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Black Butler Author Decries Illegal Videos, Downloads

posted on by Egan Loo
Yana Toboso: fans write to her about viewing Kuroshitsuji without authorization

Yana Toboso, the creator of the Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) manga and anime, criticized unauthorized videos and downloads of anime and manga in a Sunday blog entry. She began by noting that she does not like to preach, but felt like saying a few words about this issue. Both seasons of the Kuroshitsuji anime are currently streaming in Japan on the Nico Nico Douga website, and Funimation is also streaming the two seasons in North America. However, Toboso emphasized that watching the anime on sites besides the official video-streaming websites is prohibited. She added that reading the manga through unauthorized downloads, CD-ROMs, and other means besides Square Enix's publications is prohibited in Japan as of 2010. (Yen Press publishes the manga in North America.)

Nevertheless, Toboso reports that she has been getting more email messages and letters from fans like the following:

"I read them from ROMs I borrowed from a friend. LOL"

"I found and watched all of them on an overseas video site!"

"I became a fan with the second season, and then I watched the entire first season on an overseas video site. lol It was very amusing!"

Toboso said these actions are "unmistakably" illegal and added, "It is the same as shoplifting or leaving a restaurant without paying the bill." According to Toboso, if people watch anime illegally or download them without authorization, "we creators and voice actors will not eat; this is no joke, we will starve and die. This is not 'lol.'" She then said, "These actions, to paraphrase a certain Fullmetal character, goes against the Law of Equivalent Exchange! If you continue doing them, I really cannot make either anime or manga again. […] Unauthorized videos + downloads are wrong, absolutely!"

[Via Kyō mo Yarareyaku]


This article has a follow-up: Hen Zemi's Tagro Addresses Illegally Streamed Videos (2010-08-18 16:00)
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