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PlayStation Japan recently uploaded a video that was intended to highlight some of the biggest releases for the PlayStation 4 this holiday season, but it seems there was more to the music video than first thought. The video featured titles like Death Stranding, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and others, accompanied by clips of animation under the direction of Kevin Bao. These bits of animation are what sparked the controversy, as other artists began to notice that the video used exact animations from other pieces of work from anime and cartoons, such as FLCL, Steven Universe, and Souviens Ten-Zan. A Twitter post below, from Catsuka, shows the exact moments and compares them with what the pieces assumedly originated from.

Latest Sony PS4 Lineup Music Video is a rip of many animations from all around the world ......
(Steven Universe, FLCL, Gobelins, Souviens Ten-Zan ...).
The video is now offline : https://t.co/LPWyFWzEEw
But you can still find it online : https://t.co/KfS79oRrs5 pic.twitter.com/6Q0hrFK2AT

— Catsuka (@catsuka) December 4, 2019

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Once the claims gained traction, Sony took the video down promptly, and quietly. (The above video is a re-upload.) Meanwhile, the studio that was in charge of creating the video, Eallin Animation, stated the following, in regards to the plagiarism claims:

Failed to fetch tweet https://twitter.com/EallinAnimation/status/1202273300862447617​

 

[8BitWonder]

Watched it thinking it'd be like two bits that look similar to something else.

Didn't think it'd be 1:1 with so many clips under a different art style.

 

[wartutor]

Wow alot of hate coming from pirates j/k anyway watching it i cant believe anyone would even thank that wouldnt get noticed. Expecially when your "target audience" watches most of or all of those shows. Also didnt they push back final fantasy VII remake till next year?

 

[chaoskagami]

There's an argument to be made that tracing is okay for fan art or learning purposes, but this is both extremely disrespectful and in poor taste and is so beyond that line it's practically in orbit.

Tsk tsk. Shame on you, Kevin Bao. Good thing he didn't get away with it.

 

[Pipistrele]

Well this dude's life is officially over. He's clearly talented, and you don't reach that point without serious dedication and commitment. But plagiarism is unforgivable and disgusting. I wonder what he was thinking.

That's the saddest thimg about situation, really - so much genuine talent and skill going down the drain due to bad and shady decisions.

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I hope everyone realizes nothing is original. Everything creative derives or is inspired by something else. Now that being said, this is clearly someone directly copying various animation and tried to get away with it saying its original. He easily could have gotten away with it if he said that the shots are inspired by the various sources. The difference is whether you lie about it.

I think there's a clear line between "taking inspiration" and "stealing", though - if you take someone's work and reinterpret it with your tools and through your creative lens from scratch (or at least heavy collaging/sampling), that's taking inspiration, and when you literally trace over someone's animations to save time on production, that's jusy being lazy and uninspired.

 

[DarthDub]

Looks better than the originals.

 

[MiiJack]

"Hey, can I copy your homework?"
"Sure, just make it look different so that it doesn't look like you just copied it"
"Sure thing"
Proceeds to copy from different sources to avoid being detected of plagiarism

 

[Viri]

I can kinda understand if the pay was shit. But he was probably getting a nice pay day for his work, he should have just taken the extra effort, and did the work him self. Copying is never worth the risk, it'll pretty much ruin your career. Well, depending on your career field, at least.

 

[xdarkx]

Should have ran the video in a plagiarism checker first before publishing it.

 

[Paulsar99]

Lol did they really thought that would go unnoticed? This isn't the 90s anymore folks.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

It's a homage!

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[lordelan]

0:21 => SASUKE! *hears Naruto screaming*

 

[iyenal]

What a bad move, but I guess it will get generalized in the following years.

 

[Owenge]

"Oh that's right i've heard the story over and over again"

 

[Subtle Demise]

He was probably on a tight deadline. Not an excuse, but that's the only reason I can think of for an otherwise talented person to resort to tracing or rotoscoping.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Welp, that figures. Good job, Sony! (slow clap)

 

[Veho]

Maybe the animation was meant to be recognized, as a parody/homage? Like this scene:

 

[linuxares]

Damn, I feel bad for Kevin Bao

I don't. I hope he get slammed hard.

 

[HideoKojima]

Oops someone didn't do their due diligence..

 

[lordpsycho]

And what about the Kare Kano ending song all over the video? Is it a homage or a plain simple copy?

Edit: ok the song is old (1973), so it may be fair use....hopefully

 

[x65943]

I don't. I hope he get slammed hard.

Everyone deserves empathy