If you are one of those who doubts about the new series of ‘One piece’ in live action on Netflix by its possible lack of fidelity to the original mangamaybe this article will calm you down: at least the one they adapt is the work of Eichiro Oda and not his Korean plagiarism, whose author justified until the last moment before a judge decided that it was, indeed, a copy. This is the incredible story of ‘Wa Peace’.
Gomu Gomu No Plagiarism
‘Wa Peace’ was born in 2002 by Gaegujang-i Co, a company of three workers from Korea who rose to fame when a year later he dedicated himself to selling merchandising from his series at the gates of a fair to obtain licenses, the Seoul Character Licensing Fair. In this absolutely original series, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, a pirate in a fedora (they specifically indicate it’s not a straw hat) named King Jjangpi, he ate the “muscle muscle fruit”, which allows him to, well, muscle his arms and legs. He is the leader of the Turtle Ship gang and, of course, the king of pirates. Nothing weird here.
From here, the rest of the Straw Hat plagiarisms are each more hilarious. Ayumi, a CIA-trained sniper with shark eyes; Jollyeo, a twenty-year-old swordsman with the head of Krillin (from ‘Dragon ball’) and a wooden sword; Kkaesyopp, who is Usopp without the long nose and in the Zoro suit in the first stage of the series; Syangtae, a cook dressed as Bruce Lee who practices kung-fu and chews gum (although the DVD also indicates that he smokes); Choy, who is basically Vivi; and Naughty Jackie, a kind of Chopper who is actually a plagiarism of the character from the board game ‘Jump Pirate!’. To see and not believe.
The first enemy they meet, to make matters worse, He’s a clown pirate who, well, his name is Beotigi but he’s just Buggy. Of course it has some original character, like Alfredo and Sebastian, who play the same role Fullbody and Jango did in the original series but with the faces of the two hosts of the Korean show ‘Gag Concert’. In fact, when ‘Wa Peace’ was denounced for plagiarism, these two characters were presented as proof of its originality. But things get worse.
devil fruits
Let’s see if you can find the subtle differences between ‘One piece’ and ‘Wa peace’: in this series, the rumor of a treasure called ‘Wa’, the interior of which was unknown to all (rumored to be a gift from god or demon soul) made the king cast an expedition made up of twelve members, who faced the most dangerous journey in history. But little by little, the adventurers stopped reporting their progress, and the idea of sending an expedition to save the expedition faded in time.
But a member of the trip survived and, hearing of the misadventures that happened, The king decided to lock him up and break the map into three pieces, hiding each one in a place far from human reach., prohibiting the speaking of ‘Wa’. However, the exiled warrior escaped, everyone knew about the treasure and went looking for it. And now, many young pirates risk their lives to go to the unknown world in search of adventure and of ‘wa’. Come on, the same but with an unnecessarily long story.
Before a judge prohibited its existence, ‘Wa Peace’ came to launch a card game and a water gun, although it intended to get much more merchandising. After all, the three available episodes are just utterly indecent Flash animations in which there isn’t even any dialogue: it appears below the characters written, and that’s more than enough. In the episodes that were not made, yes, the authors intended to develop an original character (the only one) “to represent Korea”.
Obviously, Gaejugang-i was confronted with obvious plagiarism of designs and ideas, and in an interview with Ddanzi Daily’s interview, the creator laid out the key points of his defense: “If 10% of the drawing is different, then it is different. Does Luffy’s arm stretch? Ours is muscular. Luffy has a straw hat. Ours, a fedora. And the new one is the King of the Pirates: that’s his name.” Surprise you or not, It took three trials for ‘Wa Peace’ to be withdrawn.
Stretch, stretch… Judgment!
Until that interview, Gaejugang-i was going to get away with it, but it was impossible to miss it after, when asked “Doesn’t Chanson look like Shanks?” similar.Think about it. Shanks lost one arm, and our character lost both. How is this plagiarism?“. The copyright holders of ‘One piece’ in Korea, Daewon, faced with such impudence, They were forced to sue them.
And it was not the only pearl of the interview in question. For example “Everyone who knows anything about art would say that it is a different job. It’s only those crazy people who like ‘One piece’ who insist that they look alike, but if you know a little about drawing, you couldn’t say that. Plagiarism? If that’s the case, I’m sure that I can legally sue everyone who says it. And if they want to sue, the original author has to step forward, but is that even possible?”
It was. During the trial, Gaejugang-i raved, “‘One Piece’ copied us. If there was no ‘One piece’, ‘Wa peace’ would win. To be honest, many others copied ‘Pokémon’, so why bother with our company? This is defamation”. It took three lawsuits for them to finally lose and ‘Wa peace’ to remain an anecdote on the sidelines of the most popular manga of the decade. It’s not that there haven’t been more plagiarisms of ‘One Piece’, but at least They haven’t puffed up about it. ‘Wa Peace’, we knew you little. Fortunately.