Saori Kumi, author of the Dragon Quest V novel, has lost her legal battle with Square Enix, Toho and other companies on the production committee of the Dragon Quest: Your Story movie. Kumi originally filed the lawsuit in November 2020, seeking damages over the unauthorized use of “Luca,” the name of Dragon Quest V’s protagonist.
Released in 2019, Dragon Quest: Your Story is an animated film adaptation of the JRPG Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, released for the SNES in 1992. However, while the protagonist was called simply “Hero” in the original game (as is the norm throughout the Dragon Quest series), the movie used the name Luca instead. This name was originally introduced by Saori Kumi in her novelization of Dragon Quest V, published by Square Enix in 1993.
But Kumi wasn’t informed of the name’s use in the Dragon Quest: Your Story film nor credited for it. At the time, she directly requested an explanation from Square Enix, but was told that since the name was short and common, it was not subject to copyright (source: Asahi Shimbun). After this, the author filed a lawsuit with the film’s production committee, seeking a public apology and 2 million yen in damages (which was about $19k dollars at the time).
However, on February 12, 2024, the Japanese Supreme Court dismissed Kumi’s claims. According to a note post by the author, “the court acknowledged that the act was plagiarism, but did not acknowledge that the plagiarism was illegal,” i.e. the court’s conclusion was that since the name is only used for identification purposes, it is not subject to copyright, meaning there was no infringement.
Despite her case being dismissed, Kumi says that she doesn’t regret suing. She adds that she was able to accomplish two of her goals – getting acknowledgement that Luca was an original name originating from her novel, and receiving an apology for its unauthorized use.
