Seiyuu Fans Dangerous Maniacs?
- Filed under: Anime, News
- Date: May 17, 2008 19:45 JST
- Tags: Events, Fans, Idol, Nana Mizuki, Seiyuu, Yukari Tamura
Watch reports on the things the lovable seiyuu who voice our anime and games have to put up with at the hands of deranged fans – a veritable catalogue of infamy; I recount it here for your amusement and information:
2002: The Yukarin Handshake Incident.
Yukarin (田村ゆかり/ Yukari Tamura – think Tenten, Nanoha, Talim, Rosalind) was deliberately ignored by a wicked group of conspirators at a handshaking event – they even made her cry, it is said. It took her almost 5 years to recover enough to attend another event.
2005: The Yukarin Concert Incident.
Fans went berserk in the fan club priority seating area, destroying walls and ceilings. Yukarin issued a statement on her site saying she could no longer participate in the Kanagawa People’s Hall Concert.
2006: The Yui Horie Stage Event Incident.
At the announcement of a new anime at the Tokyo Interantional Anime Fair, fans caused an affray over a guaranteed seating dispute. The following year seating arrangements were changed.
2006: The Aice5 Event Incident.
Fans started a ruckus over first row seating, and they had to be forcibly evicted during the performance. After this Starchild made pronouncements concerning acceptable behaviour at events.
2006: The Yukarin Fan Club Event Incident.
A man wearing Yukarin livery (that’s what it says) was evicted after it emerged there was something very fishy about his participation in an event lottery.
2008: The Nana Mizuki Fan Conspiracy Incident.
The mixi Nana (Hinata) fan community administrator and a fan group announced their intent to plan an event, but there was a rush of criticism from other fans claiming that the plans constituted an attempt to use the group for their own private ends; the organisation was then forbidden from continuing. Subsequently, there was ticket scalping and ticket sales were suspended, and the administrator resigned.
What is it about Yukarin and co. which prompts this sort of behaviour, I wonder?
They are pretty hawt seiyuu where popularity is concerned, and many fans are just crazy/moe over them to the point of idolizing them too much. Sometimes, you got to wonder how those fanboys actually survive.
This isn’t just a japanese phenomenon. Western musicians have their own share of overzealous fans. As long as nobody has been killed at a seiyuu concert, I wouldn’t call them dangerous.
I can’t help but agree with you, although I think it says something about the depth of their devotion for Japanese fans to behave in such a fashion, since we might normally expect less direct and rambunctious behaviour from generally orderly Japanese, especially considering the lower rates of violent crime in Japan.
You know the old saying, “Still waters run deep.”
There were some in Thailand, I believe, who were killed when fans rushed in through the single entrance at once; some were stomped to death.
And take a look at John Lennon; shot by an obsessed fan in the back.
The fans themselves who always want more, will eventually become their undoing.