{"id":12875,"date":"2022-05-26T15:45:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T06:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=12875"},"modified":"2022-05-26T15:45:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T06:45:32","slug":"20220526-12875","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/","title":{"rendered":"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article<\/a> (original article’s publication date: 2022-05-25 18:07<\/em> JST)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n




Character illustrations from TVT\u2019s recently announced Project Shaz<\/strong><\/em> are accused of being plagiarized from the works of other artists. TVT has since issued an apology and offered an explanation<\/a> for the events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TVT is a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui, a creator known for their involvement in the God Eater<\/em> series and Freedom Wars<\/em>, that was founded in 2019. The studio recently announced <\/a>two upcoming projects, including Project Shaz<\/em>, which has found itself at the center of a controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Shaz<\/em> is a multiplayer action game being made by staff that participated in the development of God Eater<\/em>. The game is being produced by Yasui with Tomokazu Fukushima of Metal Gear Solid<\/em> and Freedom Wars<\/em> fame onboard as the scenario writer. The game is being directed by Kenei Nakasha who is known for their work on .hack\/\/G.U.<\/em> and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle<\/em>, with Kususaga Rin from Lord of Vermilion<\/em> and Fate\/Grand Order<\/em> acting as the art director.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


For the character illustrations in question, let\u2019s start with Yoko Kirishima, the second character from the left. It\u2019s been pointed out that the illustration is similar to the one posted below from the gothic fashion seller Glitzy Wonderland. On the retailer\u2019s website<\/a>, we can see a model wearing the \u201cNighthawk Military Lolita Style Outfit (BJ02)\u201d with similarities between the outfit itself and the model\u2019s pose when compared to the illustration.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image Credit: Glitzy Wonderland\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


It\u2019s also been pointed out that Skull, the third character from the left, is similar to the \u201clancer<\/a>\u201d image by esuthio. And the fourth character from the left, Mireia Cardero, is similar to \u201cThe gunner in uniform<\/a>\u201d image by Jinyoung Son. Jackal, the fifth character from the left, is also accused of being a copy of an illustration<\/a> by \u836f\u9505\u9505, with the artist also expressing concern over the matter.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/tororoshanyao\/status\/1529037305301716992\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


After receiving these accusations, TVT went to the illustrator in charge to confirm what happened. According to them, the team gathered up reference materials as they were searching for the art direction and put them together using a method called \u201cphotobashing\u201d when making their rough drafts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photobashing is a common method used when putting together concept art and image boards. During this process, TVT says the posing and figures ended up being used as is. In other words, a provisional image that was intended for internal use was made public without obtaining the rights needed to do so, leading to this current issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TVT explains that when they released the image, they didn\u2019t check with the illustrator on how it was made and mistakenly thought it was something they could use publicly. Yasui took responsibility for the incident and apologized saying their workflow for verifying their work and information was lax and created a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Shaz<\/em> has met trouble right out of the gate since being announced, so it will be interesting to see if they can earn back trust from players as development goes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Project Shaz from the devs behind God Eater were accused of plagiarism and have since issued an apology and explanation. Project Shaz is a multiplayer action game announced by TVT, a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui (God Eater, Freedom Wars).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-12875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nA new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Project Shaz from the devs behind God Eater were accused of plagiarism and have since issued an apology and explanation. Project Shaz is a multiplayer action game announced by TVT, a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui (God Eater, Freedom Wars).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Project Shaz from the devs behind God Eater were accused of plagiarism and have since issued an apology and explanation. Project Shaz is a multiplayer action game announced by TVT, a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui (God Eater, Freedom Wars).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-26T06:45:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-26T06:45:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220525-203924-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yuki Kurosawa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yuki Kurosawa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Project Shaz from the devs behind God Eater were accused of plagiarism and have since issued an apology and explanation. Project Shaz is a multiplayer action game announced by TVT, a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui (God Eater, Freedom Wars).","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Project Shaz from the devs behind God Eater were accused of plagiarism and have since issued an apology and explanation. Project Shaz is a multiplayer action game announced by TVT, a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui (God Eater, Freedom Wars).","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2022-05-26T06:45:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-26T06:45:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":675,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220525-203924-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Yuki Kurosawa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Yuki Kurosawa","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/"},"author":{"name":"Yuki Kurosawa","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/83fb6381fd551d93f01a0ca890dfd7ff"},"headline":"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology","datePublished":"2022-05-26T06:45:31+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-26T06:45:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/"},"wordCount":538,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220525-203924-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/","name":"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220525-203924-header.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-26T06:45:31+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-26T06:45:32+00:00","description":"Project Shaz from the devs behind God Eater were accused of plagiarism and have since issued an apology and explanation. Project Shaz is a multiplayer action game announced by TVT, a game studio being led by Toshiyuki Yasui (God Eater, Freedom Wars).","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220525-203924-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220525-203924-header.jpg","width":1440,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220526-12875\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A new project from the devs behind God Eater accused of plagiarism, issue an apology"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/83fb6381fd551d93f01a0ca890dfd7ff","name":"Yuki Kurosawa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/kurosawa_shoukai-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/kurosawa_shoukai-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/kurosawa_shoukai-100x100.jpg","caption":"Yuki Kurosawa"},"description":"JP AUTOMATON Editor","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/yuki-kurosawa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12882,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12875\/revisions\/12882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}