unpopular opinion: kenji yammoto should have never got fired

[GhostEmperorX]

The basic impression I’m getting is that that entertainment industries in Japan seem to have rather skewed priorities (from a Western perspective) when it comes to what is considered an unforgivable/fireable offense. If an artist has abhorrent views or commits a serious sex crime, it will often be brushed off as a personal matter that’s no one else’s business, since Japan is a country that places a lot of emphasis on privacy, even when it comes to celebrities. Meanwhile, Japan has a very strict stance on copyright laws, and if an artist infringes on that, then God have mercy on them.

If I’m oversimplifying things then feel free to correct me. That’s just what I’ve gathered from all this.

You can add drugs to that list of strict stances, musicians in particular seem to get struck especially hard by it.

As far as another plagiarism-related instance, the classic MGS theme which was compared to a composition by Sviridov was similarly rendered unusable once the allegations reached Konami (and Kojima). So I guess that's sort of getting close to the Yamamoto treatment although no one was fired for it.

[MasenkoHA]

The basic impression I’m getting is that that entertainment industries in Japan seem to have rather skewed priorities (from a Western perspective) when it comes to what is considered an unforgivable/fireable offense. If an artist has abhorrent views or commits a serious sex crime, it will often be brushed off as a personal matter that’s no one else’s business, since Japan is a country that places a lot of emphasis on privacy, even when it comes to celebrities. Meanwhile, Japan has a very strict stance on copyright laws, and if an artist infringes on that, then God have mercy on them.

If I’m oversimplifying things then feel free to correct me. That’s just what I’ve gathered from all this.

I'm not entirely convinced Toei cared (surely someone at Toei noticed some of the tracks were lifted from Avatar?) until it started getting attention and then they cut ties with Yamamoto and junked his score before the lawsuits came in

[Hellspawn28]

Plagiarism is a serious crime because you are making money off of something that you never made. James Sometron is a good example of it because he was making money of other people's work and promoting lies along with it. Kenji Yammoto can no longer be taken seriously as an artist because people can't trust if he actually made it himself or not. I can see why no one wants to work with him anymore.

[GhostEmperorX]

But as soon as he started copying music from MAJOR American films like Avatar and Terminator... his goose was cooked.

BTW, as it turns out, Kai wasn't even the first time he'd traced Terminator films.

(1992) Hit Song Collection 10, Track 07 - SUITE: Virtual Triangle - (1991) Terminator 2 Theme

And the latter half of that same track where it changes time signature and goes one semitone lower has the exact same rhythm as the Axel F melody.

[JulieYBM]

Corporation steals from artist, artist steals from artist, corporation steals from artist stealing from artist. At the end of the day, corporations that don't do any work steal from artists.

It's just so funny lol

[M16U3L2015]

I have always wondered if Yamamoto ever plagiarized a Japanese artist, since I only know examples of Western artists.

[GhostEmperorX]

if Yamamoto ever plagiarized a Japanese artist

You bet he has, and what's more is it's composers in the same field.
Kenji Kawai, Yoko Kanno (of all people), and Kotaro Nakagawa spring to mind.
Also plagiarized the guy who composed a character song by Show Hayami (from Bronze Zetsuai).
And there was even one example copied from Koji Kondo's LoZ work, plus the German Team Theme from Captain Tsubasa (no idea who composed that one).