Japanese webcomic artist sues their publisher for the equivalent of less than a penny

A lawsuit filed by the artist of a well-known webcomic against their publishing company has recently made its way into the public’s eye. Online users are both frustrated and amused by the lawsuit’s proceedings as it’s revealed that the artist is only suing for three yen, currently equivalent to around $0.0206 USD.

Manga artist Keito Aida, author of the popular horror-mystery web manga Koakuma Kyoushi Saiko (A Little Devil Teacher) has taken legal action against their publisher, Bunkasha, for failing to protect them against another publisher serializing a webtoon which uses the same source material, under the same title, at the same time as their own publication.

The webcomic Kouakuma Kyoushi Saiko, published by Bunkasha in 2021, and then published again later by taskey, is an adaptation of Mitsui Megane’s chat-style novel by the same name. The original novel’s story follows a teacher, Ms. Kasai, who is appointed to a class after their previous teacher is hospitalized due to bullying from students. Ms. Kasai is beautiful and claims that her motivation for becoming a teacher is wanting to make students happy, only for it to turn out that she is concealing a dangerous part of her personality.

Bunkasha’s manga adaptation of the story, featuring Keito Aida’s illustrations, quickly became a hit with webcomic readers. According to Big Globe, “By June 2023, the manga had achieved sales of over 700 million yen, becoming a massive hit. It also ranked third in the manga category of the Piccoma BEST OF 2022 annual ranking on the e-book platform Piccoma, garnering significant attention.” Incidentally, in the same year as Bunkasha’s serialization of Little Devil, taskey, the management company of Peep, the platform on which the original novel was released, decided to publish its own full-colored, vertical scrolling webcomic adaptation of the story.

Since both versions were created using the same source material, similarities between plots may have been unavoidable, however, it seems that similarities in the comics’ art were also a point of concern for Aida. Big Globe states, “In April 2022, taskey submitted character designs and drafts for chapters one to three, which revealed numerous similarities to Aida’s version. Bunkasha’s legal team found some similarities to be substantial enough to be considered copyright infringement, even identifying tracing, and demanded that taskey make all necessary corrections. Subsequently, taskey apologized for inadvertently creating similarities and causing inconvenience.”

In addition to taskey’s comic’s artistic planning closely mimicking Aida’s work, the taskey adaptation’s chapter releases were much quicker. When Aida decided to take to their blog to express their frustration regarding taskey’s version catching up to their manga, things took a turn for the worse. ITmedia states, “They revealed that they were distressed by the unwanted serialization of the later manga, which was based heavily on their original work. They also shared the apology letter they received from taskey. This led to Bunkasha informing Aida that they would suspend their manga serialization unless they removed the blog post. Aida complied, removing the blog entry, but taskey had already taken issue with the post, and as a result, Bunkasha decided to halt Aida’s serialization.”

In response to the aforementioned events, Aida announced on their blog on August 29 that they filed a lawsuit against Bunkasha. According to Aida’s legal representative, Bunkasha went against the contract Aida and the original story’s author agreed to. Article three of the creator’s contract states “(Restrictions on use by Party A) (1) During the term of validity of this Agreement, works whose content is deemed to be identical or clearly similar to all or part of this work and works with the same title are not authorized for publication. Any work whose contents are the same as or clearly similar to all or part of the work or any work of the same title shall not be permitted.”

In short, Aida is suing Bunkasha for failing to protect them against taskey’s serialization of the same source material, a breach of their contract. Aida’s lawsuit called for the monetary compensation of three yen (approximately, 0.021 USD), which was the legal amount needed to proceed. ITmedia mentions the breakdown of Aida’s settlement money as follows: one yen for Bunkasha’s delayed reporting of taskey’s adaptation, one yen for Bunkasha allegedly falsely informing Aida that taskey would pursue legal action against them, and one yen for the psychological distress caused by Bunkasha sending Aida insinuating emails after it had been decided that the issue will be discussed through representatives. Given that Aida is seeking the minimum amount needed to file a lawsuit, it appears that the artist’s interest lies primarily in sending a message. When ITmedia reached out to get a statement from a Bunkasha representative, they refused to comment on the situation.

Fans of Aida’s adaptation expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation online, many sympathizing with the artist’s dilemma. One user commented “If this is allowed, then manga artists will become disposable.” Additionally, the significantly low monetary compensation was also a point of interest for many. One fan posted “Hmm. Three yen… And then there’s the fees for the lawyer… I read the article about the situation and cried thinking, Aida is really going through it, aren’t they…?”

For now, whether or not the lawsuit proceedings between Aida and Bunkasha will reach the courts is yet to be determined. Many fans of the Bunkasha Little Devil adaptation voiced their desire for the release of more chapters. However, it seems that for now, readers of this version will have to wait until both Aida’s hiatus ends and the publishing company decides to continue the manga’s serialization.