Forum

grouwl wrote:

Didn't we lose John Lennon for this very exact situation? We're no better than them, I must say...I guess we're not so used to "meet and greet" anymore...Imagine a meet and greet Paul Mc cartney, or adele or UGH!! JUSTIN BEAVER!!!

Yes, a lot of celebrities have been murdered or assaulted. It is an unfortunate risk of being popular and putting yourself out there. Even voice actors for American cartoons have been victims of this kind of behavior. Unfortunately, this kind of thing sticks out in Japan more than America. America has an estimated 44 murders a day and hundreds of assaults, so news like this would be lost in the dozens of articles about gang violence are mass shootings.

To the person who asked about YouTube celebrities, a quick Google search turned up some famous YouTuber claiming he was drugged at a convention afterparty and woke up in bed with a woman. I wouldn't see why YouTube celebrities are immune to this, especially if you read the comments on certain videos like those channels or streamers that relying on the girl showing off her cleavage. We recently started seeing YouTubers get involved in scandals like Tobuscus or Angry Video Game Nerd. As YouTube continues to grow I expect you'll see everything that applies to regular celebrities being applied to them as well.

-Stuart Smith

Last edited by horseradish on Mon May 04, 2020 4:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

I hope this guy doesn't have any mental health problems. I think in situations like these, actually having it or pulling that card is used a bit too often. I want to see more cases where the person is just "evil". I think he should get at least 10 years.

I don't know anything about Japanese law, but, what's the highest penalty that creep can get for "attempted murder"?

Seriously, Japan should start treating otaku as people with mental illnesses.

Lactobacillus yogurti wrote:

Seriously, Japan should start treating otaku as people with mental illnesses.

Most (almost all) fans in Japan are extremely well behaved - I've felt completely safe as an audience member at live events e.g. Animelo Summer Live / Animax Musix / Nana Mizuki / Minori Chihara concerts.

While I don't doubt that they mostly behave well, I do think that being an otaku is an illness. Being so obsessed with something just doesn't sit well with me. I'm not a social person by any means, but these people barely ever step out of their comfort zone.

Lactobacillus yogurti wrote:

While I don't doubt that they mostly behave well, I do think that being an otaku is an illness. Being so obsessed with something just doesn't sit well with me. I'm not a social person by any means, but these people barely ever step out of their comfort zone.

You should clarify what you mean by Otaku. An Otaku in the modern sense is not what you are describing. You are more describing someone with severe social anxiety(which technically is a mental illness). Or other mental issues. In many cases hikikomori.

guestatc wrote:

You guys realize she's not really an idol at all? I realize it's fashionable to rant and rave about those "dirty disgusting otaku", but that's not at all applicable. She was in some extremely low-key acting gig, a group made for a web series for kids that lasted a year. After that ended, she just became a regular singer, she was basically an indie song-writer/singer, she plays the guitar, and was on her way to a regular venue to perform, it was something like a bar or music hall.

The acting gig was a live-action series tied to Shogakukan's prominent manga magazine Ciao. It was "for kids" in a sense that it was a shōjo magazine. The series ran for two seasons (2011-2012, 2012-2013), not one year. Fuji TV, Shogakukan, and Bandai all billed her Secret Girls group as what it was, an idol unit.

http://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000203.000000084.html
http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/books/09230621

Stuart Smith wrote:

We recently started seeing YouTubers get involved in scandals like Tobuscus or Angry Video Game Nerd

As a fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd for almost ten years now, I'm interested to hear exactly what scandals you're referring to, since I don't usually pay attention to that sort of thing. The only things I can recall over the years is all the videos on the channel being deleted for nearly a whole day at one point, and then being restored afterwards, probably due to copyright issues. I know the Rambo AVGN review had some movie clips originally that had to be edited out, and some other reviews of older TV shows are gone (Family Matters and Inspector Gadget). Then there was that whole business with Mike Matei making that Elmo in Grouchland review and the Minecraft video with Inspector Gadget that he practically purged from the internet after a huge backlash of hate thrown at him for the apparently "poor" quality of both those videos.

When it comes to the original topic of this thread, that's just sad. If the mental instability card is played, that's just gonna leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. I'm pretty sure the guy while not mentally stable, was in a right enough mind to know what he was doing. For that, I say he deserves to rot in hell and get whats coming to him. If anything, if the girl recovers, the guy ought to be tied down to a chair, and get stabbed the same way by her just to show him the pain and suffering that she felt, but that sort of thinking might make me a bit cynical. I know if I had someone close to me that I cared about suffer through that, I'm pretty sure I'd be ready to beat the guy half to death or worse out of anger.

He was an evil stalker. Evil stalkers are everywhere and are not symptomatic of being an otaku. We hear about stalkers all the time in the United States.

We have heard this story in the United States all the time, evil stalker preys on a young girl or any women really. Woman files a restraining order. Evil stalker ignores the restraining order and kills the woman. Sometimes it is done in full view of the public, and other times it shows up on Forensic Files.

Also the police ignoring a woman's claims about a stalker or a threat to her life is nothing new in the United States also.

I hope she lives, and I hope her attacker suffers.

horseradish wrote:

guestatc wrote:

*see page 3*

I think this post is generalizing and therefore downplaying the attack along with stalking as a whole. The discussion has mainly focused on fanatical otaku within the fanbase. Other artists have cancelled their handshaking events in fear for their safety.

Tomita was concerned that something awful would result from the stalking, but her reports did not seem to faze the police. As I implied in an earlier post, I can't imagine being restrained by a "fan" who resents me so much that they would basically exhaust themselves to ensure my death and mangled body afterwards. He ambushed her with a folding knife and stabbed her over twenty times. Again, I hope she will recover from this traumatic attack someday.

People who aren't suffering from serious mental illness or disease would likely not commit harm to such extent against anyone. Those people aren't just "terrible", "weird", "different", or "easy to blame". Iwasaki is so mentally ill and dangerous that he tried to destroy two human lives (perpetrator and victim) and scar everyone else close to either party. We're not even talking about sexual violence in this case.

Whether idol, indie singer, or typical college student, just because many people (2011 - over 7.5 million reported in 12-month period from national U.S. survey alone / 2009 - 3.4 million reported in 12-month period) are targeted worldwide doesn't mean stalking or attacks are somehow acceptable and lessen the impact on the individuals involved. I know extreme crimes are popular for exaggerated, sensationalist news, but it seems rather callous to me if your post just dismisses her suffering as something recurrent in society.

You seem to have misinterpreted what I meant. I'm not trying to diminish what she went through. It was terrible, and it's a damn shame that it happens to anyone anywhere. What I was saying was that this was being framed in such a way, intentionally, as to make it seem like she was an idol, and that it was due to that that some "otaku" attacked her. When the reality of it was that she was the victim of a stalker, as so many people unfortunately are, all over the world.

How many people do you hear about in the U.S.(I'm using it as an example since I live here) being stalked every year? Tons and tons. And that's just celebrities of some sort or the other. Many "regular" people also experience it, and many die from the consequences, because it's unfortunately bluster in a lot of cases, so it's ignored, until something really does happen. You own stats speak to this, this happens all over the world, to all demographics, from all demographics. But then take an objective looks at something like the idol industry. How many real incidents have there been? The most prominent that comes to mind was the one with AKB48 a few years ago, that resulted in some injuries, a broken hand. That's all that I can think off. But the way this whole story is framed, they way people talk about it, you would think that idols were getting picked off every day. And why? Because it's easy to do so. For some reason, there is really some irrational hatred among many people for others that are fans of things they don't get, or like.

Look at this.

Lactobacillus yogurti wrote:

Seriously, Japan should start treating otaku as people with mental illnesses.

This is what I mean. People throw out all sorts of words, disgusting, weird, creepy, etc. When, again, if you really look at it, it's an aberration out of aberrations. We live in a society that is many times more violent, where actions like this(stalking) happen all the time, and yet when something extremely rare like this happens, it's those damn otaku.

And again, I want to reiterate, I think what happened to this girl was terrible, and I hope she fully recovers. My original point was that this story was spun in a way to make it seem like this was something more than your typical stalking case, that this girl was a idol/pop star(that's seriously how I've seen it framed in countless stories, implying she was a huge star and not your typical indie musician), and the following diatribe towards otaku and whatnot.

Egan Loo wrote:

The acting gig was a live-action series tied to Shogakukan's prominent manga magazine Ciao. It was "for kids" in a sense that it was a shōjo magazine. The series ran for two seasons (2011-2012, 2012-2013), not one year. Fuji TV, Shogakukan, and Bandai all billed her Secret Girls group as what it was, an idol unit.

http://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000203.000000084.html
http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/books/09230621

You're right, it did run a year more than I thought. I don't think I would qualify that as an "idol unit", as nebulous a term as that has become. But that is a matter of opinion. The point remains that she most certainly retired, for close to 2-3 years, and transitioned into a more live-music type gig, there were none of the hallmarks you see of a production. She marketed herself, represented herself, she was trying to get a music career going. And it seems this stalker contacted her well after her previous career had ended, so that's what I meant, her former status had no bearing.

HeeroTX wrote:

enurtsol wrote:

And what of the management agency security
Unfortunately, obsessive fans are the type that the industry likes to cultivate

Sincere question:
How long do you think it will be (assuming it hasn't happened already, which I think is a false assumption) before some internet/youtube personality will be shown to have similar obsessive fans (who hopefully do not attack them physically). I don't mean to "excuse" the industry/agencies, but there's plenty of people both inside AND outside of Japan who do similar things WITHOUT an actual agency (at least to start). So, while there is definitely some blame with the industry that exploits the fans that may do this, there are larger issues at play as well.

True there are larger issues as well, but generally those typical management agencies are major enablers. When an industry relies on people who buy 10+ copies of the same CD as a normal course, when most others already consider 2 or 3 as obsessive....... when most others, even the artists themselves who stand to financially benefit, would say "dude, dial it down a little" while the agency would say "you're not obsessive enough"....... They're major enablers, when others would say keep it within reasonable moderation for your own sanity

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJ5S5K87J5SUTIL03K.html

Part of the problem in the lack of response to the complaints to the police was the over-specific definitions in the Japanese ansti-stalking law that did not encompass things like Twitter, therefore the complaint didn't fit the requirements of the that law and was treated as a lower-level problem.

JDude042 wrote:

Stuart Smith wrote:

We recently started seeing YouTubers get involved in scandals like Tobuscus or Angry Video Game Nerd

As a fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd for almost ten years now, I'm interested to hear exactly what scandals you're referring to, since I don't usually pay attention to that sort of thing.

It mostly has to due with his recent video saying that he has decided not to see/review the new Ghostbusters remake. He even mentioned fans are now calling it "The Female Ghostbusters". The feminists & social justice warriors have been going after him on YouTube ever since.

revolutionotaku wrote:

It mostly has to due with his recent video saying that he has decided not to see/review the new Ghostbusters remake. He even mentioned fans are now calling it "The Female Ghostbusters". The feminists & social justice warriors have been going after him on YouTube ever since.

Yea I watched both parts of that video, and even though I've never watched the original movies, I found what he had to say very informative and interesting to watch. I can totally understand his disappointment in never getting the proper 3rd movie that he wanted for years, only to get something extremely disappointing instead when it's not needed and nobody wanted it. The movie is pretty much exactly what he said, "The Female Ghostbusters." I don't know why so many people would get angry over that when it's true, and him not wanting to see it has more to do with what I mentioned at the beginning of my paragraph than being an anti-feminist that's for sure. I mean, I feel like it's pretty easy to tell that's his reasoning for not wanting to watch it. I'm surprised so many other people don't realize that. Sounds like just a bunch of stupid people taking it the wrong way and wanting to complain over nothing.

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Several Handshaking Events Cancelled After Idol Attack

Dahlia in Bloom Staff, Ekachi Epilka Studio Respond to Report Claiming N. Korean Animators Worked on Anime

The Grimm Variations Anime Series Review

Anime to Watch if You Liked Shogun

The Quintessential Quintuplets Manga Gets New Honeymoon Anime

BLUELOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- Anime Film Review

Interview: Author Akihiro Nishino on Bottle George, His New Stop-Motion Animated Film

The Spring 2024 Light Novel Guide

SAND LAND Video Game Review

This Week in Games - Atlus With the Old, In With the New

The Story of Suikoden

Forum - View topicNEWS: Several Handshaking Events Cancelled After Idol Attack

Forum

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Several Handshaking Events Cancelled After Idol Attack