Blog - End of saku saku as we know it

Wondered when you'd post about this. I've been pretty bummed out about since I saw the show on Monday. The 2ch pages have been afire with speculation and many people think that Kuromaku will stay on as the voice of the new character, even though they have said the voice will change. (Maybe use his real voice or a new voice changer) Kaela-chan is contracted through October, so she's definitely going to be on. Calls to tvk have brought back info that the set will not change either, so they'll still be on top of the apartment building. The new character is apparently designed by Banpresto, so there should be no problem with the copyrights this time around.

It's depressing to watch the show this week, seeing how depressed Kaela is and then seeing them do the different segments and thinking "Oh, they won't do this anymore." I don't think I've ever been this sad about a tv show.

Posted by Brad on June 28, 2005 at 23:27

Thanks for all the info!

I haven't been following the show as closely as you may have (I often don't wake up early enough to catch it!, and I don't watch the replay), but I'm definitely saddened by the situation. How such a thing can happen is really beyond me.

Posted by Patrick on June 29, 2005 at 14:55

So what is supposedly going on? A "copyright" problem sounds weird. They are using characters that never belonged to them? Or is it a contract problem?

Posted by ndkent on July 2, 2005 at 00:37

There hasn't been any concrete details given out but if you look at any of the character goods, it says they are copyright mucom, which is owned by tvk, the network, and dice-k, who is the designer who came up with the characters.

Apparently, Dice-k was paid very little (nothing?) for having his characters on the show and as the show and the characters gained in popularity, he continued to recieve very little for their use. That's one thing.

Another thing is the implication that someone in the management at tvk did something inappropriate. On Dice-k's blog, he mentions that tvk was trying to sign contracts for the use of his chracters without his consent or trying to give/sell the rights to the characters without his knowledge.

So basically tvk was trying to shaft Dice-k just as the show was gaining in popularity. So, Dice-k basically told them "Look these are my characters and I'm not going to let you use them anymore" So July 1st was the last day those characters could appear on the show.

On the show, of course, they didn't really make much mention of all of this, except that Zigorow said that he got "caught up in an adult fight" or something like that. But he did yell at the "folks in the meeting rooms".

Anyway, my main concern was that Kuromaku and the other staff might be gone as well, but that's not the case. So I'm not quite as upset as I once was. I'm sure this new character will be as funny as Zigorow was and I'm sure they get a new character for Pepper, but just continue to call him Goikenban.

Zigorow is a great character, but hes not the main reason I watched...

Posted by Brad on July 2, 2005 at 08:14

Thanks for the info Brad! The case is very unclear to me.

I may be completely off, but Dice-K seems to say that the trouble happened while he was away, and he learnt about it like everyone else on the sakusaku Web site. So, reading his post, I'd have doubted he'd have set the date himself.

「ボクが実家に帰っている間に勝手に知らないオヤジに著作権あげるような馬鹿なことは、もうやめて下さいね。」
http://dice-k-express.cocolog-nifty.com/aisaba/2005/06/post_d880.html

Then again I find it strange that he'd start selling new Zigorow T-shirts just after this happened.
http://www.dice-k-express.com/

Anyway it seems the fault is TVK's, and the fact that they don't have a legal dept. Being a rather small local TV station, and saku saku being their first big hit.

I'm looking forward to how things will have changed Monday. Hopefully my interest in the show won't go down. Zigorow said, "it's like getting Ultraman Ace after Ultraman, you should be happy!"

Posted by Patrick on July 2, 2005 at 11:13

So, by the way it's being described, it looks like a contract issue spurred by a liscencing dispute.

If someone gets accurate details this is probably highly interesting to creative professionals who do liscencing deals.

The T shirt thing makes perfect sense, it's merchandise that can be quickly manufactured. He's excercising his right to market mechandise and ought to do so while people still remember the characters

Posted by ndkent on July 4, 2005 at 19:21

I was watching the new 月9ドラマ, スローダンス(Slow Dance)，and noticed a reference to 増田ジゴロ (written as 増田慈五郎).

Here's a screenshot:

http://a-chinaman.com/images/zigoro.png

That must be intentional, right?

Posted by Duncan on July 5, 2005 at 17:58