There are a handful of events that have become mainstays in the local anime, comic, and games (ACG) scene over the years. Apart from Anime Festival Asia and Singapore Comic-Con, there’s also the EOY J-Culture Festival, which has gathered a sizeable following with its yearly celebration of Japanese pop culture.
The event’s solid, hard-earned reputation is now at stake, as the organisers find themselves embroiled in an art tracing fiasco. In response to a Facebook post by Hikari Kurayami, the team has admitted to tracing the art of LAM, the illustrator and character designer for VR anime visual novel Tokyo Chronos.
“It has come to my attention that there are concerns about the tracing of LAM’s art from STYLEY’s Vol.3 Loquartz. On behalf of the EOY team, I sincerely apologise for any upset or disappointment caused,” said producer Tim in an official apology post.
“Our art director had wanted to incorporate elements inspired by LAM’s style, as he had a deep admiration and respect for LAM’s art style and STYLEY’s concepts. He traced the face shape, eye, and fringe lineart, while reworking the rest of the art himself, mistakenly believed that such usage would be acceptable. The rest of the team was unaware that the illustration had been partially traced and the graphic was thus approved for posting. We understand that this does not excuse the action, and we take full responsibility for the mistake,” he added.
The initiative to bear the brunt of their actions is all well and good, but what’s not is the approach to rectifying the situation. Instead of removing the traced artwork, the art director has delivered “an explanation and apology to LAM about the situation, to check if he has any objection to keeping the graphic there or to take it down”, which isn’t a good look at all.
For one, art etiquette dictates that tracing is never encouraged nor accepted, especially for commercial purposes. It’s one thing to be inspired by an artist’s work or style, but tracing wholesale is another matter altogether that reflects very badly on the individual. Sending an official permission request to LAM also shows a poor and disrespectful understanding of the situation at hand, and it’s disappointing that one of longer running local conventions doesn’t know better.
Images and comparison by Hikari Kurayami.
The fiasco has drawn the attention of the ACG community, many of whom took to the comments section to give their two cents on the issue and explain the faults behind the organisers’ actions. For the most part, they are all pretty civil and constructive, serving as a reminder of the importance of respecting proper art etiquette.
Be better, EOY Singapore.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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