Since relations with Japan have come to a low of late, China has been churning out anti-Japanese television shows, games, and more. Ironically, while hating on all things Japan, one of China’s newest anti-Japanese productions seems to have stolen music from Japan’s own Naruto. That’s right, an anti-Japanese television show with music from Naruto. Go figure.
South China Morning Post reported that China’s new anti-Japanese War drama, Blue Wolf was outed by Chinese netizens for having music very similar to the animation Naruto: Shippuden. The music in question shows up in episode 33 of Blue Wolf (苍狼 which doesn’t really translate into Blue Wolf…) where one of the male leads starts to think about a former lover.
Chinese Naruto fans soon spotted the song, calling it a knock-off, and their outcry was big enough for Communist mouthpiece People’s Daily to put out an article about the similarities between the show’s music and Naruto music.
People’s Daily agreed that the music does sound similar, calling them “virtually the same.”
“But in regards to using Japanese animation in an Anti-Japanese TV drama,” the article stated, “it’s not hard to see that the creator isn’t very serious about his work…” Oh.
While the People’s Daily was pretty sly about calling it plagiarism out right, Chinese netizens were far from polite about it. Here are some complaints via Chinese twitter-like Sina Weibo:
“First, Let’s not say how shocking it is — it’s exactly the same.”
“Maybe the guy who made the music thought the viewership was different for those that watched anti-Japanese dramas and those that watched anime.”
“I watched that episode… I’m speechless.”
The above clip shows how the music was used in the television program and compares it to the original Naruto music. What do you think? Is the music similar? The same? Different?
Anti-Japanese War Drama Takes Soundtrack From Japanese Anime [SCMP]
国产抗日神剧套用《火影忍者》插曲 [People’s Daily]
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