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Megumi Ogata in Hot Water Over Recent Tweets

Social media offers celebrities an unprecedented opportunity to engage with their fanbase and promote their personal brands. But if they're not careful, seemingly offhanded remarks can be seized on by certain fans and interpreted in ways the celebrity didn't intend. Casual remarks can be circulated and read much more widely than ever before, which can have unexpected effects. Megumi Ogata, singer and voice actress (Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Uranus in Sailor Moon, Kurama in Yū Yū Hakusho), had one of these experiences recently.

On December 21, Ogata posted a selection of tweets from fans. One detailed the lengths they were willing to go to attend one of her concerts, including sleeping in the open and hitchhiking. Another questioned why fans would want to say things like "I can't go, but please do your best" to celebrities. Another praised the purchase of tickets, music and merchandise and compared it to making an offering. "Thanks!" Ogata tweeted, and singled out the tweet about making an offering. "This will have completely different meanings for those who buy and those who don't," she wrote. "To those who don't say [that they can't come], thanks. To those who do come, thanks even more. I'm grateful."

Some fans did not appreciate these opinions. @RmqH1LMCoFBKrm4 wrote, "Reading this haughtiness put me in a bad mood. [Some of us] have work and can't go to events, or have situations at home and can't go. Is someone who can't go because they don't have money supporting you? Are people who can go in the right?" Ogata responded by referring to one of the original fan tweets who considered those who opted to stay at home as expressing a "different value judgment," while emphasizing that telling celebrities that they couldn't go to one of their events sounded bad. "It's not a matter of right or wrong," she tweeted.

@cockrobbin5 tweeted that they felt "disqualified from being a fan" and thanked Ogata for making them realize this. Ogata assured the fan that they were mistaken and reiterated that she was sympathizing with something the musician Demon Kakka said: "It's sad to hear that people just can't go [to concerts]." "I'm not blaming people who can't come," she wrote. In response to another irate tweet she wrote that she saw her fans somewhat like stores see customers, and was happy to receive feelings of support and not just money. "If you could only understand how lonely it feels to be told that 'I can't come,'" she tweeted.

Ogata also received some messages of support. "I want to buy the newest manga and anime" wrote @dashi08tama "because I want to give the money I earn to the people who made those things." @Stapma00Rey reminded fans that money was necessary to create things and creators couldn't eat (survive) from "I don't buy goods, I don't go to concerts, but do your best!" sentiments. @setoakira opined that "I can't go" couldn't possibly count as a "message of support" and suggested fans write their opinions of CDs instead.

Ogata has recently also encountered flack for a misunderstanding over a tweet about how she got the role of Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh!

[Via Yaraon! and Nikkan Sports; Image from Seigura Web]