I waded through about a third of the pages in the linked thread and I must say I'm a little disappointed. This debate has been going on for years and people just won't let it die. I was hoping that this time there might actually be some real evidence, but it was the same old speculation and silly comparisons. I mean, "Dance of Curse" and "O Fortuna"? Really? And that's just one bad example.
It's fun to look for similarities in music and there were a couple of interesting comparisons there, but a handful of similarities does not plagiarism make. I find if amusing that some people there were literally accusing Kanno of plagiarism when 1) the example was iffy at best, 2) there's no proof she heard the source material, and 3) no one anywhere is interested in taking legal action. Japan isn't some little, backwards country and this isn't the mid-twentieth century. If Kanno was really ripping off huge artists left and right, then she'd be in court. Just look at all the petty (and wrong) plagiarism cases that go to court here in the US.
Anyway, I remain completely unconvinced. It's just more of the same old stuff: lousy comparisons and people who don't know what they're talking about. They're free to speculate as much as they want, but they don't have any real proof, evidence, or even plausible theories.
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