Kokoro Connect Bullying Incident
 

I'm reading this from Korean websites, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems like this "prank" they pulled on Ichiki Mitsuhiro is generating a huge firestorm in Japan at the moment. As bastek66 said the staff put on a "fake" audition for Ichiki, who was rather devastated when he found out during the "talk show" (who wouldn't if your job interview was fake?). They even went so far as create a fake character that is supposed to appear later (I guess this is where the episode 14 onward came from?) Things went south quickly when Sugita Tomokazu, a friend of Ichiki, found out and entered the fray.

King Records is trying to put out the fire but it's getting out of hand; this is a PR nightmare for the series in general. The prank is already listed in Niconicopedia as the Kokoro Connect Candid Camera Affair (ココロコネクトドッキリ事件). This is a very disappointing development.

See also (in Japanese):
http://subcultureblog.blog114.fc2.co...ntry-8612.html

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B3%E3...pr_product_top

Just.. Wow. It had four 5-star ratings before shit hit the fan. I was actually thinking about cancelling my pre-order for a second because I thought something serious happened to the series itself, but if it's all because of a prank.. Meh.

Well, apparently, it's a B List Voice Actor who thought that Kokoro Connect was his big break - before he got trolled, and rather insultingly so.

I have no clue why anyone thought this publicity stunt would have been a good idea though.

Speaking of which, I think the key point of discussion of Kokoro Connect is all about it's characters. It's just a personal opinion of mine, but given the considerable fan-art, and rather comprehensive discussions going on in this thread, especially discussions that are worthy of any character thread that I think (late as it might be), Kokoro Connect might just deserve a sub-forum of it's own.:heh:.

Even if, with the disappointing BD Sales, I don't think this is going to get a Second Season. Especially after this scandal.

*sigh* Why does all the good shows gotta have some sort of scandal behind it? Don't know the details (chrome translate kinda sucks). But yeah 2nd season seems like a long shot now. :eyebrow:

Sad, this show had so much potential too...

It seems to be exploding out of control. Apparently, Yui's VA, Aoki's VA, and possibly Taichi's VA are under fire for this prank. There have also been calls for boycott of the author's and illustrator's future works.

Those VA are fine. Two VA are targeted because they laugh about the victim on the radio show. They definitely go to far, especially the victim of the prank is not someone who deserves it, such as scandalous super star or political figure.

[circulated story below]
At first, I thought the "fake audition" means that they already had someone in mind(Otome Boku scandal). However, the chosen VA proved to be one of the best candidates at the time. So, the riot went down. This fake audition is simply an attack on a person's name. So, I agree people's comments. I also think they production team needs to do some damage control. They may have to make the apology (to the VA) even public do not buy it.

Besides, the figure from Amazon may not trustworthy. In the past, Amazon had to ban some anime distributors. One particular distributor created pre-ordered and canceled the number of items on Amazon. The amount managed to create over-stock and loss at Amazon's end.

I can't understand what sort of assholes would enjoy raising somebody's hopes, and crashing it down on them, and doing it publicly. I have to say though, that in a morbid manner this incident is more interesting than the show itself because of how much more it reveals about humanity.

Kiss goodbye to a second season. I doubt it well sell past 1K.

Little idea what's happening with the shitstorm, but this sounds like the greatest anime premise ever.

As much as I like the show, I'm glad people are reacting to these guys being asses instead of completely ignoring it. What I don't get is why the hell the creators would do something like this?

Still, it's abit extreme if they end up boycotting the LN and it's author who have zero to do with this.

Kokoro Connect Radio Show is as of now, canceled.

This is getting a lot more out of hand seeing how /a/ was tweeting pictures of their dicks to Eri Kitamura, to say nothing about 2ch themselves marking her as a potential firing target for supposedly being producer Takahiro Yamanaka's slut. Riya of Eufonius is also listed despite only the other half of the group, Hajime Kikuchi, being a total asshole.

Well, it's certainly going to be interesting what all this leads to by the end of the day...

I wouldn't say 'interesting'... After all these are the same type of people that had pressured Kannagi's author into bad health, I'll bet more than half of them are just doing this for shits and giggles and don't actually care about the victim.

Well, I didn't mean interesting in an amusing way. I'm certainly not really pleased at the overall reaction since this is turning to be more of a hate bandwagon by the hour. It's already been a huge stain on the names of those involved and some jobs are likely at stake, overzealous anger is only going to make things worse, with shits n' giggles seekers not helping one bit. KitaEri being involved in this despite her innocence is already a bad start.

Oh come on! Really? Those douchebags just keep loosing whatever reason they had by doing that sort of crap. The "safety" of anonymity strikes again. *sigh*

This is what happens when anons of the internets gets involved. Well, quite frankly I'm a bit depressed hearing this news. Is there a chance that this whole fiasco is still within "script" which is probably cooked by our alleged victim there? (/in denial)

While I condemn those involved in this mean prank, I hope anons know when to stop (faint hope, I know), lest they are no better than these pranksters themselves. I'd say there is enough damage as of now, so hopefully things cool down soon enough. Maybe not. Whatever.

I agree, nothing new over here, just lots of people following the herd, much like many other internet fads.

Have they issued an official public apology? Is there a chance that might help to quench public anger? While the actions of the studio are regrettable, blowing this out of proportion isn't going to help anything. The public has the right to condemn, but they should not misuse it. Seconding Chaos2Frozen, I think only a handful of people are actually concerned about the victim, while the rest merely joined in the condemnation for the sheer fun of it - it's that excitable feeling elicited from being part of a larger group that is morally and ethically right and is currently punishing a group of people for serious misconduct. One can't help but to feel powerful.

From what I gathered, the more worrying thing is that it is not the first time that Yamanaka have pulled this over Ichiki. Which is all the more flabbergasting because apparently that guy can do pretty much the fuck he wants, because this being Japan, Ichiki is supposed to endure and take it with a smile.

And props to Sugita for standing up to Ichiki, I share his disappointment over the (directly) involved people.

This should serve as a cautionary tale for those still believing that the seiyuu business is all candies, smiles and rainbows.