS — rights management company of the past work by Anime International Company (AIC) — tweeted today that it was not approved by their company and is considering action. https://x.com/aic_offical/status/1791050989916807300?s=46 https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000021.000101045.html Last year, AIC RIGHTS announced a new Megazone 23 project (G-PROJECT) with the help of Masahiro Inoue’s (Kamen Rider Decade, GARO, etc.) appointment as representative director at AIC RIGHTS in December 2022. However, in an interview with Inoue in June, Inoue said that AIC RIGHTS had an ongoing issue with the company’s rights — an past disgruntled employee had sold their IPs without permission (backed up by Mamoru Yokota’s recent tweets) and that they were working towards taking appropriate action to cleaning up the company’s past issues. To make it more complicated, AIC RIGHTS was once listed on ASYSTA’s now-dead website — but now ASYSTA RIGHTS’ website mentions that it has a partnership with Idealake & Co, which supposedly acquired the rights to AIC RIGHTS’ IPs. |
ims-tokyoMay 16, 2024 12:39 PM
| Update: After AIC’s tweet, ASYSTA RIGHTS’ Twitter has been on damage control mode— instead saying a different story that AIC RIGHTS’ illegitimately stole back their IPs after it was transferred to ASYSTA (now Idealake & Co, in partnership with ASYSTA RIGHTS). https://x.com/asystarights?s=21 The story lines up with Yokota’s tweets, due to the resignation of Kenji Tsukamoto (2021-2022) and appointment of Masahiro Inoue (2023-Present) as representative director in December 2022 — which was apparently when the legal battle between AIC RIGHTS and ASYSTA started according to ASYSTA RIGHTS/Idealake & Co,. It’s also worth noting that I believe Tsukamoto was also a board director at GAINAX prior to the corporate takeover from Studio Khara, TRIGGER, and Kadokawa due to the sexual assault scandal against Maki in 2019… https://idealake.net/ Bare interesting though… wonder how AIC/Inoue/Omura is gonna respond. I am curious however to whatever happened to Toei Advertising, because AIC R and Toei were also engaged in an business alliance to jointly plan, produce, and operate select AIC works since April 2021, but AIC RIGHTS mysteriously removed Toei from the copyright notice on the works listed on its homepage in February 2023.  |
ims-tokyoMay 16, 2024 12:54 PM
larey_corson said: Ngl I didn’t even know people were trying to reboot this. I saw it years ago but didn’t think it was anything special. I know it’s got a really small cult following but all this drama sounds crazy I think it’s what the original OVA itself represents instead — being the first major title that started the OVA boom and is what set Miura (co-founder and president of AIC) on the map by a bunch of newcomers in the industry. AIC has been trying to produce a new Megazone 23 anime for over 30 years now at this point — but the issue is that the series, while having a small dedicated fan base, is that there hasn’t been interest I feel outside of Part I and II to produce new material, as well as having a bigger cult following in North America rather than Japan like AIC’s other OVAs. It also isn’t the first time for this situation to happen to AIC lol — where during the production of BGC 2040, the founder and president of ARTMIC, raided AIC’s office with a group of yakuza demanding compensation, but ran away again after they were caught until his death according to his son a few years ago. *AIC inherited the copyrights and debts of ARTMIC after it went bankrupt in 1997. |
| AIC RIGHTS/Masahiro Inoue's Response: I don't know what you are trying to do, but first of all, if the subject of the transfer is the Megazone copyright, then my understanding is that the transfer is not complete. It doesn't make sense that you've released it publicly on X, mixed in things that have nothing to do with me or AIC Rights, as well as written in a way that could be interpreted by the public as if they've won a lawsuit against AIC Rights or against Masahiro Inoue. Also from the wording, I feel that it's malicious writing which misleads people into thinking that because they won a lawsuit, the copyright belongs to them. I interviewed people who seem to be involved, but their opinions seem to be quite different from yours, so I think it would be best if you dealt with the people involved without mentioning the name of AIC Rights or my name. I'm not a victim, so I would like you to stop pretending to be "the champion of justice" by showing some kind of kindness that I don't really understand. Also, you said you've met me before, but who are you? Since it's the X's account name I don't recognise you, so can you tell me your name please? (Translated) 何をしたいのか分かりませんが、まず譲渡の対象がメガゾーン著作権をさしてるなら譲渡は完了してないのが私の認識です。 公にXで出して、僕やAICライツに関係ない事をおり混ぜながら、AICライツに裁判勝訴した、井上正大に裁判勝訴したかの如く世の中に捉われかねない文章で書かれてるのも意味わからないのと、文章面から、裁判で勝訴したから著作権はうちにあるってミスリードさせる悪意のある文章に僕は感じます。 関係してると思われる人にヒアリングしましたけど、貴方との意見とだいぶ違うようで、AICライツの名前や、僕の名前を出さずに、対象の方とやり合ってもらえればいいと思います。 僕は被害者でもないし、よく分からない優しさを出して「正義の味方」みたいな気取り方はやめていただきたい。 それと、会った事あるとおっしゃってたのですが、どなたですかね？ Xのアカウント名なので分からないので名乗ってもらえますか？(Original) https://x.com/MAAAAAAAASAHIRO/status/1792810902506586376 |
ims-tokyoMay 21, 2024 7:26 AM
| Update: Little late on this, but GCT Japan—who was cooperating on the production of Megazone DAO—announced it had terminated its partnership with ASYSTA RIGHTS for Megazone DAO in November 2024; despite ASYSTA's claims of being the rightful owner of AIC's IPs and legal action threats against its detractors over the past year. Notice of termination of business partnership for Megazone DAO (Translation) GCT JAPAN Inc. (Headquarters: Minato, Tokyo; Representative Director: Hiroshi Okagawa) has decided to terminate its partnership with ASYSTA RIGHTS, LTD. (Headquarters: Chiyoda, Tokyo; Representative Director: Tomochika Sugimoto) for Megazone DAO. We have been working to grow and expand the content of Megazone 23, but there were shortcomings in their understanding and judgment regarding their content, and we have decided that it is difficult to continue our partnership any further. We apologize for having reached this decision. We will learn from this experience and continue to make efforts to provide value to all stakeholders. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. GCT JAPAN Inc. 「MEGAZONE DAO」共同事業協業終了のお知らせ (Original) GCT JAPAN株式会社（本社：東京都港区、代表取締役社長：岡川紘士）は、株式会社アシスタライツ（本社：東京都千代田区、代表取締役：杉本知愛）との「MEGAZONE DAO」に関する協業を終了することを決定いたしました。 弊社は「MEGAZONE23」コンテンツの成長と拡大を目指し取り組んでまいりましたが、弊社のコンテンツに対する理解と判断において至らない点があり、これ以上の協業継続が難しいと判断しました。 この度の決定に至りましたことをお詫び申し上げます。 当社は今回の経験を教訓に、引き続きすべてのステークホルダーに価値を提供できるよう、努力を続けてまいります。関係者の皆様にはご理解とご協力を賜りますようお願い申し上げます。 GCT JAPAN株式会社 https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000032.000101045.html Hopefully, this will finally put the rights issues of AIC's IPs to rest and will allow AIC RIGHTS to finally move forward on "G-Project" (SIN/XI) and its various other projects. |
ims-tokyoJan 1, 6:43 PM
| Updated Background: The corporate registry information of AIC RIGHTS and ASYSTA RIGHTS were obtained and posted by a user on Twitter/X. https://x.com/garam26303/status/1879037799690907765?s=46 The registry revealed interesting new info that Takashi Fujino (representative director at D-Stage) was actually AIC RIGHTS’ third representative director (appointed in October 2022), before Fujino was succeeded by Masahiro Inoue in December 2022 (AIC RIGHTS’ website never listed Fujino as the company’s representative director) For updated context, ASYSTA RIGHTS’ predecessor—ASYSTA—had listed AIC RIGHTS (in addition to Gen’ei and Akihabara Actors & Actress School/AAAS) on its websites (asysta.jp / asysta.co) before they were shut down around the same time of Tsukamoto Kazuhito’s (board director at ASYSTA RIGHTS and former board director at GAINAX) dismissal for secretly selling its IPs (js like GAINAX) in October 2022. Since Inoue’s appointment, he’s made various comments about AIC’s rights issues on YouTube (GGE Channel), Twitter/X, and interviews—such as when Inoue randomly tweeted about how it was not copyright infringement to produce a sequel without permission when consulting with a lawyer in April 2024. ASYSTA was supposedly a technology and entertainment company established in 2019 and its representative director—Tomochika Sugimoto—was credited as an associate producer for Battle Athletes ReSTART. But all traces of the former ASYSTA have since disappeared, and its successor (ASYSTA RIGHTS) was also listed to be headquartered in the Sugar Building (Gen’ei and AAAS) prior to its relocation to its current headquarters in May 2023. |
ims-tokyoJan 15, 12:56 PM
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