Latest Developments and Outlook

Latest Developments





At the time Anime News Network reported the feud between the two creators (witch I got most of the information in my last post), a toy manufacturer Saitama Prefecture (based in Misato City) sued two Tokyo Companies that manging the manga's rights. The manufacturer stated that the two companies commission new Candy Candy jigsaw puzzles without Mizuki's permission putting them in danger of Mizuki could pull out of production and sales at anytime. Saitama arguing that they were unable to sell the puzzles, sued for 11 million yen to make up for the massive overstock and lost profit.


In September 10, 2003 the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of the toy company forcing the two others to pay over 7.8 million yen. The Candy Candy puzzles remain of the shelves in Japan, hitting the customers with another roadblock between themselves and the merchandise.



Outlook



It's seen that the ongoing legal battles are preventing any revival of the franchise. Although when ANN (Anime News Network) reported the article about it, a recent decision from the Supreme Court confirmed that Kyoto Mizuki is the author of the original novel suggested that she can publish it without Yumiko Igarashi's permission and possesses the authority to give any illustrator permission to draw new manga, and Toei Animation is free to produce new anime.

In 1992, Kodansha gave Mizuki a chance to remake the manga and Toei commissioned her to write the scripts several years before that, nothing was tangible in those two offers. In one of her post's in her Little Window BBS website she stated on Wednesday June 5, 2002 " I have a vague plan for the future...The foundation of the story is nearly complete, some editors have shows deep interests in the plan...The only anxiety was the course of the lawsuit, but now I've made up my mind to proceed without restraint..."

16 months later there no visible progress is of it, and it's series commercial value and complexity of the issues prevent any merchandises to hit shelves in the near future. Candy Candy has also have a history of having a difficult managing in licensing, but still fans (old and new) find ways to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Around the same time ANN did this article, a fansite "Candy Candy Reborn" maintain by ITOMARU (a.k.a Vic Isono), post that same fan message in detail translated by Cotton Candy (if anyone knows her real name please e-mail.me) on Sunday April 28, 2002. You can read the entire message through this link. http://sekichiku.freehosting.net/cc/message01.htm.

Popluarly and the Copyright Infringement Nightmare

Following in the years of the Manga serialization and the broadcast of the Anime, Candy Candy became the most popular series of it's time. In fact, the reason of this is not because of it's historical setting, but the first in the slice of life genre that rivals other titles of this type like Air, Kanon, Clannad, Strawberry Marshmallow and Doki Doki School Hours to this day. The series has been translated into several languages internationally in the early and mid 1980's, in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin Amercia.


However, in the late 1998, Igarashi filed lawsuit against Mizuki for exclusive for the series(even though Yumiko did merchandising without Mizuki and Toei Animation's approval). During the court battle Mizuki stated that she is the primary owner of the entire series, but Igarashi argued back that she said she didn't need Mizuki permission to sell merchandise of Candy Candy.
In Feburary 1999, The Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Kyoto Mizuki of two precedents,
they both shared equal copyrights and Igarashi must obtain Mizuki permission when using Candy Candy. The case was settled in Tokyo High Court and Supreme Court of Japan in March 2000 and October 2001.
One year after the case was settled Igarashi sued Toei Animation for copyright of the TV series. To avoid cultivating mistrust other Mangaka and the continued circulation of the now-"illegal" Candy Candy material, Toei freeze broadcast of the series.
In the final stages of the conflict Kyoto Mizuki won another lawsuit against Yumiko Igarashi and the five companies that merchandise the series, and on May 30th Judge Mimura Ryoichi rewarded 29,500,000 yen for fixing 3% of the franchise.


Next I'll be covering the series reestablishment, my response and what can you do to help revive this series.