Bleach Plagerism?

Has anyone else seen this? Seems there's a big deal about Bleach and a few other mangas being plagerized.

bleachness: Gene Simmons' Son Plagiarizing Bleach?

It's an on going topic on Mangafox.com. According to that, the guy who may or may not have plagerized Bleach has apologized. I just wanted to see what everyone here thinks about this.

Personally, I have to say it looks like it has been plagerized. The pictures posted at that site pretty much shows it.

hmmm,the similarities are just to close for it to be a coincident

Well, I won't visit mangafox anymore. However, I did follow your link Sapphire, thanks!

Looking at the entire thing and finding Nick Simmons' March 2010 quote near the bottom:

"Like most artists I am inspired by work I admire. There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others. This was simply meant as an homage to artists I respect, and I definitely want to apologize to any Manga fans or fellow Manga artists who feel I went too far. My inspirations reflect the fact that certain fundamental imagery is common to all Manga. This is the nature of the medium.

I am a big fan of Bleach, as well as other Manga titles. And I am certainly sorry if anyone was offended or upset by what they perceive to be the similarity between my work and the work of artists that I admire and who inspire me." End quote.

Similarities? Seriously?! Please. What he did is full blown plagiarism. Most of those panels are practically copied action-for-action. Nick Simmons' version of 'paying homage' to artists he allegedly respects is quite scary, if that's the case.

In late February, the publisher stopped production. I hope that's still the case....this link hasn't been updated. Personally, I hope VIZ goes after them.

In my opinion it really is way to much "inspiration", it almost copy past in certain areas... even some of the most significant lines are identical. Some people should think a little before doing work like that, because it offends the mangaka and the fans. Do you know how this ended to the copy cat?

Oh my I never heard about this before. This is seriously creepy. I think the guy probably was able to do this because of his father.

As a fan that actually buys Bleach I feel really bad for Kubo-sama. I hope he knows that real fans only care for Bleach!!

I hope this guy was sued or something!!