Anime studio Lerche filed a lawsuit earlier today against White Fox and the staff of Girls’ Last Tour, claiming that White Fox’s adaptation steals ideas from Kino’s Journey and is a substantially better anime than Lerche’s own currently airing adaptation of Kino’s Journey.
Lerche’s attorneys claimed that while Girls’ Last Tour’s staff may claim their anime is adapted from a 2014 manga, both the manga and the anime borrow ideas heavily from Kino’s Journey. The brief claims that, “…both feature stoic black haired girls in military wear traveling a generally desolate land on a motorized vehicle, and the fact that Girls’ Last Tour separated Hermes’ character into another cute girl does not mask the similarities.”
“Furthermore, Girls’ Last Tour takes clear inspiration from the 2003 adaptation of Kino’s Journey by AGCT, with its serene tone, rounded character designs, and focus on a world that still has moments of beauty in face of tragedy. By airing this show in the same season as our adaptation of Kino’s Journey, White Fox is tarnishing the new brand of Kino we are trying to create.”
“We want audiences to be clear that Kino is no longer an empathetic person trying to understand others’ cultures and only resorting to violence in self-defense. Kino is now a total uncaring badass with sick sniping skills that can be pulled out at any moment. Our Kino sociopathically leads countries to mass-murder themselves and cheerfully reminisces about the time her mentor shot a bunch of people in the knees.”
“We at Lerche are determined to totally wipe over the memories of the 2003 Kino’s Journey adaptation, which is why we’re re-adapting parts of the old show and gave our new adaptation the same title as the old one. We’ve seen people say that Girl’s Last Tour gives them the same warm feelings of happiness as Kino’s Journey did, and that’s just not something we want Kino to be associated with.”