Kokoro Connect Bullying Incident

[MakubeX2]

Originally Posted by frivolity

It's pretty much the same in entertainment industries around the world, be it in singing, acting, hosting, modelling, etc. Every budding artist goes through all sorts of incidents before they become famous.

You are right. Even one of the popular Korean Girl group, T-ara, riding the current K-Pop wave have a bullying controvesy of their own :-

Hwayoung's contract termination and Twitter "bullying"

In July 2012, controversy arose as T-ara members were viewed as bullying Hwayoung through Twitter after their Budokan concert in Japan. On July 22nd, Hwayoung injured her leg after performing on a music program and was put in a wheelchair. T-ara then held their first independent concert on July 25th and 26th at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Although Hwayoung performed during the concert, problems arose when Boram, Eunjung, Hyomin, Soyeon, and Jiyeon started tweeting on July 25th. Because the tweets were focused upon determination and commitment level (although they were not directly addressed to Hwayoung), many fans and netizens began to speculate that the tweets were ridiculing and even "bullying" Hwayoung for a "lack of determination" and causing inconveniences because of her injury.

Hwayoung responded to the tweets with ambiguous messages expressing that she was upset and needed support. Hwayoung's twin, 5dolls's member Hyoyoung, also responded to the incident by sending messages of support to her sister through Twitter. Core Contents Media responded to the whole incident by stating that the members' Twitter accounts had been hacked; however, because most of the members had tweeted on July 25th, the explanation did not add up.

Consequently, on July 28th, Core Contents Media announced that they would be making a major announcement regarding the "bullying" incident on Twitter. On July 30th, Core Contents Media announced that Hwayoung would be leaving the group, "in deference to the complaints by T-ara's staff of 19 people..." Although Core Contents Media's CEO, Kim Kwang Soo expressed that Hwayoung's leave was not caused because of the "bullying" on Twitter, many fans and netizens believe that the incident and the controversy resulting from it were the cause of Hwayoung's contract termination and departure from the group.

Agence France-Presse stated on August 1 that T-ara's official fan club had reportedly lost 6,000 members in the aftermath of the controversy. The group has also lost endorsement deals, been forced to cancel concerts, fan cafes have shut down, petitions and groups to have T-ara disbanded and to uncover the truth behind the scandal have attracted hundreds of thousands of people, netizens have called for the members to be removed from their current television shows, and much more. Core Contents Media also stated that “The upcoming T-ara concert on the 11th has been postponed, the members of T-ara desperately requested for the agency to postpone their first domestic concert on the 11th.” The representative also added, “While talking it over with CEO Kim Kwang Soo, the members stated, ‘In a situation like this, we don’t think we can show fans bright, happy, and lively sides of ourselves on stage. Fans will probably not enjoy seeing us that way as well,’ and requested for the postponement of the concert.”

On August 29, 2012, T-ara released a handwritten apology letter on their official homepage. Although never explicitly mentioning bullying Hwayoung, the band did acknowledge that there were disagreements within the group, and it was their immature actions (especially by bringing internal conflicts public) that led to Hwayoung's expulsion. They ended the letter by apologizing to their families, Hwayoung, fans, and others they disappointed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-ara#H....22bullying.22

Remember, Idols are humans too.

[mistress_kisara]

I just heard about this incident today, seriously how stupid are they!? and I like Takuma Terashima as a voice actor. Those who are involved should give a public apology

Just hope this debacle ends soon, people learn their lesson, the show goes on, and the producer's mom's dog's favorite neighbor (or anyone remotely related to this incident) won't turn out to be a target of hate and boycott.

Amen to this

[Kakkou]

Ah, so it's happened. KitaEri deleted her Twitter account because of /a/'s dickspam. =s

[Sheba]

Stay classy, /a/.

[SirWence]

"TV channel listings for Kokoro Connect have changed episode 9's title from 「止まらない止まらない止まらない」 (Can't Stop x 3) to 「気づいてしまって」 (I Realized) "

Think this has any meaning

[Sumeragi]

Probably to fit the episode better. People know who the novel details would get the meaning.

[sa547]

If I'm correct, I think Japanese employers are very strict when it comes to the reputations and/or credibility of a potential employee. In this case, the damage is very severe that some of those involved in this incident may quit voice-acting altogether.

[MakubeX2]

Originally Posted by sa547

If I'm correct, I think Japanese employers are very strict when it comes to the reputations and/or credibility of a potential employee. In this case, the damage is very severe that some of those involved in this incident may quit voice-acting altogether.

Doesn't mean things will be better off for those involved. Parties on both side will be branded troublemakers and they might be hardpressed for works as potential employers will be too scared to employ them. That's how their society works, peace and harmony for all.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by vansonbee

So it was Sugita that tweeted this whole incident out or a fan heard his radio...

Actually, I'm also kinda unclear how Sugita fit in all this. How exactly did this news came alight again?

Afaik, Sugita didn't tweet or announce any of this, though supposedly he unfollowed Terashi after hearing this from Ichiki (though rumours most likely to be damage control states that Sugita never followed him in the first place). And Sugita seemingly giving Terashi the cold shoulder in his gaming show.

[Athena]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Lawsuits? Where do you think this is, the US?

I laughed hard at this.

Originally Posted by Kakkou

Ah, so it's happened. KitaEri deleted her Twitter account because of /a/'s dickspam. =s

Would this be sexual harassment?

[Kakkou]

According to the wiki (yes, this incident has it's own wiki now), the problem came to light when Kikuchi (of Eufonius) was being an asshole towards Halko Momoi and that issue reached Yahoo! News, to which people started probing his Twitter and found a tweet that did not actually quote any names but hinted very strongly at the event in question. From there people started backtracking, piecing together all the hints and the truth came to light.

Originally Posted by Athena

Would this be sexual harassment?

I would think so, although I have no knowledge of the law. IIRC (and this is just IIRC), the dickspamming came with messages asking her to well, you know, eat them, etc. Apparently according to /a/ they only sent less than 10 dicks to her. *shrugs*

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Kakkou

Ah, so it's happened. KitaEri deleted her Twitter account because of /a/'s dickspam. =s

It's amazing they don't see the hypocrisy of their actions in this situation.
But then again it's /a/ so what do I expect.

[Marcus H.]

^ It's because they know that they did not do it. /a/ actually has a group of users, especially those who have tripcodes on, which often spearhead things like that phallic incident with Kitamura Eri. Heck, many people even throw mountains of expletives upon discovering what happened to KitaEri.

"TV channel listings for Kokoro Connect have changed episode 9's title from 「止まらない止まらない止まらない」 (Can't Stop x 3) to 「気づいてしまって」 (I Realized) "

Think this has any meaning

Can't Stop [Bullying] x3 -> I Realized [that Bullying Someone is Bad Practice].

[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by Kakkou

According to the wiki (yes, this incident has it's own wiki now), the problem came to light when Kikuchi (of Eufonius) was being an asshole towards Halko Momoi and that issue reached Yahoo! News, to which people started probing his Twitter and found a tweet that did not actually quote any names but hinted very strongly at the event in question. From there people started backtracking, piecing together all the hints and the truth came to light.

One of those pieces was Sugita's radio show, which had Ichiki as a guest. Someone messaged Sugita asking about that incident, and he in turn asked Ichiki to clarify. Kind of scary noting how, while listening to Ichiki recount the incident, the usually high-tension Sugita just listened calmly to it all.

Most people believed that Ichiki was in on the joke during the Kokoroco event, but after that tweet from Kikuichi, and the above-mentioned segment in Sugita's radio show, people figured out that it wasn't the case.

[j0x]

one moe anime down...

[Soliloquy]

If possible, I wish this whole incident sweeps over with apologies and move on but this producer should be sacked. Although, I'm expecting he will probably make a clean getaway if he has some influences. I hate this group mentality going on around this business. It's like there are some of them are reverted back to pre-teen mentality.

It's also ridiculous that another seiyuu had to be involved just because she had a connection to the producer. I like anime but some people in this fandom are too childish to deal with. I don't know any hardcore otaku in Japan but sometimes they push things way too far.

[erneiz_hyde]

Btw, that rumour about KitaEri being Yamanaka's favorite...Which part of the internet did that come from? An acquaintance of mine said the folks responsible at 4ch probably couldn't differentiate Kitamura and Kanemoto's name. Was it all gaijins mistaking Japanese names that got our KitaEri to suffer ?

So it was like 2ch quoting 4ch who quoted 2ch......

I'm having a headache.

[MakubeX2]

There's no direct indication of Kitamura being Yamanaka's favourite other than he being her producer. It's just a rumour because they have a close working relationship.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

There's no direct indication of Kitamura being Yamanaka's favourite other than he being her producer. It's just a rumour because they have a close working relationship.

I thought so too...Which is why I ask where did it originate, 4ch or 2ch.

The implication of gaijins couldn't make the difference between "Kitamura" and "Kanemoto" is that their original target was probably Kanemoto, who's indeed involved in the incident (not saying I'll support them if they went and terrorize her instead). And Kanemoto being relatively new, which is probably where the rumour about anyone being Yamanaka's favorite came about.

So, if the rumour was originally from 4ch, probably it should've been Kanemoto being Yamanaka's favorite, but since gaijins couldn't tell the difference, they ended up targetting KitaEri instead.

Sad, isn't it?

[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

I thought so too...Which is why I ask where did it originate, 4ch or 2ch.

The implication of gaijins couldn't make the difference between "Kitamura" and "Kanemoto" is that their original target was probably Kanemoto, who's indeed involved in the incident (not saying I'll support them if they went and terrorize her instead). And Kanemoto being relatively new, which is probably where the rumour about anyone being Yamanaka's favorite came about.

So, if the rumour was originally from 4ch, probably it should've been Kanemoto being Yamanaka's favorite, but since gaijins couldn't tell the difference, they ended up targetting KitaEri instead.

Sad, isn't it?

Gaijins couldn't also tell the difference between Yamanaka and Yamakan, iirc.