Forum - View topicTales Of The Industry - They Shoot Their Hostages, Don't They?
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4421 |
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I'm not so sure it was the worst way to handle it. I mean, "Brad's" company did offer a less financially catastrophic alternative by recalling what was still on shelves and making new merchandise, and it still would have been at the R1 company's expense. Kazuhira's mistake was fixable, at little to no cost on that end until somebody decided to make it a bigger deal than it was. Saving face is obviously a big deal, but sometimes that means admitting when you goofed up. @DmonHiro I have to agree. I don't see what it would accomplish to place blame on the manufacturer for what happened. The Japanese company was in a twist that these things existed at all and was requiring that somebody foot the bill for collection, destruction, and reproduction. I doubt if the American company would have gotten any sort of credit for a manufacturing error since it likely would have been considered their job to check the final product and since the idea for the item came from "Brad" to start with. If nothing else, there is the simple fact that blaming the manufacturer would have meant lying. If the Japanese company was that upset about something as inconsequential as the wrong shade of white, imagine how they would react if they found out that the R1 company lied to them. Last edited by Greed1914 on Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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This wasn't about finding a "solution" this was ALL about "face". Obviously someone (not Kazuhiro) took issue with the color of the keychain. Kazuhiro didn't give a crap one way or the other (if he cared, the original answer would've been "correct"), he just didn't want to get chewed out more than he already was. Once everyone can agree on who was at fault (whether that was "Brad" or "the Chinese supplier") Kazuhiro isn't gonna press the issue. Witness the result once they pressed "YOU were the problem" on Kazuhiro, what got "fixed"? NOTHING, but now Kazuhiro doesn't "help" anymore (obviously he wasn't fired over it). If Brad takes the blame, then Kazuhiro can push a narrative that Americans are incompetent and Brad's bosses can say he won't get anything else of import, and six months later Kazuhiro will appreciate the "help" and no one else in Japan will remember who the hell he is except to laugh at that one screw-up that couldn't tell eggshell from white. The whole POINT was to give some person who designed mu-sama a target of derision. Since that person (whoever it is) would have ZERO control over Brad's fate (unless it was truly the CEO of the anime company would could then cut off all deals with GENOM in the future, which I HIGHLY doubt), there's no real loss in taking one for the team. EDIT: For the record, I have basically been in a VERY similar situation and took EXACTLY the course of action I recommended (took the blame for someone else's "fault"). The result is the muckity-muck in Japan probably thought I was an idiot, but "Kazuhiro" has been a great point of contact for years and has helped with numerous deals since then. |
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Lupica
Posts: 88 |
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I have to agree with HeeroTX's points here from experience with cross-cultural business deals. It's tough and requires a lot of reading between the lines and ridiculous performances if you want things to go smoothly sometimes, even between people who are speaking the same native language in the first place.
Both sides are guilty of screwing up to some extent, but knowing how to patch it up requires a lot of experience dealing with this kind of scenario and a willingness to completely abandon your pride. Incidentally, if you buy an egg from a convenience store in Japan, it will generally have a brilliant white shell rather than the duller shades popular in many other countries and not everyone is a color wizard. I assume that the pictures were labelled and there was more linguistic interplay at work, but it's food for thought ;p Anyway, great article and fascinating to know what really happened with that show-I-won't-mention-the-name-of after all this time! Thanks Brad, I hope things are going better for you these days. |
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Pietato
Posts: 23 |
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Crazy stuff.
Edited to remove request. --willag |
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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Man the curiosity is killing me. {Yes, your request is not allowed. Sorry. ~nbahn} In any case this story sounds like a nightmare. I understand recalling the product in stores but track down every single plush bought and destroy it? Seems way too extreme ( not to mention impossible). What happens if the figure was given away or lost? Are they gonna charge into people's houses, or hope for all the customers to return them out of sheer goodwill? Kinda reminds me of what happened with Too Human, though that was just in stores, right?
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purplepolecat
 Posts: 130 |
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Maybe Kazuhiro was fired over this, but the IT department didn't get around to de-activating his email account. Brad was sending emails to a dead account!
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AbZeroNow
Posts: 519 |
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I have some idea of what series it is. I do feel bad for "Genom" paying for the mistakes of "Japan Codex Systems" and I can see why there would be bitter memories about the potential of "Mecha-Rin".
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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According to the story, he'd sometimes reply, just REALLY late (too late to be of any use), so I'm pretty sure he wasn't fired. Also, from what I understand, Japanese employees VERY rarely get fired, they just get shifted to dead-end jobs. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13550 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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While I can see this article's writer using an alias to protect their anonymity, I don't understand why this 100+ epi. show had to have an alias in the article.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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It isn't up for debate. The column is the way it is and the nature of it will not change. These are the identities we have to protect if we want to keep doing it.
That's it. Asking to be PMed what other people are speculating the answers are also cannot fill up these threads. Please do not use the forum to ask for that. In complete honesty, I have no interest in being a hardass about the anonymity thing - I understand it is basic human nature to ask and to want to know. But we cannot facilitate that and if the anonymity is compromised we have to cancel this column immediately. I hope everyone can be cool and we can all get along and enjoy the stories. Last edited by Zac on Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lupica
Posts: 88 |
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Because if they say the title, or it's made clear what the title is, it's also immediately obvious to anyone in the industry in Japan or the US who the person was. Employees in marketing roles tend to be quite well-known. Heck, they're probably even named in the credits. We have to respect that. RINNA-CHAN fans already know what it is. I'm glad they left in enough hints for us to be able to work it out without jeopardizing anyone. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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I'm going through this thread and removing posts that are simply requests.
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Seif
 Posts: 456 |
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Do you not think that doing so would be, ya know, wrong? |
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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I like this series! A new favourite on the site.
Now I'm motivated to go and hunt out my own "Mu-sama" and check the colour... And willag is a moderator! Exciting times. |
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jojothepunisher
 Posts: 799 |
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This column is hilarious, in a good way. I guess you can't exactly blame the Japanese people for their unreasonable reactions, because the show is their creation, and anybody would be mad if their creations are not treated in a way that goes against their wishes. But they also should have realized at the same time that the damage was done. Maybe Kazuhiro was one of those people who worked in the industry not because of the prospect of making money but for something like the sense of fulfillment from bringing the product to the fans.
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