Woman Charged for Posting Ensemble Stars!! Images With Cockroaches Edited Into Them

With games like The IDOLM@STER and Ensemble Stars! allowing people to manage Japanese idols, they’re bound to create schisms among fans — not about which game is better, but which character is the best. This can lead developers to leave some characters by the wayside to promote more popular ones. But what are fans to do if this happens to their favorite character? One such fan is now facing charges for taking copyrighted images from Ensemble Stars! and Photoshopping™ images of insects into them.

NHK and Kyoto Shinbun reported that the Kyoto Prefectural Police filed charges on Monday against a 25-year-old woman who lives in Tokyo for allegedly taking six copyrighted images of the Ensemble Stars! character Kohaku Oukawa, inserting images of cockroaches and other insects, and posting them to her social media accounts.

According to the police, the female office worker admitted to the charges and said that she engaged in these acts because she “didn’t like how the character was being treated.” The publisher of Ensemble Stars! said in a statement sent to prosecutors, “We filed the complaint because we believe this is an egregious case that will tarnish the image of our IP. We will continue to promptly take appropriate measures.”

While it’s unclear what will happen to the woman, it’s rather silly that a company is taking legal action against someone who modified a copyrighted image. Granted, what the woman did infringe on the copyrights of Happy Elements, the publisher of Ensemble Stars! However, the action taken seems a bit petty.

The fate of the 25-year-old woman is still undecided as of the writing of this article. Hopefully not much will come from this, but you never know with these types of cases.

Sources: Ensemble Stars! X/Twitter account, NHK, Kyoto Shinbun (Yahoo Japan News)