Total Eclipse Boob Tracer Sou Miyata Sacked

Sou Miyata, the artist recently busted for tracing no less than three pictures in his official Total Eclipse pin-up, has been sacked – and delving into his past works reveals this was far from his first brush with plagiarism, and not the first time he was caught at it either.

Evidence of plagiarism of the most egregious sort was progressively uncovered after the initial discovery of his “Total Eclipse” montage:

More of his works – it is unclear just how many were the result of plagiarism.

The artist’s employers “age” offered official notice of his sacking only days after his antics were uncovered, through a missive so terse it even omitted the customary grovelling set-piece announcement of a “most regrettable” incident:

We would like to announce that on the 10th of June, our company’s illustrator “Sou Miyata” was dismissed.

Additionally, please be aware that from here on the activities of “Sou Miyata” have no connection with those of our company.

There is as yet no comment from the artist himself, although the usual practice in such cases is for the artist to quietly retire for a period as a gesture of contrition after a suitably grovelling statement of regret.

2ch’s role as judge, jury and executioner in these cases suggests the final verdict lies with them:

“Incredibly cold announcement!”

“Sounds like something written by the yakuza…”

“If they wrote anything more they would just end up creating more and more problems.”

“I think there are loads of these guys out there who just haven’t been caught yet. Especially with more realistic art styles.”

“Aren’t there pose collections on sale in book shops for these artists to use legitimately? He should have just used one of those.”

“This guy couldn’t even copy a pose. He traced existing illustrations completely.”

“I bet this wasn’t just a case of him tracing, but the fact that he could only trace and couldn’t actually draw at all.”

“How did this guy think he could become an illustrator? How did they employ him?”

“If creating works of art was so much of a hassle you’d rather trace, why become an illustrator!”

“I can’t help but think this company is trying to escape responsibility by sacking him so rapidly.”

“You think they really didn’t know? They might have known and just let the situation lie.”

“This is not something you normally get fired for. I pity him.”

“It looks like he had been caught at it before so they had no choice.”

“He got busted for tracing the dakimakura, but there were doubts and he was let off. He got busted tracing an eroge – he apologised in a video with the CEO, vowing never to do it again. He traced those pin-ups – instant dismissal.”

“Three strikes and he’s out, seems reasonable.”

“Honestly, after that video of him apologising it would be unthinkable for them not to sack him, he obviously showed no remorse.”

“He didn’t learn from his mistakes at all. Good riddance.”

“He’s getting off lightly. He could have been subject to disciplinary dismissal, forced to pay restitution, and then banished from the industry.”

“This sort of thing might not really be an issue with grey zones like Pixiv, but with commercial works it is absolutely unacceptable!”

“How do you guys even find all these traces! It’s amazing!”

“For this to happen just before your anime airs, it’s the worst, it really is!”

Thinking it is possible to get away with such plagiarism in the face of 2ch’s ability to uncover it increasingly seems more foolish than the actual act…