Kadokawa's Young Ace Apologizes Over Unauthorized Character Designs
A publisher admitting its own editorial pipeline skipped the permission step puts the blame on Kadokawa's internal communication rather than on the two creators, which is the version of the story the apology is built to establish.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
The Young Ace editorial department apologized for using Ieri Komen's character designs without permission in Kei Natsumi's manga adaptation of Rokakoen's Pitch-Black Infatuation. The department said it asked Kadokawa Horror Bunko about using designs for Rumi Sasaki and Yukiyoshi Aoyama, received a vague reply, and proceeded anyway. After the first volume shipped on August 4, Komen found two more characters and a background location had also been used.
Young Ace says the request went to the wrong desk and never came back as an answer. In August 2025, with Kei Natsumi already in pre-production, the editorial department asked Kadokawa Horror Bunko for permission to use Ieri Komen's designs for Rumi Sasaki and Yukiyoshi Aoyama, two characters shared with Festival of Heresies. The reply it got back, that it was probably fine to use original character designs, was vague, and Komen was never asked. The department said it takes full responsibility and that Rokakoen and Natsumi bear none.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.