Kodansha Halts Plagiarized Manga; Tokyopop Follows

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on Oct. 25, 2005 Sign up now!

By Kai-Ming Cha -- Publishers Weekly, 10/25/2005

Japanese manga publisher Kodansha has pulled 25 books by manga artist Yuki Suetsugo off the market after she admitted to plagiarism. Tokyopop, Suetsugo's U.S. publisher, was planning to publish Suetsugu's Eden no Hana (Flower of Eden) in 2006, but the U.S. manga publisher has also pulled the book. Tokyopop issued a statement: "We are honoring the request of our partner Kodansha and will not be releasing Flower of Eden."

Suetsugu has confessed to copying images from Takehiko Inoue's sports manga Slam Dunk! for Flower of Eden. A number of manga Weblogs and Web sites focused on the story, offering side-by-side comparisons of Suetsugu's and Inoue's work.

Suetsugu has issued an apology "to all copyright holders, all people involved and above all to all readers." Kodansha has also apologized. According to the German Web site AnimePro, the manga publishing giant has already halted Suetsugo's newest series, Silver, which is serialized in Bessatsu Friend magazine in Japan and has stopped shipment on all of her tankubon manga (digest-sized comic books).

Eden no Hana has already been published in Thailand and Germany. Heyne, the German publisher of Eden, was contracted to publish the entire 12-volume series and has already published up to and including volume 6. Last week, AnimePro reported that Kodansha's decisions would not affect Heyne's publishing of Eden no Hana. However, the outcome of Kodansha's recall remains to be seen. Heyne has yet to release a statement addressing the controversy.