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Niji-Iro Hotaru Director Responds to your name. Plagiarism Claim

posted on by Jennifer Sherman

YouTube user Ms. Rachel thinks that one animated sequence from Makoto Shinkai's your name. film is a case of plagiarism. The YouTuber began streaming a side-by-side comparison video on Tuesday that shows your name. on the right and Niji-Iro Hotaru ~Eien no Natsu Yasumi~ and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on the left.

The your name. scene in question show Mitsuha running down a mountain to try to save her town from an impending disaster. The animation in the scene is strikingly similar to a sequence from the 2012 film Niji-Iro Hotaru ~Eien no Natsu Yasumi~ directed by Kōnosuke Uda. The video lists Ryō Ōnishi as the key animator for the earlier film and Hiroyuki Okiura as the key animator for your name.

Ms. Rachel also draws a comparison to Mamoru Hosoda's 2006 film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. However, the similarities between Mitsuha and Makoto's falls may be easier to explain as a coincidence due to typical techniques animators use.

Some online commenters agree with Ms. Rachel's claim that your name. plagiarizes Niji-Iro Hotaru ~Eien no Natsu Yasumi~. However, the film's director has different take on the situation. Uda said on Twitter that when he saw your name. in a theater, the scene rang some bells for him. On the other hand, Uda believes that if a work's direction sufficiently changes the content, then it can be called original. He added, "It's not correct to settle it by talking about rip-offs."

Some viewers who agree with Uda might note that the timing of the scenes does not match perfectly. Of course, the characters and background images also differ.

One more thematic similarity may be worth noting. Could the use of time travel in all the above anime have a relationship to their similar animation?

[Via Otakomu, SoraNews24]


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