Mecha Designer DOESN’T WANT TO SEE Your Ideas

Yamashita Ikuto is a manga artist, but he also works in mecha anime as a mecha designer. He’s worked on anime like Evangelion, Kurogane Communication, Blue Submarine No. 6, and Sentou Yousei Yukikaze in this role. Recently, on his Twitter profile, he said that he doesn’t want to see fan works or ideas.

Mecha Designer DOESN’T WANT TO SEE Your Ideas

In a post on May 8, Yamashita Ikuto wrote the following:
“During the Kyoto Animation arson incident, everyone learned a harsh lesson: for professionals in creative industries, people who show up sharing their ideas without being asked are a serious nuisance, regardless of the field. I have no desire to see or read anything that someone randomly decided to post in my replies without me asking. I simply mute and block them.”

It may sound harsh — you’re excited to share your work, and suddenly you realize you’ve been blocked by a professional you admire. But as Yamashita said, these days this is very dangerous, all because of the Kyoto Animation incident.

For those who don’t remember or don’t know: on July 18, 2019, Shinji Aoba went to Kyoto Animation’s Studio 1 in Kyoto and set the building on fire, killing 36 people and injuring 34 others. According to Aoba, Kyoto Animation had plagiarized his novels in anime like Free!, Tsurune, and K-ON!

Aoba had submitted his works to Kyoto Animation, but they never made it past the first review stage and were forgotten. However, Aoba believed the studio had stolen his ideas.

Since this case, many professionals refuse to even look at what fans create — to avoid the risk of something similar happening again. It’s harsh, but that’s the reality. Let’s take a look at some reactions:

“Talented people create and draw their own ideas, so amateur opinions are nothing but ‘noise’.”

“In the end, it’s just fan fiction. These so-called ‘creators’ don’t even realize they’re working on someone else’s turf — and this is the kind of behavior they end up showing.”

“You can only protect yourself from people like this — the ones who ‘speak Japanese but don’t understand Japanese.’ Why does the official staff have to worry about this? It’s infuriating.”

“You could say the Kyoto Animation case was a sudden tragedy caused by misunderstandings, twisted personal relationships, and a lack of communication. Thinking about how to prevent even the rare exceptions that don’t follow the usual pattern is tough. But it’s not like you need to force yourself to create something. You can just talk, ask questions — that’s where it starts.”

“Someone sent an extremely generic idea, completely unsolicited,
then built up a delusional fantasy that it had been used without permission —
and committed that horrifying act.
That’s the reality.
As long as people like that — who push their ideas without being asked — don’t disappear, we’ll keep bringing this up as many times as necessary.”

“When I see creators suddenly getting hit with ‘here’s what I came up with’ messages, totally unprompted, it makes me feel uneasy.
It’s an extremely troubling behavior, but maybe not everyone notices it.
After the Kyoto Animation case, I realized how truly frightening it is.”

“Exactly. It’s like a pushy salesman dropping off a product and then demanding payment for something you didn’t even ask for.”

“I really hope people keep muting and blocking without hesitation.”

via Você Sabia Anime