Welcome to Tokyosaurus, so what's up in Japan?
Have you ever heard of Yuri on Ice?
The highly acclaimed super hit anime of 2016 about figure skating?
Yes, the one with lots and lots of boys.
And also the one that's only in like every category of the crunchyroll anime awards for
2016.
I haven't watched it yet, but it's definitely there on my backlog.
So what's this whole fiasco about?
An american television network called Hallmark Channel has been recently accused of plagiarism
in their upcoming movie named Love on Ice.
A trailer for Love on Ice was recently released and people have been going nuts on twitter
and many websites accusing the movie for blatantly copying Yuri on Ice.
The premise of Love on Ice is something like this.
Former figure skating champion, is considered a relic in the world of figure skating, but
she gets a chance at reclaiming skating glory when a young coach sees greatness in her.
And then they fall in love.
Yuri on Ice's premise is something like this.
Former Japan's most promising figure skater, loss in a crushing defeat in the Grand Prix
Finale.
Meets a coach that kicks off his journey in reclaiming skating glory.
And then they fall in love.
Sounds similar enough.
But not exactly identical.
Someone even started a petition on change.org that gathered over 3600 supporters in the
span of a few days.
In the petition, it states that this is not the first time Hallmark has been accused of
stealing an idea and that an explanation is needed for this if this is actually a coincidence
after all.
In fact, it got so much traction online, that the creator of Yuri on Ice actually made a
statement about it on her own twitter.
She basically responded by saying she thinks they are completely different works.
She thinks that it's difficult for figure skating dramas to be made, and will support
this release.
Basically, she's telling her fans to calm the f down.
As a relatively unknown genre, figure skating has only been recently brought to attention
with her work Yuri on Ice.
I think she loves figure skating so much, that anybody wanting to add works to her beloved
genre, she will receive with open arms.
It seems to have been confirmed and solved on her side.
But the fans of Yuri on Ice don't seem to be very happy about some very specific elements
of Love on Ice.
They are calling it a whitewashed or even homophobic Yuri on Ice.
Fans basically feel, if you're gonna copy then copy it properly.
But then if they actually copied it, then people probably wont' be happy about that
either.
So either way, people are going to be pissed.
After looking at the evidence though, the likelihood of love on ice actually being a
rip off is pretty slim.
Yuri on Ice premiered in Japan on Oct 5 2016 while gaining its audience in November and
December.
Meanwhile Love on Ice was already filming in early November.
If Love on Ice was actually made in response to the success of Yuri on Ice, the entire
pre-production process would have taken place within the first month of Yuri on Ice airing.
And anime don't just gain traction with 1 or 2 episodes.
It usually takes longer than that to gauge whether or not it'll be a success.
So for Hallmark to have been able to write a screenplay, hire the actors and do all the
behind the scene that is required to make a movie in that short period of time, is pretty
unlikely.
Some people are like, ohh it's even using the "on ice" portion of the title.
There are actually a few books that are named Love on Ice that was released before Yuri
on Ice about a gay hockey player so if anyone copied that title, Hallmark isn't going to
be the first one to blame.
So that's pretty much wraps it up.
What did you think of this Hallmark fiasco?
Do you think they copied Yuri on Ice?
As usual, let me know in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching, and i'll see you guys in the next one.