Lucky Star - Q & A

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by aorta

The manga is still ongoing right?

YES! I'm darn glad, too.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by aorta

The manga is still ongoing right?

Going strong. The magazine chapters churn on while the manga's fifth volume was released Summer 2007.

[kenjiharima]

Is there any picture of the author of L*S? To determine if he/she's a he or she?

[darksider]

Nothing as far as I know. You'll get nothing but the bodyless cat-like thing as his avatar.
I think he is male, but who believes that anyway?

By the way, I believe that most people here are not really sure about gender of any of mangaka. How did you know Toriyama Akira is a male? You know, some mangaka even enjoys puzzling their audience!

[kenjiharima]

Well Akira Toriyama guested in a show and he was male. Jin Kobayashi is maintaining a low profile yet he was male. Masamune Shirow is another guy I haven't seen, I only see a bald guy for his avatar...oh well...let's just enjoy the loli Kagami in the anime.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Calawain

My question, as a law student who studies some copyright law, is the law in Japan a lot more lax when it comes to using artists works to create your own?

I hope nobody minds that I'm discussing a three-month old posting, but I've wondered about these questions myself. Like Vexx, IANAL, yada yada, though I have taken an interest in copyright issues because of some work I did in the 80's.

I would think that doujinshi fall more into trademark infringement rather than copyright infringement. If I draw a picture of Kagamin, I haven't actually copied anything, so I don't think my drawing can be seen as infringement of copyright. However most characters are also trademarked. I visited the most obvious site I could think of that might shed some light on Japanese characters, namely Sanrio. Along with the discussion of copyright infringement, there's this paragraph:

"The trademarks, logos, and service marks displayed on the Site (collectively the “Trademarks”) are the registered and unregistered trademarks of Sanrio, our licensors and suppliers, and others. Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark without the express written permission of Sanrio, our licensors or suppliers, or the third party owner of any such Trademark and use of the Trademarks is expressly prohibited."

So I can't copy a picture of Hello Kitty off the site; that would be copyright infringement. Nor can I publish a picture of Hello Kitty; that would be a trademark infringement.

Interestingly, in the US I believe your required legally to pursue trademark infringers and that failing to do so can render the trademark indefensible. I don't know whether Japan has the same law in this area. (Trademark law varies more from country to country than copyright law.) If so, then it would be dangerous not to pursue doujinshi publishers.

I'd agree with the comments above, though, that the free advertising in doujinshi may benefit the original creators more than the costs, and bad PR, of pursuing actions against them.

[AVPlaya]

Originally Posted by kenjiharima

Is there any picture of the author of L*S? To determine if he/she's a he or she?

This should be a in a faq somewhere...

based on my personal investigation into the matter, I'd say that there's 80%-90% chance he's a guy. It saddens me but that's how the dice rolled. The sex of a manga-ka is usually not a secret; you can see it most of the time by their names. But there are often times when manga-ka deliberately tried to hide their sex to sell the series, like the manga-ka for Kindaichi intentionally wrote her name in a masculine way to hide the fact that she's a female writer of a shonen mystery manga. I think Yoshimizu is hiding for the same reason as well... by writing his name the way he did, he could have fooled people into believing he's female.

[723]

The strangest thing is the coincidence with the name of Hiiragi Kagami--- Maybe she/he wants to establish a comparation? Or maybe it is just a coincidence. But, if his/her real name is Kagami, then I think the character's name is not a coincidence. The same thing if the supposed nickname is the same as Kagamin's name...

Maybe I am talking nonsense... I am used to look for hints when there may not exist... X3 And I think that habit was caused by watching L*S... X3

[Calawain]

Spoiler for Space:

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I hope nobody minds that I'm discussing a three-month old posting, but I've wondered about these questions myself. Like Vexx, IANAL, yada yada, though I have taken an interest in copyright issues because of some work I did in the 80's.

I would think that doujinshi fall more into trademark infringement rather than copyright infringement. If I draw a picture of Kagamin, I haven't actually copied anything, so I don't think my drawing can be seen as infringement of copyright. However most characters are also trademarked. I visited the most obvious site I could think of that might shed some light on Japanese characters, namely Sanrio. Along with the discussion of copyright infringement, there's this paragraph:

"The trademarks, logos, and service marks displayed on the Site (collectively the “Trademarks”) are the registered and unregistered trademarks of Sanrio, our licensors and suppliers, and others. Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark without the express written permission of Sanrio, our licensors or suppliers, or the third party owner of any such Trademark and use of the Trademarks is expressly prohibited."

So I can't copy a picture of Hello Kitty off the site; that would be copyright infringement. Nor can I publish a picture of Hello Kitty; that would be a trademark infringement.

Interestingly, in the US I believe your required legally to pursue trademark infringers and that failing to do so can render the trademark indefensible. I don't know whether Japan has the same law in this area. (Trademark law varies more from country to country than copyright law.) If so, then it would be dangerous not to pursue doujinshi publishers.

I'd agree with the comments above, though, that the free advertising in doujinshi may benefit the original creators more than the costs, and bad PR, of pursuing actions against them.

Well trademarks are part of it yes, but I would think copyright laws also apply due to the fact you are copying character personalities, story (background, what happened to the characters in the past comes from the other works). From my cursory reviews of the Westlaw summaries of the various USCA chapters that deal with trademarks and copyrights (I wouldn't read the whole thing, the trademark chapter is 400 pages at least annotated), I would hesitate to say that you have to actively pursue all trademark violations in order to hold your copyright. I mean unless it is really famous and obvious, you'd have to have constructive notice of the infringement in order for a requirement like that to exist. It's possible, but I don't think it is particularly likely.

However, from my observations and the comments here and in other places, I would assume that the Japanese companies realize that they aren't being economically hurt by the doujin (in fact it helps in most cases) and just don't pursue any infringements.

[Chiibi]

Does anyone get why Minoru was getting all disgusted in episode 7 of Lucky Channel when Akira was talking about the sunflower/ribbon mix-up? She said something like "That looked awfully familiar in one of my-" and he goes "Gero gero!" meaning "ew" or "gross"? Is it a hentai reference?

[kenjiharima]

Originally Posted by Chiibi

Does anyone get why Minoru was getting all disgusted in episode 7 of Lucky Channel when Akira was talking about the sunflower/ribbon mix-up? She said something like "That looked awfully familiar in one of my-" and he goes "Gero gero!" meaning "ew" or "gross"? Is it a hentai reference?

This must be what you're talking about. The radio show where he was in drag.

[Chiibi]

LOL! So Akira-chan was referring to the radio show?

[renai]

THIS is a real question!!!!!!!!!!!
Do anyone of you knows how many episodes left they planned to show ?

[X207]

how are the polls determined in the official L*S site? id love to get a poll asking wat sort ot ending song would be featured for next season. the shiraishi kareoke ending is crap that was only interesting/funny for its first 3 airings.

[xris]

Originally Posted by renai

THIS is a real question!!!!!!!!!!!
Do anyone of you knows how many episodes left they planned to show ?

We list the number of episodes as 24. As do ANN and AniDB. Is there a reason to think otherwise?

[Chiibi]

Originally Posted by X207

how are the polls determined in the official L*S site? id love to get a poll asking wat sort ot ending song would be featured for next season. the shiraishi kareoke ending is crap that was only interesting/funny for its first 3 airings.

Yeah I agree 100%. I'm sitting there watching him attempt to sing and I'm like "Wow this is dumb." The group doing karaoke was MUCH better.

[Claies]

Originally Posted by X207

how are the polls determined in the official L*S site? id love to get a poll asking wat sort ot ending song would be featured for next season. the shiraishi kareoke ending is crap that was only interesting/funny for its first 3 airings.

I doubt they're even thinking about a second season right now...not until around 2 years later when manga material accumulates again.

Although Shiraishi would definitely pull that kind of poll off and see how he'll get alternately raised to the top or slammed to the ground. Personally, I find this huge spectrum of reactions hilarious.

[X207]

Originally Posted by Claies

I doubt they're even thinking about a second season right now...not until around 2 years later when manga material accumulates again.

Although Shiraishi would definitely pull that kind of poll off and see how he'll get alternately raised to the top or slammed to the ground. Personally, I find this huge spectrum of reactions hilarious.

well count me in to crush his dreams of becoming a singer. must look out for them to post that poll *crosses fingers*

[stormy001_M1A2]

Go ahead and laugh at me but why almost 90 percent of the cast of this anime is a left hander? The author is a southpaw or something? Or something obscure Japanese culture/tradition?

[Claies]

Originally Posted by stormy001_M1A2

Go ahead and laugh at me but why almost 90 percent of the cast of this anime is a left hander? The author is a southpaw or something? Or something obscure Japanese culture/tradition?

The author is probably left-handed him/herself. It should be noted that the characters are shown either left-handed or ambidextrous (Konata and Nanako). We don't know if Sojirou is ambidextrous, but if he is there might be a silent implication that otaku have better motor skills. XD

We had a little talk about that a while back...I forget where.