User:Last Order/September 25 Kemono Friends Incident

'''This article is under construction. When it is ready, I will continue to endeavor to keep it updated, but right now it is mostly a template.'''

As just about everyone who hasn't been living on the moon has heard, Tatsuki has informed us is off the Kemono Friends anime. This set off a variety of events into motion to which a lot has been said, but the sources of information for this are scattered about and mostly in Japanese anyway. This article is an effort by one user to compile some of the information that has been released about the incident.

Those of you who can read Japanese are probably better off using a Japanese overview source such as http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/9.25けもフレ事件.

This article is not a translation of that article; it is an article mostly relayed from memory by Last Order. This article is not reviewed or endorsed by Japari Library; it is an independent userspace article. All translations are by Last Order unless credited otherwise. All statements that do not provide an explicit source are sourced to Last Order's personal recollection.

Overview
On September 25, at 8 PM, Tatsuki, the director of Kemono Friends, tweeted that he was off the Kemono Friends project.

"突然ですが、けものフレンズのアニメから外れる事になりました. ざっくりカドカワさん方面よりのお達しみたいです. すみません、僕もとても残念です This is rather sudden, but I am off the Kemono Friends animation. Roughly, it seems to be a notice handed down by Kadokawa. Sorry; I was disappointed as well. 8:00 PM 25 Sep 2017 https://twitter.com/irodori7/status/912270635610472448"

This ignited a massive firestorm on the Japanese internet; this was retweeted over 300,000 times in a few days, making it likely the most retweeted tweet in Japanese twitter history. Furthermore, multiple hashtags surrounded the incident trended worldwide. The reaction was one of near-universal shock and anger towards Kadokawa Corporation, "Give Tatsuki back!" (worded exactly as the "Give Kaban-chan back!" line from Episode 12.)

Japanese internet users banded together in a variety of ways to attempt to effect change and make their voice heard, which included such actions as brigading the official Twitter PR accounts for Kadokawa Corporation and Kemono Friends project, organizing multiple petitions, effecting a boycott of Kemono Friends material, trying to effect a boycott of Kadokawa in general, canceling Nicovideo premium subscriptions, emailing or calling Nicovideo, TV Tokyo, JRA, and Nissin, and encouraging foreign users to contact the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.

Simultaneously, users expressed their shock and anger in countless internet posts, Nicovideo comments, newly drawn fanart and newly uploaded videos. For example, the comments episode of Kemono Friends at Nicovideo, which recently had a celebration of reaching 10,000,000 views and becoming the most watched anime episode of all time, were immediately bombarded by expressions of disbelief, shock, and anger that the director responsible for bringing Kemono Friends to untold heights of success would be removed from the project.

One week later, things have quieted down somewhat, but many fans of Kemono Friends remain angry at Kadokawa and continue to demand explanations.

Glossary
This image, sourced from Komica (a Taiwanese imageboard), provides an overview of the structure of Kemono Friends Project.

Tatsuki was the director of the Kemono Friends anime. Yaoyorozu was the animation studio contracted to create Kemono Friends. Just Productions oversees various talent; its animation division is Yaoyorozu. Kadokawa is a corporation that appears to have the largest stake in Kemono Friends Project.

Why did this happen?
Nobody knows. Really. People have a lot of theories.

Tatsuki
Other than the tweet relayed above, Tatsuki has not made any public communications since posting his tweet.

Kadokawa
Kadokawa put out a press release very late in the day, on September 27.

https://twitter.com/kemo_anime/status/912700886962495489

けものフレンズプロジェクトＡ

「けものフレンズ」に関しまして、すでに新規映像化プロジェクトの制作を発表させていただいておりますが、発表当初より同体制での継続か、新体制での新たな表現かも合わせて検討中で、現時点においてもまだ何も決定していない状況です. そのような中、今年１月～３月に放送されたＴＶアニメーションと同様の体制を優先として、視聴者のご期待に沿えるべく調整をしておりましたが、アニメーション制作会社であるヤオヨロズ株式会社より８月に入った段階で辞退したい旨の話を受け、制作体制を一から模索することになっているのが現状です.

「けものフレンズ」は動物ファーストの理念のもと、関わってくださったすべての方々の手によってゲーム、コミック、アニメ、舞台と展開して参りました. 広く門戸を開放し、理念に賛同していただける方々のお力添えをいただき、世界を広げていきたい. そのために誰のものでもないプロジェクトとして、動物のための「けものフレンズ」として活動を重ねて参りました. しかし、アニメーション制作を担当していただきましたヤオヨロズ株式会社には、関係各所への情報共有や連絡がないままでの作品利用がありました. 映像化プロジェクトとしては次回の制作を引き続きお願いしたかったため、情報は事前に共有してほしい旨の正常化を図る申し入れをさせていただきましたが、ヤオヨロズ株式会社からは、その条件は受け入れられないので辞退したい、とのお返事でございました.

「けものフレンズ」の映像化プロジェクトに関しては、上記のような経緯で一部滞っておりますが、「けものフレンズプロジェクト」は今後も御協力をいただく皆様と共に作品を守り、ファンを守り、動物たちのことをもっと知ってもらう活動をこれからも初志貫徹、続けていく所存です. 映像化に関しましても、改めて、そしてできるだけ早くご報告できるよう進めて参ります.

今後とも様々な「けものフレンズプロジェクト」をよろしくお願いします.

I will endeavor to find and link an existing translation at some future date, but suffice it to say, aside from a bunch of corporate boilerplate, the critical points are these.

"「けものフレンズ」に関しまして、すでに新規映像化プロジェクトの制作を発表させていただいておりますが、発表当初より同体制での継続か、新体制での新たな表現かも合わせて検討中で、現時点においてもまだ何も決定していない状況です. そのような中、今年１月～３月に放送されたＴＶアニメーションと同様の体制を優先として、視聴者のご期待に沿えるべく調整をしておりましたが、アニメーション制作会社であるヤオヨロズ株式会社より８月に入った段階で辞退したい旨の話を受け、制作体制を一から模索することになっているのが現状です.""Regarding 'Kemono Friends,' a a new season has has already been announced, but from the time of the announcement, we we were considering whether to continue with existing arrangements or to find a new expression under a new regime. While our first choice was to continue in the line of the animation that aired from January through March this year, with adjustments to meet the expectations of viewers, at the start of August we received notice from animation production studio Yaoyorozu to the effect that they were declining, and therefore we began looking for a new system from scratch."

So there's a bombshell. While it is hard to believe that Yaoyorozu wanted out, at this point it seems apparent that Yaoyorozu and Kadokawa were unable to come to agreement on terms for S2 by August.

"「けものフレンズ」は動物ファーストの理念のもと、関わってくださったすべての方々の手によってゲーム、コミック、アニメ、舞台と展開して参りました. 広く門戸を開放し、理念に賛同していただける方々のお力添えをいただき、世界を広げていきたい. そのために誰のものでもないプロジェクトとして、動物のための「けものフレンズ」として活動を重ねて参りました. しかし、アニメーション制作を担当していただきましたヤオヨロズ株式会社には、関係各所への情報共有や連絡がないままでの作品利用がありました. ""Under the philosophy of animal first, 'Kemono Friends' has developed with games, comics, animation and the stage by the hands of all people involved. We would like to expand the world widely by opening up doors and helping people who agree with the philosophy. For that reason, as a project not belonging to anyone, we have repeatedly acted as an 'animal's Friends' for animals. (Text up to here is machine translated - will adjust) However, Yaoyorozu Co., Ltd who was in charge of animation production, used the work without first notifying or contacting the various related parties."

When this was first announced, fans believed that this referred either to Episode 12.1 "Buslike", or the Kemono Friends collaboration shorts JRA x Kemono Friends "Racetrack" and Donbei x Kemono Friends "Fluffy". However, both Donbei and JRA released statements stating that their collaborations had been officially authorized by Kemono Friends Project, so the outstanding belief at this time is that Kadokawa was referring to 12.1.

"映像化プロジェクトとしては次回の制作を引き続きお願いしたかったため、情報は事前に共有してほしい旨の正常化を図る申し入れをさせていただきましたが、ヤオヨロズ株式会社からは、その条件は受け入れられないので辞退したい、とのお返事でございました.""Regarding the animation project, because we wanted to continue the production system to the next project, we proposed that advance notice be normalized but we received the reply from Yaoyorozu that they could not accept this decision and therefore wished to decline."

Is it certain sure that Kadokawa was referring to 12.1?

 * At this point, essentially. Other than 12.1 and the animation collaborations, other media use of Kemono Friends by Yaoyorozu include a doujin fanbook published by Tatsuki at Comic Market, an animation collaboration with Animelo Summer Live, illustrations produced for Music Station, and various promotional pictures released by Tatsuki; other use of Kemono Friends by Yaoyorozu in general include advertising for a Kemono Friends seiyuu audition.  There is some evidence that suggests that Kadokawa or Kemono Friends Project was not happy about the interview (more on that at some future time), but it was recorded that Tatsuki's doujinshi was approved in advance, Animelo is hosted by Dwango which is part of Kadokawa, and the promotional illustrations involved were fairly standard.

So if 12.1 didn't violate any terms, and everybody loved 12.1, why would Kadokawa punish them for it?

 * Nobody can say for sure what Kadokawa was thinking at the time, but an anonymous essay "Kemono Friends Furor: A Careful Explanation of Original Anime Copyright Sales" (with all the trustworthiness that an anonymous essay entails) points out some of the difficulties that may have surrounded 12.1. I will endeavor to provide a summary (I might attempt a translation, but this essay is rather long) at some future date.
 * 『けもフレ』騒動を、元アニメ版権営業が丁寧に解説する - https://anond.hatelabo.jp/20170930045332


 * As a fan, I loved 12.1, as did basically all the some million Kemono Friends who watched 12.1. But if we step away from the warm and comfortable world of Friends and into the soulless world of business, it may have been a source of contention among rights holders.  I will add more about this later.

Did Yaoyorozu break the terms of their contract by producing 12.1?

 * Probably not. 12.1 appears to comply with the Kemono Friends doujin guidelines.  More on this later.

Kadokawa said Yaoyorozu "withdrew" in August, but they released a collab in September!

 * I am not familiar with the process by which animation studios get contracts, but if these were work-for-hire contracts then S2 and the collabs may not be strictly related. I will attempt to provide a source for this later.
 * The question of when Yaoyorozu realized that they were off of S2 for good is up in the air. They may have known it from the start of August; or, they may been laboring under a misunderstanding.
 * As for "withdrawal", a translation featuring "withdraw" has been circulating, but 辞退 can also be translated "decline." It may be that they declined specific terms but thought they were still in the running for S2.

Kadokawa's statement is a pack of lies, right?

 * While the press release is rather self-serving, and many of the allegations seem hard to believe, it is also difficult to believe that Kadokawa would openly fabricate statements about business relationships out of whole cloth. While I hesitate to project my knowledge of Western businesses onto the Japanese corporate world, this release was almost certainly approved by a legal team at Kadokawa and should not be dismissed out of hand.

Yaoyorozu
Nothing has been heard from Yaoyorozu after the incident.

It is possible that a conversation is happening behind the scenes. However, it is still possible at this time that this incident may end up being a disaster for all parties involved, and not just Kadokawa.

But why did this REALLY happen?
There are a variety of theories as to what actually happened here. It is evident that negotiations between Yaoyorozu and Kadokawa failed somehow. What specifically were the major points of contention, how much Tatsuki was involved with and informed of, and all sorts of various other issues are unknown at this time.

Individual Responses
I will provide some of these at some later date. There is not too much that has been relayed officially.

Officials: Kawakami Nobuo (Dwango's president), Shigetaka Kurita (Dwango executive).

Opinions: Ishidate Kotarou (separated Yaoyorozu founder)

Reactions: Mewhan (Sand Cat VA), Uehara Akari (Mimizuku VA), Ooishi Masayoshi (OP composer)

What can I do to help?
I wish I knew. There are various net campaigns that users are participating in order to try and effect action, but I will not list them here. Follow your heart, I guess.

More Sources
A timeline of various confirmed Kemono Friends events is covered here: http://kemono-friendsch.com/archives/39484

I will attempt to translate it into English at some future date, as it sheds some light on various events.