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Clarification regarding Clannad_Man and his Kickstarter Campaign

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.

Here and here

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.

Investigation chat log

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.

Anime North 2013 Convention Summary

Various Members of Doki's North American Staff (& Friends)
Various Members of Doki’s North American Staff (& Friends)

Hello again, Doki Legion! Though it has been nearly a month since Anime North has ended, people have continued to ask for a summary of Doki’s presence at the convention as well as footage from the 「key15th」 presentation if it became available.

While TheThing was planning on writing a summary post for Doki, he became busy, so I took the liberty of writing up a convention summary on behalf of Doki’s attendees. Here’s the tl;dr version:

Friday (May 24th): Arrival (12pm) / “Our rooms won’t be ready until 6pm?” / Aimless Wandering / Autographs / Nominoichi

Saturday (May 25th): Morning Brunch / Workout / Maid Café / Various Panels & Photoshoots / Review Notes / Key Panel Time! / 13-Man Dinner

Sunday (May 26th): “You’re kicking us out of our hotel room an hour early?” / AKB0048 Café / Dealers Room Deals / Panel & Rest / Departure

You can find the full convention summary over at the Key15th website.

Regarding the Key presentation, it took awhile to collect and edit various video and audio feeds together to make a full presentation. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Curser656 for capturing the large majority of the presentation; your contribution really added a lot to the recording’s final edit. I’d also like to thank Doki’s Aieon and jakeman95 for their significant contributions as panelists.

While the presentation experience can’t be identically replicated (no surround sound, audience interaction, etc.), you should still get a good idea for what the presentation was like. If you enjoy the presentation, tell us in the comments section here and on our Anime North forum page. Depending on interest/ feedback, we would be interested in holding another presentation (at AN or elsewhere) and may get preferential stage time at Anime North if our feedback on their forums is positive. You can download a copy of our presentation recording and PowerPoint (for educational purposes!) using the link below.

Our group also collected a number of pictures from the convention… several GBs worth! Feel free to peruse the cosplay cornucopia if you’re so inclined.

Edit: Server issues have been resolved. Kudos to Holo for offering torrents!

Anime North Presentation Pack (Video & PPT): Torrent

Anime North Picture Pack: Torrent

「key15th」 : A History Of Emotion

Hello again, Doki Legion! Clannad Man here with an update & invitation.

Later this month from May 24th through 26th, anime fans will gather from all over to attend Anime North in Toronto, Canada’s premier anime convention and one of the largest in the Americas. I will be moderating a presentation on Key (the studio responsible for Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters!, Angel Beats!, Rewrite and others), and will be joined by a panel of Kagikko including Doki VN’s very own jakeman95 and Aieon. (Kuzu also wanted to be on the panel, though he won’t be able to attend, so he’d sending a plush Botan in his place.) Several members of Doki’s staff will also be in attendance at the convention, and we’d love to talk with you!

Our page on the Anime North forums can be found HERE.

In case you happen to miss us, don’t worry! We will also be present at the Nominoichi event, where several rare Key collectables will be on display. It will be difficult to miss us.

In other news, submissions to the Key15th Anniversary Letter Project are officially closed. Submissions may still be processed, but there is no longer a guarantee they will appear in the published book. However, there will be a final opportunity to offer submissions personally after the 「key15th」 presentation at Anime North. We hope to see you there!

Key15th Christmas Update and Call for Submissions

With today being Christmas and the end of the year inbound, I felt it would be appropriate to write a new post for an update on the Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project. For those who are unfamiliar with the project, the Key 15th project is an effort to reach out to Key with a collection of fan messages, letters, and illustrations to showcase international fan support of their works.

Ever since submissions opened this past August, a number of dedicated Key fans from different parts of the world have sent in short messages and letters to express their appreciation to Key. These submissions represent fans from a variety of locations (Brazil and Vietnam to name a few) that are not within the official reach of Key and Visual Art’s, and reinforces our goal to display the cultural diversity among fans who share a common gratefulness for Key’s works and their effects on our lives. I am also pleased to announce that a number of translation groups and individuals have given their support to the project by helping spread awareness of the project, and that the number of new submissions have risen as a result of their efforts.

Nevertheless, to better represent the influence and reach of Key’s works and the proportion of their fans, the Key 15th Project remains in need of more submissions. With the holiday season ongoing, I would like to encourage fans of Key’s titles to participate in the project. If you would like to participate, you can submit a Key-themed artwork, image, letter, or even just a simple, short message expressing your gratitude; project volunteers will do their best to translate these contributions. You can also help by simply spreading the word about the project to your friends or even just republishing this post. Participation in any form will be much appreciated.

To end my post, I would like to conclude with a short quote from Tomoyo After that I think reflects the project’s aims quite well—

Before I realised it, a lot of people had gathered in the kitchen to make sweets, and they were all smiling.

May everyone have a happy Christmas.

For more information, please visit the project’s website and its about page. Submissions can be made here.

Republished from the Key15th project’s website.

Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project Now Accepting Submissions

The Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project is now accepting messages, letters, and images (fan art, cosplay, etc.) at its Submission Wiki. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the Letter Project is a fan-coordinated effort started by several groups to reach out to Key with an anthology of letters, art, and videos on its upcoming 15th anniversary as a way to show them their overseas fans’ appreciation.

The project will continue to accept submissions until January at its earliest. After which the fan submissions will be compiled into a yearbook and DVD, which will be printed and sent to Key and related publishers. As a huge fan of Key myself, I personally ask you to please take a moment to voice your appreciation to Key and its staff members, and help showing them the extent of its fan base outside of Japan.

Announcing the Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project


Hello, fellow Doki lurkers,

I am very pleased to announce that Doki, along with Team Fluffy, the Air TL Duo, and Amaterasu Translations, will be participating in the Key 15th Anniversary Letter Project.

The project aims to send Key and Visual Art’s a fan letter on their 15th anniversary (July 21, 2013, exactly a year from today) as a way to show them their overseas fans’ appreciation. This letter will be created throughout next year by collecting and compiling fan messages and illustrations addressed to Key into a letter in both English and Japanese.

The project is currently in its initial planning stages, and submissions will begin to be accepted at a later date. Please join us at the project’s website and its IRC channel, #key15th@irc.rizon.net, to participate in the project’s planning and discussion.

On other news: Kokoro Connect still isn’t out.

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