Toei Animation, the studio behind the anime adaptations of Dragon Ball, One Piece and Sailor Moon, is facing heated criticism from the anime fan community after the company apparently used copyright claims to force the removal of 150 videos by Youtuber Totally Not Mark."My life’s work has been unfairly ripped away from me," Totally Not Mark said in a new video. According to Mark, who has over half-a-million subscribers to his channel, Toei Animation has spent the last few days systemically getting most of his videos blocked from the site through the use of copyright claims. Mark is known for his manga reviews, which often use clips from each series' anime adaptation. All of the videos removed were related to Dragon Ball or One Piece, though some of the videos did not include any clips from the anime, and were simply drawing tutorials. The YouTube says he supports his family and several full-time employees through income generated by his channel.
The reviewer says his videos have followed YouTube's guidelines and several countries' legal provisions for fair use. Unfortunately for Mark, Toei Animation appears to be using far stricter Japanese copyright laws to block his videos. As reported by Kotaku, Japanese copyright laws lack any fair use provisions protecting criticism, so in Japan, rights holders have the legal standing to prevent any of their intellectual property from being used in things such as YouTube videos. While work is underway to revise Japan's copyright system, mostly to help facilitate the re-release of older material, as it stands now, Toei Animation appears to be within its rights.
While Toei Animation may have the law and YouTube on its side, it appears to not have the approval of the anime fan community. Many other anime YouTubers, including Mother's Basement, another anime review channel with over 1 million subcribers, issued a tweet in support of Totally Not Mark and criticized Toei for its heavy handed approach. YouTuber The Anime Man, who boasts over 3 million subscribers on his main channel, also voiced his support for Mark and detailed his own negative interactions with Toei in a video posted to his second channel. "Toei Animation" also trended on Twitter as fans took to social media to discuss the studio's handling of the situation, with the majority of tweets taking the YouTuber's side.
Strangely, Totally Not Mark says he has worked with Toei Animation in the past to promote their releases. In addition to calling attention to Toei Animation's copyright strikes, the reviewer also criticized YouTube's content ID and appeals system. According to The Verge, YouTube recently admitted that the site received over 2.2 million false copyright claims in the span of just six months.
Toei Animation has not responded to Totally Not Mark at this time.