Seiyuu Haruna Ikezawa, best known for her role as Yoshino Shimazu in Maria-sama ga Miteru, along with Momoka in Keroro Gunsou, has announced on her site that she has been the victim of a deranged stalker.
Going by the name of “Phoenix”, who attempted to turn the tables on her in a lengthy series of posts where he claimed she was spitefully defaming his character and warned her that he was preparing to sue her.
The seiyuu explains that the maniacal 2ch otaku in question started stalking her, following her around and even intruding upon her place of work and interfering with her acquaintances.
Becoming worried, she enlisted police assistance to deal with the unwanted follower, who apparently was losing touch with reality; illustrating the disjuncture, he apparently said “Haruna cried out of love [for me]!”, to which the seiyuu responds: “I cried because I was scared [at him jumping me in the middle of the night]!”
But where he really showed his mettle as a stalker was in his various threats of legal action against her “defamation” of his noble character: “If it comes to the worst, I have unshakable proof and am considering suing her”.
He goes on in innumerable posts to concoct a Munchausen-esque scenario of her being a recalcitrant acquaintance of his behaving unreasonably towards him.
The stalker was eventually placed under a restraining order, and apparently has been of no more physical trouble.
She revealed all this in a lengthy confession on her blog, which she deleted as she said she would. You can still see it in various places online.
Although obviously seiyuu otaku are extremely prone to this sort of bizarre mania, and should properly be considered at fault, we must also bear in mind the fact that only by carefully cultivating this kind of obsession amongst their fans do celebrity seiyuu and idols attain the status and profits they do; as a result, it seems incorrect to think of them as being purely passive victims.
This is surely part of the trade, for better or for worse…
Would someone please describe to me what this 2Ch is? I hear about it all the time but have no idea what it is. It seems kinda creepy, like a bunch of loser kids obsess over specific things and whatnot.
Is everyone missing the irony that she plays Momoka–a crazy delusional stalker?
This guy is probably the most epic troll in existance.
Someone get Kaere Kimura on the phone, ASAP!
Seriosuly, though, just saying ‘It’s part of the seiyuu job’ is like just shrugging at a policeman being shot on duty and saying ‘It’s his own fault for being a policeman’.
I also think the guy who put a large part of the blame on Japan’s dated views on mental health and treatment of these problems is spot on.
probably he doesn’t want 2d girls anymore.
i feel pity for these kind of fans…
The stalker is fail lol
why should he stalk this 3D disgusting pig?!
Because all the 2d girls were taken?
Occupational Hazard. Dude needs help. おしまい
You have to be fuckin insane to think that someone desevres this kind of BS just because they get “paid” to be a seiyuu. What the hell you think a order of protection is for. Let the male bitch rot in a cell for a good while then. There’s your consequence for your actions. I’m too pissed to say anything else.
Learn to read. I never said she “deserves” it.
Dude is dumb, the end. Know your place.
You sure you know yours?
Lately I’ve been thinking about how paparazzi following movie stars and pestering them with pictures and interviews is their way at getting back at the successful people. I’m not really sure who I support in that case(but damn, ever watch tmz? those guys are annoying), but in this case I think the seiyuu is in the right. The stalker sounds delusional and possibly dangerous. He gives otaku a bad name.
Defamation? It’s only defamation if it’s untrue.
Have no problem with people obsessing over something from afar, but I draw the line at physical confrontations. I don’t see how the seiyuu in this situation is at fault at all.
So that’s what Yoshino’s seiyuu looks like.
Im with the stalker cause no one else seems to be…he probably has a kick ass Trap card in face down position just waiting to be played 😀
what’s a trap, anyway?
Just watch M+H, to find out.
I don’t think seiyuu’s have some devious underlying motive where they entice otaku’s into what is basically worshiping them, that requires a little too much intelligence for your average voice actress. If anything it is their agents and the society that can take the blame, addressing them with such lofty terms as “idols”, give me a fucking break, they are pretty and they do anime voice overs.
Regardless though, the brunt of the fault lies with these borderline mentally ill otaku’s who cannot differentiate between a woman crying in distress and a woman crying out of love, it isn’t like there is some subtle nuance with the two that can be easily overlooked. Perhaps if you weren’t so damn creepy, you would be able to at least enter the Friend Zone of your target of stalking.
What comes to mind when you say average intelligence voice actress is…
Hirano Aya.
An average intelligence seiyuu would be to be more than just a notch or two below the general population?
Actually,I wouldn’t even fault the mentally ill completely. I would fault in EQUAL terms:
1. The parents of the otaku for ignoring signs of weirdness that I’m SURE were obvious for YEARS.
2. The otaku themselves for not seizing on those LUCID moments where they KNEW they should’ve gotten help.
3. JAPAN ITSELF. THIS IS WHERE THE LION’S SHARE OF FAULT LIES. Seriously, Japan at large needs to relax it’s Goddamn spinchter for a change and realize that their collective culture is DRIVING SOME PEOPLE FUCKING CRAZY. They need to drop the stigma on mental illness & start treating their people.
Trying to urge the mentally ill to just knock it off won’t accomplish shit. Executing them AFTER THE FACT is the epitome of FAIL. The sick need treatment and Japan as a nation needs to drop their stupid pride and do the right thing.
I also disagree that the seiyuu deserve this kind of treatment. And to say that they cultivate this kind of obsession is also a questionable statement at best. While I understand that this website is nothing more than a blog, and as such have a fair amount of opinion, I still believe that you should at least support your statements. Especially when it comes to things like saying seiyuu are not passive victims of stalking. It is, at best, misinformed, and at worst, a distorted view of being a celebrity.
yea, i don’t think seiyuu encourage obsessive behavior, it just comes with the job. Within all celebrity fanbases, there is bound to be a few nuts waiting to snap. Buts its al god. Until they pull a John Hinckley.
*Buts its all good*
typo
Totally agree with you. Seiyuus are probably paid or encouraged to “talk” up whatever project they are working on and also to enhance their hireability for future projects. I seriously doubt they do anything because they want to encourage crazed behaviour; highly paid or not.
Maniacal and obsessed stalkers piss me off. （－.－）凸
we what?
I disagree with your conclusion that perhaps seiyuu deserve such treatment. Being the target of someone who has lost contact with reality is not the fault of the targeted person. I also challenge your implicit assertion that seiyuu make large “profits”. I know that that is not the case in the US with actors who do English dubs, they are very low paid, and I cannot imagine Japanese seiyuu to be much more well paid. Those who make large sums of money invariably do so through appearence fees and not pay from their roles, and are exceedingly rare.
Any anime/manga fan, whether they call themselves “otaku” or not, should denounce this kind of behavior as counterproductive to us enjoying the object of our fandom.
No… im pretty sure he didn’t imply that seiyuus make large profits… I mean, it would be contradicting the phrase he said in some article that seiyuus make less than your standard wal-mart worker.
There is a thread going on since a few years back in Animesuki that talks exactly about this, on how low are paid most seiyuus.
That’s why, as you said, they resort to other mediums to gain more money such as some taking the modeling or singing path alongside their seiyuus careers.
I never said they deserve such treatment. I pointed out that their actions implicitly invite such treatment, which seems undeniable. If a lady is unhappy with the idea of thousands of otaku using her image as a fantasy object, logically she would not sell the image to them for that purpose, and promote herself to that end.
Cultivating this kind of obsessive fandom is essential to the careers of idol-seiyuu – most do not after all sell their CDs and concert tickets to an audience larger than these otaku.
Most seiyuu do not of course make much, but the idol seiyuu (or idols in general) we are dealing with here are a different matter.
Anon completely agrees. When you rely on obsessive fans to buy your overpriced goods – multiple copies of your terrible CD’s and gravure books and DVD’s – and it actually works, you can expect some of them to just go too far. They are needed to be obsessive to buy the stuff that is being marketed.
HAHAHA @ Ikezawa Haruna is idol seiyuu. She’s not.
i think meant idols or seiyuus
I have to agree. When someone’s career depends upon being in the public eye, you have to cultivate your fanbase. The downside of course is that you lose most of your privacy and attract obsessive freaks.
As the saying goes, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen”.
Fucking stalkers should get dumped in a cell to rot for a few years.
Scumbags, learn to draw a line.
Perhaps we should TEACH them how and where to draw a line, something which they obviously did not learn correctly in their childhood, rather than dump them in a cell to rot.
I was thinking the same thing.
Wait I might have missed it because I’m sleepy at the moment, but, sue her for what? o.o