A while ago, Clannad_Man started a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of making a Key-related documentary. Read the 2 links below for the full story.
To sum it up, people became suspicious of the Kickstarter campaign when Clannad_Man had achieved almost 50% of his monetary goal. Someone went and posted on the President of Key/Visual Art’s Twitter, asking his opinion, and at that point, Clannad_Man suspended the Kickstarter campaign.
Upon closer inspection, their suspicions were not unfounded. We did not take a good look at his campaign at the time. We should have, especially as he was throwing our name around with it. We decided to start an internal investigation to clear up what happened. Here are some of our conclusions:
- It is against the ToS of KS to offer the rewards that were being offered, rewards must come from the project itself.
- Clannad_Man needs to provide more details about the budget and itinerary of the trip to prove it’s not a scam, even if they are preliminary.
- The way the project sold itself, there was definitely potential for people to misunderstand that key endorsed this work, when they did not.
- The company that Clannad_Man was going to use has not yet been formed, was going to be incorporated by him, and would have employed 2 professional videographers. Clannad_Man notes the company itself would not take any money, and they would be passed through the professional videographers. The omission of this information is unacceptable, no matter what the intentions were.
We also don’t want to take credit for, or have anyone else take credit for work people have done. We believe that ‘lead three projects’ is a significant misrepresentation of what he worked on. This has affected both him and us.
Clannad_Man in his time with Doki has done some good work with us. That, however, does not excuse any of the issues at hand.
We want to clarify what Clannad_Man worked on at Doki.
- Tomoyo After – Clannad_Man organized and ran the team that constituted Doki’s contribution to the project. (This project was picked up from Baka-Tsuki.)
- Clannad – Clannad_Man and the Doki team worked with Polarem on Clannad for about two months prior to him retiring. Polarem is also retired at this point. The project is right now in my hands. (This project was picked up from Baka-Tsuki)
- Little Busters – Clannad_Man helped set up and plan our collaboration, and was the liaison between Doki and Fluffy. I had taken over the VN department by the time it was finalized, though he continued to act as a liaison.
Clannad_Man retired from active Doki operations about a year ago now.
This kickstarter initiative was Clannad_Man’s, not Doki’s. We did not review his kickstarter before it was posted. After it was posted, we should have clarified sooner what exactly Clannad_Man worked on at Doki so there would be no misunderstandings. Our failure to do so is on us. We allowed him to use our name, and allowed him to tarnish the names of others with it. We should have investigated sooner. We will not tolerate our name being used in this manner again.
With that said:
- For LB, we continue to collaborate with Fluffy, providing translation support. Phlebas and Rive were and continue to be our main points of contact with Fluffy.
For Clannad, we want to make sure we still have permission to build upon the work done by Velocity7, Baka-Tsuki and the other major contributors. If not, we will turn our changes over back to BT, and they can resume the project from there. We will then decide if we want to proceed from scratch or not.- For Clannad, after a discussion with Velocity7, we will continue our work on the Baka-Tsuki base.
Finally, I’ve attached IRC chat logs below where you can find the contents of our internal investigation. As the current head of Doki’s VN department, I spoke with Clannad_Man directly to figure out what was going on. To be honest, I’m not sure what to believe myself at this time. Either way, the misrepresentations are unacceptable. You are free to draw your own conclusions from what was said.
Edit: To be absolutely clear on the VN projects: Doki has not released a patch for Little Busters or Clannad, and thus should not be credited for those releases until we do.
Also, investigation chat log link replaced. only changes were made for readability: removed timestamps and was spell checked.
Wednesday 30th October 2013 
7:41 PM 
*insert drama here*
He’s coming off as way overzealous. CM needs a reality check: get a life and stop creeping out KEY. Fucking Weaboo.
Some people need to stop making so much drama over some things and be obnoxious bitches. Some people acting on their own cancelling partnerships prove how much epeen is important for them on the internet. That’s so despicable.
Please note that this comment is purely personal and doesn’t reflect the opinion of Doki Co.
It seems that as soon as you add money to the equation things start getting complicated fast.
Pretty much.
+1
while i don´t think he has evil intentions, i have to say he honestly fucked this up a lot.
i hope for both him and the fans who supported the project that the whole incident will be cleared up soon
I think he really did want to do something good, he just went about it wrong.
And this been the internet people have to make drama out of it and make blog posts to be “cool”. Heaven forbid their epeen not be big enough to flail around.
Shit happens.
People only started digging after he had raised the 10k. Funny how they didn’t say anything before? Basically people got jealous after all that money was raised and stumbled on a suspicious set of circumstances.
Ahahaha, no. I and several others were suspicious of him the minute we read him claiming to be a “Key expert” and the “leader of three Key localization projects” and that he was doing everything for the sake of the “Key Kazoku”.
That was long before any money was involved.
Stop trying to defend a blatant scam artist.
I’d just like to point out that while it’s true that his claims of being the leader of three Key localization projects is problematic (as are all the other things mentioned in this post) and not really true, it is a fact that he is a Key expert. Extremely so. Both his knowledge about KEY, and his collection of (also many rare) KEY goods, is on a different level from most people. Most of us who have been hanging around here at Doki for a long time, and are interested in VN’s, know this. He has shown a LOT of proof of this. Outsiders would not be aware of this though, of course, so it is understandable that they would be sceptical.
As for him doing everything for the sake of the KEY Kazoku…I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that that really was his motivation, and that he just lacked the knowledge to conduct this project in a goood and correct way. My reasoning for this of course is from having seen his unequaled passion for KEY constantly at work here at Doki and Key15th over the years. There is of course the possibility that I could be wrong though (though I refuse to believe it)…
Okay, but you realize that expertise about a given company does not alone qualify you to run a Kickstarter, right?
Also, it’s not really an issue whether he’s “The Key Authority” or not, the issue is that he’s misrepresenting himself as something far bigger than he actually is.
That’s what makes him look like a scam artist.
The Key Authority etc stuff clearly has come from years of him being a huge fan of Key stuff and him being acknowledged as a Key expert on here. While I’m sure he should of left that out of his Kickstarter to avoid any misunderstandings, I don’t think he meant anything malicious by adding it.
Personally I’ve seen him show his knowledge of Key stuff a fair bit on here over the years. Though I don’t use IRC or anything so I don’t know much about his work on the Doki VN stuff beyond what he posted on here.
See. It’s not like he’s a well-known member of the English-speaking VN fando or anything; he’s more famous now than ever before, I guarantee you that.
That’s why it’s misrepresentation.
@Kaisos
“Also, it’s not really an issue whether he’s “The Key Authority” or not, the issue is that he’s misrepresenting himself as something far bigger than he actually is. That’s what makes him look like a scam artist.”
Yes, I agree with you there.
I won’t win any supporters here, but it’s silly to assume those damn bloggers which include myself are conspiring against Clannad Man. And let these accusations go unquestioned.
We already knew the Kickstarter since October 15. We’ve been reporting it since October 15. The problem is Kickstarter didn’t reply and it was the misogynist guide all over again. We thought the Kickstarter was going to be canceled before anything happened.
And then, Clannad Man tweeted to vava. And that’s when participation rates escalated.
But if you believe we are part of the Illuminati, I guess you can say so. I heard they give out free manicures there so it’d be nice if they recognize me as one despite not being part of the group. Free things are good.
Holo- I don’t think it’s so much about jealousy as that it does honestly take time for these things to get around. It started on Facebook, but the people who actually looked into it were from Twitter/IRC who hadn’t found out about it until that night- myself included. Many of us don’t use facebook or use it sparingly. Hope that helps clarify things a bit.
Sorry to hear that this has happened. He didn’t seem like a bad guy, and I have nothing against him personally, he has clearly messed up and admitted it on the chat log, I think at most an open apology post on here from him would go a long way to those who want.
Well…this whole thing is rather unfortunate, but oh well…Clannad Man had only the best intentions, I’m sure. He just didn’t do enough research or thought things through well enough before he made his move. On the bright side (if you can look at it like that), if KEY didn’t know their VN’s were popular outside of Japan before, they definitely know now, what with it having caught the attention of the VA President and all…Anyway, hang in there Clannad man, I know you meant well, and you’ve done a lot of good things for the KEY community. : )
Well said, his idea was good and while he might not of been perfect it would of been great to see the end result from it but ah well. None of the regulars here would ever hate him for this anyway 🙂
He’s done a good job here and that’s respectable.
Vava only took notice of it because fuji_fruit tweeted it at him. Had that not happened it would never have drawn his attention.
Visual Arts does not care about international fans; the Siglus Engine has a gaijin block, they do not want you playing or buying their games if you don’t live in Japan.
Yeah, because a company doesn’t like when its products sell and they can get money from it…
┐(￣ー￣)┌
Not that it matters, Key games are shit.
Tanuki Soft make much better games.
Sakura Anna ftw.
I couldn’t agree more! Misaki from Tonari no Puu-san is so hot.
Not to mention Saya is also hot!
Quit editing my posts ixlone! ಠ_ಠ
No, actually, while it may seem odd and hard to believe, I’ve heard a lot about this before as well…Kaisos may be (semi) right…But, well, let’s hope/assume that KEY and/or Visual Arts doesn’t hate us westerners until we know for sure…
IIRC when Vava was asked about Rewrite sales outside Japan he was all “Japan sales only.”
Not only do Key games blow, they also don’t want you playing them.
Well, perhaps they don’t like us. ┐(￣_￣)┌ Their games are still AMAZING though (and a huge contingent of VN fans know it). Couldn’t disagree more with you there.
They don’t -hate- you, they just don’t -care- about you.
They don’t want international attention drawn to themselves, the only previous results of that have been censorship scares.
Noted. I discovered this (the fuji_fruit tweet and subsequent discovery thing) after I made that post (after reading various blogs and chat logs). So I guess it’s possible that this might actually have put western fans in a bad light instead…Let’s hope not…If things are just explained properly it’ll be alright I think, and Key15th at least is still a good initiative for showing support to KEY.
so my big question is, what happens to the over $10k he raised? cause I have yet to see anywhere that he says anything about it.
I imagine KS will refund it, I doubt they released any of it yet.
With Kickstarter if the project isn’t funded to completion, the backers don’t get charged. Thus no money is received.
From how I understand it, when you pledge you agree to give the money when the goal has been reached aka when the time runs out. At this point they charge your bank account.
Because he cancelled the project, none of the original pledges will be honoured and thus no one will be charged.
From what I understand, KS does not collect any money until after the final date of the drive.
EDIT: What Rawr said ^
well that was rather heavy, I hope everything turns out well.
This is rather troubling to hear. All that’s left now is to wait for it all to blow over. While Clannad Man may have had the best intentions, his methods were clearly erroneous and his credibility suffered a bit. Though I think that the association of the KS project with Doki Fansubs was the worst outcome of this. As all internet hype goes, this will pass quickly. Posting this disclaimer blog was definitely a good choice, for Doki at least; and it goes to show since Baka-Tsuki reversed their decision to take Doki off of the current members for the Clannad project.
Does this mean we can remove the obnoxiously large graphic from the sidebar now?
Good on Doki for doing a proper investigation and telling this guy what for. While it took a little while, it is understandable since apparently CM was with the group for a while and there are probably a lot of people who wanted to believe he had good intentions. It is unfortunate though because this really has tarnished Doki’s image among the VN community. I will update my own blog post (http://kortir.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/omissions-misleading-and-outright-lies/) with a link to this update as well.
Now really… What kind of VN community are we talking about? The random people who just search for an english patch to play their VNs? I doubt they care who translated it. They only care that it is translated at all!
Or are you talking about the VN translation groups? First of all most of the groups care rather for delivering high quality translations than internet drama. You see that in BT’s reaction by putting the work with Doki on hold, waiting for us to sort things out and then just resume working with us. Second point is that no good group cares for their image. The image is forming itself by staying polite and acting respectful. Doki does that.
Lastly, I doubt that Doki is very famous for its VN Department, simply due to it not being around that long. We shouldn’t have that much impact on that many VN translating groups. As long as things are sorted out with the groups we are working with everything should be all right.
So please tell me again how Doki’s image is tarnished…
PS: Just to clarify, I am only a peon in Doki. I QCed a low amount of lines for Tomoyo After, but apart from that I am not involved with the VN Department at all. You could say that my opinions are those of an uninvolved individual.
@So please tell me again how Doki’s image is tarnished…
I actually don’t think it has. It’s not as if anyone has come out in support of Clannad Mans actions on Kickstarter, most people here don’t believe he did it in bad faith, certainly it is clear that he hasn’t been entirely honest with people, but many people who know him will give him the benefit of the doubt here.
“-and there are probably a lot of people who wanted to believe he had good intentions.”
And there are probably many people that still do. I know I do.
I agree, I don’t think he’s a scammer either. And I don’t think there’s any evidence to prove bad faith on his part either.
He mad a mistake, mistakes happen, no one was hurt by it, no one lost any money, stuff happens. If people can’t get over it, they should perhaps consider taking a break from the internet as they’re clearly taking it too seriously.
He’ll always be welcome on here.
…This is just stupid in so many ways.
I’m in two minds about this. After reading his posts, he definitely doesn’t sound malicious or anything (and he’s been helpful within the community before), but he has to realize that using kickstarter is essentially a business venture (I know technically it doesn’t fall under than in terms of KS ToS if you really want to get into the legality of it, but fact remains you have to be completely transparent when doing these types of things as you’re being given a wad of cash). Even with the best intentions, if you don’t give out all of the information to your backers explicitly and truthfully beforehand, this type of stuff can blow up in your face (and using buzzwords/prhases like ‘leading key projects’ or ‘key expert’ are pretty misleading, and won’t do yourself any favours).
It’s a shame that he didn’t do his homework, so he ended up screwing not only his position in the community, but also doki’s. The controversy should move on fairly quickly, as it does with these types of things, but it really shouldn’t have ever happened; really, it’s just a complete mess.
On another note, I do hope CM learns from this and comes back to the community, since he has been helpful in the past. Whether or not he should try something like this again, though, is another story.
+1
He was clearly unprepared to handle a project like this and it backfired in the worst (or best, if you like drama) possible way. Things haven’t died down because he failed in several really amateurish ways, which gives people plenty of material to laugh at (myself included, I admit). Personally I was in disbelief that a person could create such a large and obvious scam without even realizing he did it. But yeah, this won’t end until people get tired of talking about it, and even then it’ll be brought up as a fond(?) memory once in a while.
I don’t care what CM does with translation projects after this, as long as he loses that ego and lays low for a while.
Just glad to have the clarification as to not have Doki associated with something bad. That said, in regards to CM, I suppose it is a wait-and-see from here on. Considering the past contributions, maybe he will come back and be involved, after learning a good lesson here.
I’m just away for a bit, and this shit happens? omg
If you weren’t away, this wouldn’t have happened! D:
Must be because your stinx aura, Zdm321
Try again Clannad_Man once you’ve better prepared and after your stalkers have gone back to their caves.
I just watched a presentation over at YouTube and it was good when he talked. Clear and conscience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK-fkYc9tWA
It’s really too bad some bloggers created suspicion and ruined his reputation. It’s very obvious from watching his Youtube channel he was passionate and knowledgeable about Key. Plus, he was a good presenter and was putting his real name on his work. I think like probably any of us, was just an amateur with setting up a business venture. That shouldn’t mean he should have his name tarnished. Now he probably won’t get another chance. He may not even want to try again after this. I feel bad for him honestly but sometimes a few small mistakes are all it takes to ruin a project.
I suppose on the brightside, at least on the communities that he has contributed too like this one, his reputation is still intact lol.
Lifes too short to be bothered what people you don’t know think of you. I doubt he’ll lose sleep over some bloggers opinions.
Well, this seems as good a place as any to ask this, so here goes.
I’m a little confused as to what doki did/does for the VN comunnity. Like, I know that, for example, they are working on clannad, but when I look on fuwanovel it seems that it has already been TLd. Same goes for Tomoyo After and LB. (Though for LB it must be the ME/EX versions you’re woring on) So what would there be left to do?
Also OT, I really do beleive that CM had the best of intentions. That being said, with the sheer amount of (in my opinion) easily clarifiable and avoidable mistakes, it comes off as at the very least rushed together last minute. Whitch is somewhat understandable (but in no way justifies his mistakes) seeing as he was planning on filming in januari, a seemingly impossible (and therefor reckless) date to aim for.
I think Tomoyo After is completed by Doki. Clannad is actually incomplete and needs polishing.
Also, they’ll be working on tomoyo after ME edition, which removes all the H-scenes and adds story content in. And, yes, as raptuz mentioned, Clannad, although readable, needs some cleanup work in the translation and editing since some areas of it are pretty shoddy at the moment.
Tomoyo After was mostly, but not completely translated. We had to TL a bunch of scenes (about 5-10% I think), and TLCed, edited and QCed every single scene. Some scenes required less TLC/editing/QC, some more. I picked a scene at random, and created a diff below from the most recent Baka-Tsuki revision (left) and our latest script (right).
(SPOILER WARNING: reading any of these diffs will of course contain spoilers.)
http://www.diffchecker.com/vfi0ticp
My understanding is that the D&T mini was almost untouched, we did a lot of the work on that.
We are doing the same for Clannad that we did for Tomoyo After. Clannad was in a much more complete state than TA was when we started on it, but there are still areas (especially in the later parts of the game, typically toward the end of routes, in less popular side-routes, and in parts of after story) that we feel need work.
Here’s another example diff from Clannad This is still a work in progress, but we are getting there.
(SPOILER WARNING: this is near the end of kyou’s route):
Left: BT, Right: us
http://diffchecker.com/cyeezgit
For Little Busters, you are correct. We have two translators working with Fluffy to translate the ME/EX parts.
Thank you to all that replied to me, it really helped clarify things for me. I’m kinda new to the whole VN scene, having only finished 3 so far.
I was planning on playing Clannad next, however after reading this, it might be better to wait with that one for a bit and play some other one(s).
Reading CM’s tweet to Vava in broken Japanese, I really tried hard not to laugh. Seriously? I think he doesn’t even have basic Japanese skill. And he wants to go to Japan to make documentaries? What kind of joke is this lol
Assuming the documentary was going to be entirely in Japanese?
You don’t need to know the native language to make a documentary. Turn on NHK World TV, or CCTV News English to see documentaries in Japan and China respectively in English.
Infact it’s not just news channels that do documentaries in Japan in English, there’s been a few about Japanese culture in general that have aired in the UK in English.
what the fuck is “key”
never heard of this..
all i find is that they make drawn porn with young looking females and sell them.
is that right?
I’m assuming you’re trolling, but just in case you aren’t…:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(company)
So what’s gonna happen to the translation? I guess it’s over now? I’ve been looking all over the internet for a patch to fix the Fuko BGM problem and I’ve found strings that apparently have fixed the problem, but I have no idea how apply this fix, or patch or whatever. So I’m just really confused. I went on the baka-tsuki talk page, and said something about the project, but it’s been a very long time and still no reply. Does baka-tsuki have an irc or something? A better way of contacting? I really need help.