Toei Animation copyright strikes Uncle Roger over One Piece anime infringement

Comedian and YouTuber Nigel Ng Kin-ju, also known as Uncle Roger, has been accused of violating the copyright to the One Piece anime. The news broke earlier this week when Uncle Roger used a One Piece cooking scene for his content and reviewed it, and soon, Toei Animation copyrighted Uncle Roger over One Piece anime infringement, much to his surprise.

It is not surprising given that Toei Animation occasionally makes copyright claims regarding One Piece against YouTube creators. In the past, in late 2021, Toei Animations issued Mark Fitzpatrick of the Totally Not Mark review channel more than 150 copyright claims. However, this time, it is the well-known YouTuber Uncle Roger, who reviews Asian food recipes with an accent resembling Cantonese while adopting the persona of a middle-aged Asian man.

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Uncle Roger reviewed the cooking scene from One Piece episode 133

On August 27, 2023, earlier this past week, Uncle Roger published a video on his official YouTube channel. As Uncle Roger occasionally reviews Asian food recipes, he decided to review a dish from the One Piece anime this time.

In his video, Uncle Roger took a cooking scene from One Piece episode 133, titled Inherited Recipe Sanji the Curry Iron Chef. The episode is one of the earliest and depicts Straw Hat Pirates running into several Marine Ships in the fog. Not only that, but the Straw Hat Pirates also encounter Tajio, a trainee Marine chef.

As the episode progresses, Taijo crashes with Straw Hats because of unforeseen circumstances and tells them that recently, he was carrying a pot of soup when he tripped over a broom and spilt it. However, as he apologized to the chef, the chef told him to make another one if he really meant it. Taijo complied as a result but struggled to make it. Following this, Sanji helped Taijo in the episode, bailed him out of a cooking jam, and enabled him to successfully make the curry.

Now, as Uncle Roger reviewed the cooking scene, the scene in the anime is presented in a very authentic and detailed way. Uncle Roger, on the other hand, did not get left behind either and did a great job of illustrating his points while making jokes. Furthermore, Uncle Roger made numerous in-between compliments about the cooking scene, and in the end, after reviewing the scene, he commented that the One Piece people knew how to cook.

All of this, however, was for naught, as it did not prevent Toei Animation from copyright-striking Uncle Roger for using One Piece anime footage in the video. As a result, Uncle Roger now has to remove the video from his channel soon to prevent a permanent strike against his channel.

As this happened, Uncle Roger immediately commented on the video that he had been copyrighted and claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that the video was under fair use. Unfortunately, in Japan, there is no general fair use. The video will nonetheless be taken down eventually, despite this. However, many of his followers are happy with the content and have also commented on the video, praising him for putting in the effort to create it.

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In summation

Toei Animation copyright strike Uncle Roger over One Piece anime infringement (Image via Toei Animation)

In conclusion, it can be said that Toei's copyright claim won't just have an impact on Uncle Roger's video's availability in Japan but also around the world since the video is reportedly scheduled for removal worldwide. However, in the coming days, it will become clear whether the video will be taken down entirely or just in Japan.

Leaving that aside, choosing anime videos for a content video or creating content is a challenging task. The reason is that, unlike other nations, Japan's copyright law does not include a general fair use provision, forcing creators to make extremely exhaustive decisions about what to choose and what not to choose. Consequently, the task becomes more challenging.

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Stay tuned for more anime and manga updates as 2023 progresses.