Jonathan Weeks has asked me to reply to or comment on Andy Frain's press release printed in the last issue.
For some time prior to the issue of this release it had been impossible for me to contact Andy Frain or any member of Manga Entertainment Limited (MEL)'s staff. MEL had instructed their PR agents, Partridge and Storey, not to supply any more review copies, information, transparencies or other material to me or ANIME UK MAGAZINE, and letters and phonecalls from me and my staff were not returned. However, after the Internet exchange I did succeed in talking to Andy and he put his point of view on the matter very forcefully.
I must point out, since Andy has already implied that he is considering legal action for defamation against me and ANIME UK and I want to avoid that if possible, that everything in this article is my own personal opinion unless otherwise stated. Where anything is not my own personal opinion I have been given the information in good faith and have no reason to believe anything but the honest opinion of the other party, and I include it purely for the purposes of clarification.
I should also point out that every public comment I have made on any aspect of the MANGA trademark matter in any format has been in response to a direct enquiry or request from a third party (e.g. participants on Internet and Japanese newspapers). I have never sought to promote negative feeling about or do harm to MANGA VIDEO or MEL. It is my belief that unblinkered and independent discussion about the products and actions of companies in a free market can only serve the best interests of all concerned, and in particular of the consumer, who is left to rely on the less broadly based sources of press releases and advertising alone in the absence of such comment.
Since this matter arose, I have been informed by the editor of MANGA MANIA, Cefn Ridout, that my services are no longer required by that magazine, and by the editor of SUPER PLAY that he has been asked by MEL to replace me with another writer suggested by them. SUPER PLAY have declined to do so because my editor tells me he is happy with my work and does not feel I display an unfair bias of lack of balance in my writing. I have also been informed that another source of work is now closed to me because of the company's links with MEL. Readers will understand, therefore, that I now feel somewhat less than entirely detached about this matter, and will doubtless make their own judgements on any unfairness of bias which I am said to display. Let me therefore make a few comments in relation to the MEL press release printed in ANIMEJIN's last issue.
Firstly, in relation to the attempt to trademark the word MANGA, it is the view of the officer handling this matter at the Patent Office Trade Marks Registry that the application filed on behalf of MANGA ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED includes both their unique logo and name and its component parts. He states that this means that the application covers the word MANGA alone, not merely in Roman letters but also in kanji. He also informs me that this would restrict the use of the word by any other party in any format covered by the classes in which the mark has been applied for.
This means, in my view, that MANGA ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED would control the use of the word MANGA in relation to most of the products of interest to anime and manga fans, and that no other company of individual would be able to use the word without licensing it from MEL. This obviously creates a situation in which MEL control use of the word and. therefore, the trade of any other company of individual seeking to use it.
Whether or not Coca-Cola, or any other party in possession of a trademark, chooses to take legal action against anyone infringing their mark, is irrelevant to the fact that they have a right to so do. Of rather more relevance in this particular case if the fact that Coca-Cola was a previously non-existent name created specifically for one product by the company which created that product. MANGA in its Japanese meaning of comics, and in its usage relating to an influence on and sometimes source for anime, is a long-established word in the Japanese language which has been known and used widely in this context in a number of countries outside its original home, in Europe and the Americas, as well as Australasia, for years before MEL began to use it in 1992. Many fans, publishers and even trade mark agents from all over the world have, I understand, submitted evidence of this widespread prior usage to the Patent Office Trade Marks Registry.
My opinions on MEL's intentions in the industry remain as I have stated them and neither Andy Frain's comments in the press release nor our telephone conversation have clarified or changed anything for me. For instance, I completely fail to perceive the real difference between buying MANGA MANIA and acquiring certain of the DARK HORSE UK titles including MANGA MANIA; perhaps this indicates naivety and lack of grasp of business realities. (Those who feel that MANGA MANIA is an independent and unbiased source of information with no trace of outside influence in its editorial policy will, no doubt, continue in this opinion for as long as the published evidence supports it.)
On the subject of MEL's advertising and promotional methods and my opinion that these are largely responsible for the perception in the British tabloid press and public that anime and manga are violent and sexually exploitative, my opinion is also unchanged. I offered no insult to artists and writers like Otomo Katsuhiro, Terasawa Buichi and others, nor did I intend any, by believing that MEL have created a negative impression of the whole anime and manga field. It is entirely proper that writers and artists such as these - whose work often considers the subjects of violence and sexual exploitation - should be available to the young adult audience for which they are created, and it is also proper that the work should be distributed and sold in the UK in accordance with our laws. (There are many differing views on what level of censorship is proper in a free society, but I trust that we all agree that adherence to the laws protecting minors from exposure to material considered unsuitable for them is mandatory on us all).
In my opinion, however, reference to such MEL promotional and publicity material as the back cover notes to their recent release of TOKYO BABYLON indicates their attitudes and intentions in these matters.
While on the subject of promotion and advertising, in the interests of balance I should say that Andy Frain told me over the telephone that, contrary to my recollections and those of a number of other people in the audience at AUKcon, a member of his staff did not answer David Row's question as to why FIRE TRIPPER was treated in a way that the questioner felt to be exploitative and inappropriate by saying "Because it sells videos", and that all questions on such matters of company policy should be directed to him and not to his executives, who are not authorised to comment on company policy. He also told me that the Japanese companies with which MEL deals fully approve all their advertising copy and promotional material.
Andy Frain has implied in his press release that my actions in this matter are at least partly motivated by the prospect of personal/business gain. It is no secret that I have business interest in anime and manga and that I would very much like them to continue and expand. (Whether this will be possible, having incurred the active enmity of an important company with a great deal of money and a big advertising budget, is open to question). I am content, however, for those fans and business associates who know me to judge what they know, and hope those who do not know me will take the trouble to consider both sides of this matter.
Both as a fan in the early days, when I met with Andy Frain and his staff and gave them whatever small assistance I could, and as a writer and editor, I have always acknowledged MEL's importance in the UK market (see, among other writings and speeches, my book ANIME! A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO JAPANESE ANIMATION, pub. Titan Books). I have also frequently defended aspects of the company's policy where I thought they were being unfairly criticized, and have neither hesitated to praise their products myself where I felt praise was merited, nor failed to print praise from reviewers and readers in ANIME UK MAGAZINE. Whatever the behaviour of MEL towards me and AUK I shall do my utmost to continue this attitude.
Personal vendettas are puerile and destructive and I have no wish to enter into one. My own survival as a writer and magazine editor may well be compromised by opposition to the market leader and largest advertiser in the field. However, when in my opinion the actions and policies of any anime or manga company merit criticism and affect so many important issues, I feel it is my right and also, in all honesty, my duty to criticise.