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Bushiroad Sues Future Card Buddyfight Creator Yoshimasa Ikeda

posted on by Alex Mateo
Suit claims dissemination of confidential information, copyright infringement, credibility damage

Bushiroad announced on Friday that it has filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against the contracted creator of the Future Card Buddyfight card game Yoshimasa Ikeda and his company Studio Ikecchi, for disseminating confidential information about Buddyfight as well as for copyright infringement and credibility damage to the company.

Bushiroad said that its contract with Ikeda states that he would agree to withhold confidential information and not disclose information about his work. The company asserted that Ikeda had broken that agreement twice in the past, and he had to apologize for his actions on both times. Although Bushiroad said that it asked him to comply twice, Ikeda has continued to violate the agreement through text posts and videos. He also reportedly used images of Future Card Buddyfight without the company's consent and has made statements that damage the credibility of Bushiroad on services such as Discord. Bushiroad decided that discussion as a form of resolution would be difficult at this point, which led to its decision to sue Ikeda and Studio Ikecchi.

Bushiroad announced in June that the Future Card Buddyfight card game was ceasing product development and releases. The announcement in Japanese stated that official tournaments and events, shop tournaments, customer and rule support, and defect exchanges would end on May 31, 2021, while the announcement in English stated that they would continue until June 30, 2021.

Bushiroad launched the trading card game in 2014.

The franchise has inspired multiple anime and manga adaptations, and the first television anime series premiered in January 2014. Future Card Buddyfight Ace (Future Card Shin Buddyfight), the most recent anime in the franchise, premiered in June 2018. The franchise's official YouTube channel streamed the series with English subtitles and an English dub.

The Future Card Buddyfight Ace manga launched in May 2018 and ended in February 2019. Shogakukan Asia is publishing the series in English.

Takaaki Kidani founded Bushiroad in 2007. The company owns a number of cross-media franchises, some of which originate from its card games. Bushiroad's Cardfight!! Vanguard and Future Card Buddyfight series have both inspired long-running television anime series, and its Luck & Logic card game inspired two television anime series. Bushiroad also owns the Weiß Schwarz anime crossover card game. The company owns the Tantei Opera Milky Holmes franchise, as well as the BanG Dream! franchise, both of which have television anime series. The company also owns the Revue Starlight franchise, and both BanG Dream! and Revue Starlight have active smartphone games. Additionally, the company owns the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion. Bushiroad acquired 8.2% of SANZIGEN Animation Studio in December 2019, and Bushiroad and Kadokawa each acquired a third of the shares of the studio Kinema Citrus in December 2019.

Thanks to ravegrl for the news tip.

Source: Bushiroad via Kai-You


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