Kadokawa Apologizes for Unauthorized Character Design Use in Pitch-Black Infatuation Manga

The editorial department of Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine has issued an apology for using character designs from Ieri Komen’s Festival of Heresies manga without permission in Kei Natsumi’s adaptation of Pitch-Black Infatuation. The department acknowledged that while permissions are typically secured before serialization, this instance involved unauthorized use of designs for characters Rumi Sasaki and Yukiyoshi Aoyama, as well as backgrounds and two additional figures.

Young Ace accepted full responsibility for the error, clarifying that neither original creator Rokakoen nor manga artist Kei Natsumi bears liability. The mistake occurred after internal communication with the Kadokawa Horror Bunko department provided vague approval to use existing designs. The issue was brought to light by Komen following the release of the first compiled volume on August 4.