Forum - View topicINTEREST: Voice Actor Megumi Hayashibara Sparks Controversy With Recent Blog Post
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2962 |
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The lesson here is to never, ever get your news from Youtubers. I get being frustrated over mainstream news sources dropping the ball, and a lot of breaking stories in Japan are from fringe tabloids (such as the Fuji TV scandal and details about Shinzo Abe's assassin) but never, ever start falling down the algorithm rabbit hole. That leads to bad things.
Last edited by AiddonValentine on Wed Jun 11, 2025 2:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Rajiy
Posts: 110 |
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I wish she would be more active in anime nowadays.
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mdo7
 Posts: 8234 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Uh, OK, I just finished reading this, I have no idea what I just read and I'm a bit (maybe more) confused after reading this.
It's not like she made any racist or anti-Korean remark on there. So could somebody ELI5 (explain like I'm 5 years old). |
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Greboruri
Posts: 416 Location: QBN, NSW, Australia |
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Well she compared foreigners to invasive species taking out native Japanese, which is pretty much a nationalist talking point. Putting aside ANN linking Hall's X account instead of his bsky account, I have no idea why the article focuses on whatever is posted underneath Hall's posts on Hayashibara's comments. I mean really, who cares what these people think. The story is about Megumi Hayashibara, not them or what blithering nonsense they write. Hopefully after this her management agency will try and vet her posts. Anime is an international business and for someone who has voiced some of it's most beloved characters to say this, quite frankly it's a bit of a PR disaster. Wondering if Ai Haibara will get a new voice actor soon. |
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arms1122
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I understand why she's upset and it's politics of course there will someone that will be upset because they don't have same political views. Who cares that's her opinion
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Rajiy
Posts: 110 |
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Maybe she just doesn't care at this point, considering her age, and the fact that she is pretty much semi-retired.
She should have a right to say what she thinks. |
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 946 |
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Whether someone likes apples or not is an opinion. Whether you think foreigners are an invasive species is not |
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ANN Forum Mod / Admin
Posts: 5 Location: This account can not receive PMs |
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Cool it. This isn't the appropriate venue to get into arguments over what does and does not constitute an opinion. Say on-topic and remember to keep it respectful. --F
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pushknife
 Posts: 54 |
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Both Megumi Ogata (Shinji) and Rei Sakuma (Shampoo) both seemed to have voiced their support for Hayashibara. Ogata's was more of a simple "I love Megumi Hayashibara" while Sakuma's was a more direct and in-depth post
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Andrew Wonderful
Posts: 26 |
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Megumi Hayashibara is one of if not the most prolific seiyuu of all time. If anyone can speak their mind without fear of it affecting their career then it would be her. She has a privilege that many others do not. I don't think she said anything particularly controversial.. People often forget Japan leans to the right and that includes most of the people in the anime industry as well. Her expressing concerns over issues like immigrant students getting favor over Japanese students, rule breaking tourists who desecrate Japanese locations and not being punished enough for their destructive behavior, or how most of Japan doesn't seem to care about politics or bother voting seem fairly boilerplate. The most extreme thing she said was comparing nuance tourists to an invasive species destroying Japan but as someone who's seen all those videos of streamers doing pull-ups on shrines and cherry blossom trees and harassing people on trains and in stores I think the anger is understandable. Especially since they don't ever seem to actually get punished for doing those things. I don't think even a novice seiyuu would have their career hurt by those kinds of comments. Her post currently has 213K likes so as far as controversies go I think a lot of people support her on this even if some international folks and expats in Japan take issue with the comments. |
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WANNFH
 Posts: 2081 |
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And if anything, statements like that will most likely grow up even further among the Japanese people who are more open to talk about their political opinion in social media - as with the recent years go by and multiple problems (nearly complete losing of trust for long lead LDP-government after the multiple scandals; economic crisis with the weak yen currency among the massive inflation rates and hiking the importing price that affect the living costs; current foreign policy situation with US, the supposedly allied country - now completely backstabbing Japan economy even further; foreign financial companies trying to literally curb the Japanese business, which make the companies to keep the business strictly with the clients in Japan; tourism situation and business getting devastated by complete morons who're going in Japan while it's easy to get there and the yen is still weak - and acting like a piece of shit all through all the social media, which make the local business and tourist spots getting completely closed to any foreigners - and the list go all on and on) - now it's all affecting the mind of lots of Japanese people, and they're slowly getting tired of the current conditions of living in the country while leaning more to right specter and old nationalistic/anti-foreign ideologies. The only real problem with the current situation is that a lot of it also affect the foreigners who work and live in Japan and they actually share the same struggles with the Japanese people - if not even worse. |
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James Scryer
Posts: 12 |
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This is hardly a PR disaster and they most certainly are not going to recast Haibara or any of her roles just because some international people got upset. People should just be honest and admit they don't mind Japanese people getting political they only mind when they're not on their side. This goes for both left an right wing fans. People love it when Japanese people echo their beliefs and only hate it when they go against them. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2561 Location: Online Terminal |
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The talking points are not dissimilar to "America First" or other rightist/nationalist slogans used elsewhere. The idea behind them is that the ""true"" citizens of a country should be prioritized and those who aren't should be a low priority if considered at all. The problem with that argument is that foreigners both documented and undocumented are a major contributor to a country's economy. Also, the scarcity of resources can be alleviated by programs that, for example, tax the ultra wealthy and redistribute that money to the lower classes. One other thing that helps makes a species invasive is its ability to breed in the new environment, so it's not much of a stretch to go from "foreigners are taking our resources" to "foreigners are tainting our gene pool." While I don't necessarily think Hayashibara intended to go this route, nationalistic talking points like this are often euphemisms for racist viewpoints, and she's absolutely blowing the proverbial dog whistle. |
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Hellsoldier
 Posts: 1162 Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol |
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Dear Hayashibara, you have all the right in the world to complain about how Japanese students and their famillies have to pay for every God-damned thing whilst education is not only a right but a state investment for the future of the nation. You also have the right to complain about rude tourists and the compliance of rules. You also have the right to complain about how badly spent the budget is in Japan... You are spot on all these matters.
I just think you're barking up the wrong tree (immigration/welfare). Last edited by Hellsoldier on Wed Jun 11, 2025 11:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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malvarez1
Posts: 3021 |
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At the very least, she is absolutely right about the lack of respect coming from many tourists nowadays.
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