Major anime broadcaster Tokyo MX has been forced to make a grovelling apology after one of its bosses called the company’s involvement in the creation of an AKB anime “shameful.”
The incident was prompted by a Tokyo MX manager tweeting thus:
“Doing an AKB anime is shaming the company, but there were certain reasons…”
This outrageously unguarded expression of an honest opinion, and one critical of Japan’s greatest cultural institution at that, was simply intolerable and soon Tokyo MX issued an official corporate apology:
We recently became aware that one of our management employees made critical comments about an upcoming anime show on his personal Twitter account.
We apologise deeply to all our valued viewers – we intend to immediately deal most severely with this employee. Additionally, we will ensure he is thoroughly trained in proper compliance so as to prevent any future incidents.
[They go on to describe the details of their corporate policy on social media, likely only of interest to the likes of Syria and China]
Tokyo MX is notable for being Tokyo’s only “independent” regional channel, the rest being associated with national broadcasters, and has long enjoyed a certain amount of notoriety for its relatively heavy anime involvement (although nothing compared to that of TBS and AT-X), and the amount of time it devotes to niche otaku shows.
Despite this relatively good reputation, aside from anime most of its programming seems to consist of looped shopping channel broadcasts interspersed with 30-year-old “classics” and occasional grovelling interviews with Tokyo fuhrer Ishihara.
Online there is not a great deal of sympathy for either him or the notoriously pure and blameless little schoolgirls of AKB48:
“But he’s right…”
“We live in a world where you cannot just say what you want to say.”
“What kind of soviets are in charge there? They want to control what he says in private as well?”
“He’s an anime otaku apparently. Naturally he couldn’t stand AKB48.”
“He’s creepy. He apparently started tweeting about how he was asked to select the tunes for his daughter’s school event, selected a bunch of anisong, only to end up with it all being AKB stuff – hence his dislike of them.”
“When I heard about this I agreed with him, but knowing that I’m a bit shocked…”
“He was a bit naive to have said all this under his real name…”
“I think he would have been warned about that sort of thing even if it weren’t AKB. It’s unprofessional.”
“It’s not an industry where the honest have much future.”
“What do you expect of a Twitter user.”
“That anime was really bad though!”
“AKB is shaming Japan. We don’t need those worthless mass-produced idols.”
“I don’t see what there was to apologise about.”
So AKB48 tried to be Idolm@ster and failed?
I didnt know akb48 but i liked the anime…
I dont know where the problem is, but you all should stop hating on every fucking anime.
Those filthy Americans sure love to be 200 kg (about 400 pounds for filthy Americans).
Wow, that had nothing to do with what’s being discussed. Do you hate all Americans blindly, or just out of some sort of ignorance?
Filthy Americans are filthy.
i bet you stink huh
So hentai gonna do good for japan future change next episode to giant boob and panty short
AKB anime is shit alright, but more importantly… you cannot say whatever you want in your PERSONAL Twitter account? Hell, not even the CIA or FBI monitors the employee’s personal Twitter accounts or at least they do not do anything about it as long as they are not asying they are gonna go out and randomly killing people. Japanese companies are scary.
He should be aloud say whatever he likes. But if he tries to convince people to not buy his company’s product, he should be fired.
That’s not how companies reason, heck, it’s not even how governmental organizations reason.
When someone else is your boss, you learn to guard your tongue. Lest it costs you your job.
That’s the way the world works.
Unfortunate maybe, but I don’t see it changing for at least another 250y or so.
Tehy should have realized something was wrong when somebody said “Let’s use MikuMikuDance for the dancing animations!”
Fucking moe-shits
this is worst than idolm@ster
Make AKB49 Anime!
If manga AKB49 has an anime, i’ll watch. But not this shit…
“We live in a world where you cannot just say what you want to say.”
well, you’re free to do anything as long as u’re prepared for it
I still can’t understand why so many people dislike this anime. Not liking an anime is one thing, actively hating it (and expressing it) is another.
Is it just because this anime is related to AKB48?
I personally know nothing about that group, but I like this anime. It has all the typical good things you can find in animes, minus sexiness, plus excellent character development. I sincerely wish that there is a 2nd season.
Probably right. When the anime was announced I was wondering would it make readers here more open minded about the idols. Turned out it made readers closed minded about the anime.
I don’t get the amount of hate this show gets. It’s actually rather good, and better than most if not everything else this season.
Totally agree.
This is one of the best animes I’ve watched!
I wonder what kind of anime these people like… perhaps Queen’s Blade? Go watch your porn already! Stop bashing good anime.
I also loved this Anime. I was hooked straight from the opening credits. It gave me all the feelings that I had when watching Karate Kid for the first time. It had humour, tension, sadness, action and that feel-good factor towards the end which gave me goosebumps. I was thoroughly entertained and can’t wait for next season. (if there is one). 🙂
If you make something worthless out of something just as worthless, do you expect art?
I don’t give a damn what they have to say about AKB0048.
Anime is first and foremost, entertainment. You are free to acomplish other things along the way, ask the big questions, explore the human condition and all those deep things we all ponder at some point along with making something entertaining. However if you make an Anime, or any form of fiction, that just does those things whilst forgetting to entertain, you have inexorably lost your way and have forgotten the basic foundation of fiction: it is at the end of the day, entertainment.
The biggest question I ask when thinking about Anime is this: did it entertain me? Everything else comes second.
Sure, AKB0048 is not the deepest Anime of the Spring 2012 season, but for me it is the most entertaining, along with Acchi Kocchi and Jormungand.
I am Type B and a man who loves his Moe, and while depth and asking the big questions is by no means bad, it is not absolutely required. I require my fiction to be entertaining first and foremost. AKB0048 did that for me wonderfully, and I require nothing more than that. You are free to disagree, but I will not change what I love regardless of what you say. I loved what I saw, and I don’t give a damn if the broadcasters don’t like it. I like it, and that’s what matters at the end of the day.
Thanks for your post, but you should know: Putting a real and completely valid argument on SanCom is like putting truffles on a McD’ohnalds hamburger patty: a waste of ressources.
Anime is whatever people are willing to pay for it to be. If there is enough demand for non-entertainment anime, then such anime will be made.
You’ve got to be shitting me. That anime is insane and awesome. What the fuck?!
“There’s nothing suggestive in any of the dances I’ve seen. ”
You didnt see so much didnt you?.No suggestive dance…OK, what about suggestive MV concepts like… I dont know… the most famous MV “Heavy Rotation”? Or what about dancing in Bikini in a very messy choreographic summer MVs? More over, do you remember the opening scene of “Ponytail to Shushu”? You dont call that suggestive???
Any person with a minimum sense of good music must agree about that AKB48 its the worst example for represent the best in Japanese music.
Geez.
And you’ve clearly no idea what suggestive means, ye dumb cunt. None of it looks like sex. Heavy Rotation, they’re in lingerie, yeah. Ponytail, they’re “almost” caught naked. How is that suggestive?
Why are you commenting that here. Still, no suggestive dances. And of course they’re not the worst. Anyone who knows Japanese music should know this.
There’s plenty of far worse idol groups.
No, the real group consist out of nothing more than old hores. The animegirls at the very least are pure. I won’t say the anime is interesting but atleast it is a good way too pass time.
What exactly is this “purity” thing moe otaku speak of? Honest question.
It’s not a “moe otaku” thing, but more about the tradition of Idol shouldn’t have lover or shagging anyone when he/she is still an Idol. It has been that way since 70s or 80s. The only difference is underage girls or boys back then don’t hump like rabbits anywhere as much as now in our modern society.
And the lots of Japanese do think the actual AKB48 group is a shame to Japan. Someone made a video which consist of a short clip of music video of number one single around them world, while every countries’ number one music video were very good and had class, when it came to Japan’s turn, their music video was with an army of underage schoolgirls in bikini dancing and jumping around in front of the camera. Not that I don’t like watching underage schoolgirls doing that, but if you think the rest of the music video for the other countries, AKB48 does shame Japan…if not reinforcing the saying Japanese are bunch of lolicon.
That’s shameful? It’s not like they have sexy dances. There’s nothing suggestive in any of the dances I’ve seen.
I’m sure I could reverse that, and have Lady Gaga or Katy Perry both of whom have been fully naked in videos, but covering with hands/objects and pit them against Mr. Children. But even vs AKB, I’d pick AKB.
glad to see someone has the brain to realize it. even from the start i knew it would suck. just look at the setting, there’s not much there
I predicted closed mindedness but not for people to be so blunt about it. Thanks for admitting you never gave it a chance. Now others might.
Not that it takes a brain to realize it. You did.
*ducks*
“What kind of soviets are in charge there? They want to control what he says in private as well?”
This chap doesn’t get it, has nothing to do with Soviets, and everything that his actions reflected badly upon his employer.
And PR isn’t cheap, so building up a good to decent reputation costs quite a bit of moolah.
One could say, but it was his private account, but if he identifies himself as working for that company then it reflects back upon them as well.
It’s like that Tea Party loving Marine, who loved to promote the Tea Party and slag off the President on his Facebook page, where he identified himself as being an active duty marine (well weatherman really), despite having been warned already that he was in violation of the rules. He got canned for it.
So all in all he’s just costs the company a great deal of money, and possibly jeopardized a relationship with a customer, which could mean even more money loss.
So yeah, them not being happy with what he did, is quite logical.
There are heart shapes in their eyes and hair. Enough said.
Probably a bad analogy here but…
U.S. is to Jersey Shore as Japan is to AKB48(anime)?
How is it shameful? It’s the best series of the season!
“AKB is shaming Japan. We don’t need those worthless mass-produced idols.”
…How tsundere ARE these people?!
A while ago, when Noel Gallagher described AKB48 as mass-produced idols, they all raged about it. But now they’re agreeing?!
Again, they are all bitter about one of the members having relationship with a male.Fans felt betrayed because of what 3 or 4 members of AKB48 this year were caught having a relationship were kick out for that.
Believe it or not, there’s more than one person on the internet.
No way!
So where’s the spin off doujini stuff?
“AKB is shaming Japan. We don’t need those worthless mass-produced idols.”
This. Very much.
I can’t really remember since when, but nowadays the whole Japanese web is spammed with all these [three random letters]48 artifical nonsense. And the sad thing is, these groups will keep on being formed while there are people who are interested in them and willing to buy hundreds of copies of their albums just to be selected to attend a handshaking event.
Meanwhile, the Japanese industry is slowly becoming a shadow of itself, so does the economy. And basically everything we used to love about Japan.
Keep up the good work…
how about you take your self across the earth with all the other anime hating fools and live there, meanwhile us anime-likers will stay on the other side of the earth and live in entertainment for WHAT WE LIKE
Well, no one else’s sales have dropped as a result, so who gives a fuck?
i thought the only purpose of shows like this was to span all sorts of X rated doujinshis.
Make it into a H-OVA series instead of this shit. It won’t be shameful then…unless you’re the actual signing group.
Except that no one cares wtf this signing group is.
So they finally admit they fucked up…good.
NOW….If only Enix would follow suit!!
They did, sort of look for 1 or 2 days when they announced outsourcing and most likely westernizing everything just look at their latest engine technical test.
When will air the sex scandal episodes?
get rid of the 3d in the anime and i am happy lol
Fuck all you haters who don’t like the anime. U JELLY?
An anime based in the real jpop band of lolicons…
GREAT WORK PEOPLE!
(ironic Mod Off).
More creeps otaku for her!
Old_Nash
That word you use doesn’t mean what you think it means. What you are saying is that the AKB performers are pedophiles.
YES. I am glad someone else knows what that means…
Like I said, there’s nothing lolicon in AKB.
For only eyes of creep otaku XD
Old_Nash
Some people really feel like it’s their duty to shit on this show.
The boobs are not big enough for them, I guess.
More that it’s just terribly written and has terribly written music. AKB makes reality TV look like true art.
I like small boobs but I dont like the akb48 anime.
Been watching the series its the prophecy of Ishihara’s future dream come true. All entertainment banned idols being beat to death by DEA agents.
Eh, that manager must have been sleeping, since the AKB0048 show has been on the air for more than 10 weeks, and now he says it’s shameful for the TV station!? A little bit too late, huh?
Just resign yourself, if you really mean you are sorry that such show is broadcasted though your TV station, like a real Japanese.
the stupidest thing about this anime is its argument
How it can be that shitty japanese poop music is the
salvation for humanity or wathever?
It was in Macross though.
Well lets not mention that it was not another race without any contact with culture that was not war, contrary to the basic plot on AKB where the worlds arbitrary decided to be retarded by choice.
@3rdEye
An analogy is not a direct comparison. What the hell are YOU talking about?
[quote]And Yugioh might have been good if you are a little kid.[/quote]
Nice ad hominem. For that, I shall send you to the shadow realm! Prepare to experience the ultimate terror of… yes, we are going to play a card game.
Basically, it’s yu-gi-oh for AKB fanboys, except they do music (insert barely contained laughter).
Er…and except it doesn’t have the shounen appeal to it or anything shounenish about it. The hell are you even talking about?
And Yugioh might have been good if you are a little kid.
Except Yugioh and 5D’s was actually good
Never heard of akb48 till now. I listen to their music and it sounds pretty normal stuff in Japan.
Cute girls, cute music, fun in the sun sunshine stuff.
Now the ANIME on the other hand won’t be good because it’s based off a singing group. And that’s not much to work with.
But the issue now in Japan has with AKB48 one of the members caused a sex scandal that pissed off Otaku fans.
It’ll be at least as good as the New Kids on the Block cartoon. You can look on youtube for it, but you probably shouldn’t.
It’s not just a singing group, it’s a production line of multiple singing groups under the akb48 name, with around 64 members split into 4 groups, along with other trainee groups… it’ll probably be enough to fill an anime. (already read a somewhat lengthy manga based on them, lol)
… but as a music group, they’re nothing special. xD
Gantz_Playboy explain to me about that group that they are consider another version of the Mickey Mouse club mix with American Idol.
Some who graduate from AKB48 ether become idols,Singers,Actresses,Seiyū,AV stars by whatever career path they choose.
That’s relative. Digimon 01 was based off the tamagotchi pets whose only feature was getting hungry, sleepy and grow up. No more than that. And in the end, digimon turned out to be pretty good.
If you have talent, you can make anything interesting. A book about stones could be very interesting if Kafka writes it.
@Comment by Anonymous
04:12 01/07/2012
What if Kefka wrote it???? hmmm???
XD
Great now I want that book…
Indeed.
I don’t understand why everyone hates the AKB48 anime. Whatever your feelings about the actual group, the anime is surprisingly well-done and quite better than some of the trite this season. I can’t help but feel like if it was an original concept the anime would be all over this site, considering that most of the cast is sparkly underage lesbian schoolgirls who kick ass and sing J-pop.
I love that kind of stuff, and a lot of people here do too, so I’m kind of sad people are neglecting this anime just because of the AKB label. Seriously, give it a shot!
akb’s anime is actually good, it was better than most of this season…
In terms of actual merits, the anime has few, but for some reason, it’s highly entertaining. I’m actually loving it.
I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s better than the live version… *shudders*
But the anime really did suck….
So does the real group…
dun judge them from the outside
judge them by the “inside” haha
I thoroughly enjoyed the AKB anime.
I did also lol I think the reason he had to say sorry was that his comment showed his company in a bad light more than who or what he was commenting on Japanese or very big on the many are more important than the one..like vulcans..lol
yeah, shut up you devil’s advocate
I think Akimoto would like to have a word with you…
And besides, he’s not the only one who makes idols in masses… There’s Mr. Johnny, who is also producing mass-produced male idols.
Speaking or writing the truth can get you fired.
It’s terrible that that’s how things are.
He should have used an anonymous Twitter account (e.g. with fake demographic information) and Tor — from an Internet cafe, not from home or work.
***shaming the company***
this is what got him in trouble. he dragged the company’s name into his personal opinion.
@12:46
Its the other way around. The employee represents the company unless he specifically notes he is not.
If people associate you with a company, and you express an opinion, most people will take this to be the opinion of the company.
Why do you think editorials in newspapers ALWAYS state that the authors opinions do not represent that of the paper?
The reaction seems a bit extreme, but disciplinary action shouldn’t be surprising. In the end, you’re publicly denouncing what your own company is doing; even if it’s understood that you don’t represent the company, it still speaks of internal discord and general bad press.
It’s not just Japan. I work in the film industry in N. America and it’d be the exact same deal. Bad idea all around. You keep it to yourself, or to private channels.
It’s not just Japanese companies. Any large company would take disciplinary action on its employees if they were openly critical and named the company in question on a social network.
Haven’t you seen the stories of people being fired over comments on facebook? Same thing.
@09:59
An employee does NOT represent the company if he doesn’t imply he speaks for the company and/or does so on a non-company related communications channel.
It doesn’t work like that, he’s still only one employee. And it still gets the whole company a bad name to say something like this.
He did this to himself.
Its not even that. From a corporate standpoint, the employees represent the company, thus anything they say is taken to be the company’s opinion. So this guy saying openly that something the company did was shameful was like the company itself saying it. This is why he got in trouble.
I still think its stupid.
Nah,… it’s all about opinion. If you tell people the truth about something they’ll laugh you in the face, because it’s easier to believe the nice lies. Hyperinflation coming soon? No, couldn’t happen. WWIII follows? How silly. If you keep going you’ll be labeled a conspiracy theorist sooner than you manage to say god’s in his heaven, everything’s alright with the world.
btw, did you know that banks own pretty much all the water in the world?
the anime will bread lolicons.
Old_Nahs
If becoming a lolicon means I have to literally get ear and brainraped by terrible music, I’ll pass.
I don’t see how it’s even possible to bread lolicons. There’s no reason why to do so, either, unless you intend to deep-fry them and serve them at your local Dahmer Fried Human restaurant.
This is not what I had in mind when they said “stay in the kitchen”.
Deep-frying’s too good for ’em!
Sure, after all, being lolicon is a choice right?
How will it? Sonata is the only loli of the show.
This is what happens when you people like love too much anime..
No, not really. We like good anime.
no. you sucked. your own dick
In Shigurui, someone can. It made me think of Ouroboros.
I wish I could…
Look at those comments…
AKB is shaming Japan…
That’s sooo wrong. It’s the Japanese that shame Japan.
Not to mention that honest people are yet again punished. Oh well, whatever. There’s probably about 100 Japanese that are actually quite distinguished and respectable persons. The rest is just hopeless.
That company came from S-A-T-A-N where no FUN is allowed, much less any form of hentai, lolis, and the likes.
You got it all wrong. Santa (a.k.a. satan) is this red dude that loves fun. He really does. Wherever he is, it’s always christmas and everyone’s happy.
Now if you’re talking about dogs (a.k.a. gods) son, the chess jurist (a.k.a. jesus christ), I hear he is a pain to be around..
well I don’t like their music, but still dunno how’s that shaming the company..
is it rly that bad 😕
it’s quite enjoyable actually. Not just cute things and syrup everywhere.
The true musician deserving the praise, fame and profit is the person who writes it, which is why pop-music generally sucks. That’s why it’s called popular music. Because it’s marketed by that which appeals to the masses and with it’s own popularity, which sounds crazy but is in fact true.
I think that actually all songs there are AKB48 songs. I like some of them. And while I never cared about the band, I bothered to look up the members I liked.
That being said, what is really good, funnily is the AKB49 manga… about a trap.
Anyway, the music in this anime sounds very nice. I don’t know if this is typical of AKB48 (IRL) though.
I’ve watched the anime. It’s actually pretty good in terms of human interaction. The characters act quite human, including their spite, joy, and anger. I honestly don’t know why most anime fans hate it so, it’s no worse then half of currently anime.
This anime its not that bad but also not that good (its hard to see and im and AKB48 fan). The problem is that this anime its just a big “AKB48-propaganda” tool. Targeting the normal anime otaku with very basic plots (follow your dreams, friendship, bla bla bla) but based in AKB music, names, events, etc, etc so the otaku fan can get used to this AKB concept and consume the product later.
Breainwash, breainwhas hahahaha.
Not enough blood and bewbs…? Honestly I think the anime’s decent… Very cliched plot line but the characters are fun to have around…
You’re right, it’s not great, but I think it’s decent. I understand people disliking it, I just don’t understand all the hate.
Maybe their music but not their toons.
Get it? Toons?
I don’t understand the problem…
Well there is a real shocker.