Aki Toyosaki “Internationally Hated”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Mar 1, 2012 13:26 JST
- Tags: Aki Toyosaki, Events, Idol, Music, Otaku, Seiyuu, Video Gallery, Yui
Moeblob seiyuu Aki Toyosaki’s “blasphemous” rendition of “Hey Jude” has become the subject of worldwide opprobrium, with international exposure resulting in her performance being hated more widely than ever before.
The video and initial reaction were featured in the initial article:
Although it has witnessed a drastic increase in negative ratings, the ratio of negative to positive ratings does seem to have improved slightly, as does the ratio of ratings to views:
Online there is a certain amount of suspicion that the barbarian cohort is feeling more generous about her performance than the notoriously vicious Japanese fans:
“It was posted all over the place overseas…”
“She’s cute!”
“You don’t see videos like this getting such a panning very often.”
“Normally, people don’t actually bother to watch low-rated ones…”
“It was posted on Sankaku and Kotaku, so…”
“There are a lot more English comments now. This is getting pretty bad, in a worldwide way.”
“The low ratings have increased a lot, but there are more positive ones too. The foreigners don’t seem to think it is all that bad, do they?”
“Foreigners are battling away in the comments there.”
“This is sick, they’re just bullying her now.”
“I was at elementary school in the UK and I cannot understand a word of this woman’s singing. Is this an English song?”
“Only crazies care about this nonsense.”
“Who cares about the Beatles and other such garbage anyway?”
“It’s still too early for the whites to appreciate her moe voice.”
“Beatles otaku are as creepy as seiyuu otaku, truly.”
“This is just like the haters ragging on Aya Hirano.”
“It’s getting more and more negative ratings every day. Not that I’ve watched it once.”
“The heated battle between negreptards and posreptards continues apace.”
“Who is this again?”
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“Foreigners are battling away in the comments there.”
Dude, that's how it always is in youtube.
Yeah, there's a big contrast between watching videos on Nico Douga and watching them on YouTube.
On Nico Douga, it's people happily commentating the videos alongside the viewer.
On YouTube, it's a cesspool of self-righteous trolls hurling pages and pages worth of personal attacks at each other and spamming every video with advertisements.
If Nico Douga wasn't slower than shit, I'd never go to YouTube.
Are you serious? Nico Douga is filled with haters as much as youtube. The only difference is that it's in Japanese and the hate is more centralized towards non-Japanese related videos...Where do you think 2ch primarily go to watch videos?
You're in denial if you think that Nico Douga is even remotely free from this crap.
Wow, you make it sound like the internet isn't like that in general...
Just look at Sankaku, it's the same shit over here "self-righteous trolls hurling pages and pages worth of personal attacks at each other".
You think we're different here?
So basically Nico Douga is the Japanese version of Youtube except even more racist.
Pretty sure the universe doesn't care about this, or at the very most, is giving it a /facepalm.
Well, really, this kind of stuff is everywhere. Be it discussions on Wikipedia or the comments from amazon.
Youtube is racist enough.
Guys, this is a UNIVERSAL matter.
Nicodou is 10x more ruthless and horrid with their hate comments [even on Japanese videos] compared to Youtube. It's easier to type "gross" a thousand times in bright red text and have it fly across the screen in anonymity than it is on youtube.
Youtube seems like a children's playground compared to the hate that goes on on Nicodou.
Depends on where you're looking. Generally, when you look at plain music video on youtube, it can still get political. At least on Nico only the controversial videos get the controversial discussions. On youtube, one guy says god bless you and 9000 atheist butthurt teenage retards pick on that and start a whole thing with that even though the video is not religious in any way.
Well said, so why would anyone even care what is been said on Youtube mental retardation posting.
aye man so much hate in this world just makes you sad :(
Everybody is complaining about racism. Yet nobody turns an eye o the Japanese (or any other Asian country for that matter) who hate pretty much everything and everyone but themselfs.
Xenophobic assholes..
In the immortal words of Arnie:
Fuck you asshole!
Everybody complains about racism because they want to look good by being hypocrites. Nobody's completely non-racist. It's just a matter of pretense.
Oh yeah, and it's COMPLETELY NOT RACIST to say ALL Asians hate everybody but themselves pured based on one specific board on 2ch.
Ignorant generalizing asshole. Do the world a favor and fucking kill yourself.
Youtube is great for all those international fights. With all kind of alliances informing and shattering all of the time.
It's get especially funny when you bring in nationality, culture and other stuff.
tell him welcome to the interwebz
Haters gonna hate.
Well said, Shikishi...
Do you know how bloody hard it is to sing in a language that is not your own..?
At least she is doing her best to sing in a foreign language unfamiliar to her vocal cords...
Let's see those zealot fanboys who think they can do better sing the first season theme of K-ON! without sounding like a gigantic knife scrapping on the rusty metal gratings of an other-worldly town...
I second this ;)
Whenever people feel a foreigner is doing something they like themselves and they do it in a different style, they tend to feel defensive about their hobby while taking offense that it being done in such a way.
In this case, it's the typical 'The Japanese voice is squeaky and ANNOYING'. Typical extreme bias people always holds it into their vest until they can voice it out with extreme prejudice.
Typical really.
She was incredible, and she is cute, I for one give her 2 thumbs up for her trying her best.
Honestly, I don't think the problem is that she's trying to sing in a non-native language. The problem is that she's trying to sing in a non-native language while purposely distorting her voice to sound like a moe anime character. It just doesn't work particularly well.
Atleast other people aren't stupid enough to sing in foreign language if they clearly can't do it.
All those zealot fanboys are also professionals making their living by using their voice alone? With a little exaggeration your argument is as invalid as telling someone to make a better video card himself if his not satisfied with his current one's performance, or make a better car herself if she's finding her current one lacking. If a professional fails at their own craft, it's utterly justified to criticize them.
@annon 18:25
Maybe the beatles could sing it but if they couldn't they would be made fun of too.
Just don't sing in a foreign language if you can't pronounce it.
A professional should know what he/she can do and what not.
They wouldn't even bother singing such an abomination of music.
Dude half of them are dead.
Wrong argument. How about if I ask the Beatles themselves to sing a K-On Song then? Can they sing it without shaming Aki Toyosaki?
Most people don't even have a problem with her English. Her English in this performance isn't even that bad, considering that it's not h er native language.
It's that she picked a song that doesn't match her vocal range at all. Singing "Hey Jude" with a high-pitched cutesy moe voice just sounds terrible. It's really just kind of annoying. Especially that bit where she stops and just gives that moe "Haaaa..." sound. It's just like...what?
Im not complaining because of the accent or whatever but that voice note. Its jus ridiculous. Whats gonna be next. Will she try to sing a heavy metal song with that voice?
rarely has this been used in such an appropriate way.
congratulations good sir
and those haters probably played it a good few times in secret...
video was cute <3
muted?
Her singing this didn't bother me at all because it's not her first language anyways. Also thinking its just Yui singing makes it fine.
I was more annoyed at hearing Beatles covers at an Ikea by people who could speak english.
English not being her first language wasn't enough of an excuse for me.
There are plenty of japanese people who can't speak english very well, but still can sing better than that.
So what if it fits Yui? It still sucks.
She was in character get over it, the son sucks anyway and the Beatles where a fine band but its old people music now.
LEAVE AKI ALONE!!
How about NO!
LEAVE HER ALONE IM SERIOUS!
I like it , she looks cute and sound cute.
I have to agreed with Shin
Why not have a gachi muchi pantsu wrestling remix of the song? It'd be a lot better...
OH MY SHOULDER!!!
not that she's insulting the song or anything
i don't see what the problem is.
she doesn't even speak english to begin with.
silly people.
I think the problem is that people don't consider the context of her singing - the fact that she is singing as a Japanese and as Yui in a deliberately cute voice. Not only that, I also think that the die-hard Beatles fans take their songs way too seriously.
Its the voice that kills it. Not because she cant pronounce it. That voice has nothing to do with the genre of the song. It just sounds awful
@Actar: Very much agree with you about the Beatles fanatics.. They will pick apart Aki Toyosaki's rendition of this song like a bunch of wild jackals without fair and decent provocation. There was nothing wrong with her performance. I thought her voice was cute and that she did a good job. People are making too much of a big deal over this. Not everyone can be expected to sound like Paul McCartney.
Like, I'm British and the outside world take The Beatles waaaay more seriously than we do. I thought this song sounds okay, but I wish she would have tried to sing a rendition in Japanese. That would have been a little better than her attempting engrish.
What do you mean by she was singing it as Yui?
She's not. That's her normal signing voice. Yui isn't a voice she puts on. She naturally sounds like Yui.
This isn't complaining. I don't see why she shouldn't be allowed sing in her normal voice.
It is her normal voice. She spoke about this before, how she always hated her voice until she was invited to do voice work and she realised it could be useful.
And in that interview, she spoke with her unusually high normal voice.
Seiyuu do not usually speak in their normal voices - Aya Hirano being a case in point, having been famously mocked during a TV appearance for putting on an excessively high voice. How they sound in private is anyone's guess...
He means that if you imagine her anime character singing this rendition, it actually sounds perfectly pleasant and serene for a cartoon girl.
Problem is, some people see an adult lady singing it instead of the voice actress, so the audio clashes with the visual, unless you're good at going along with her purposeful persona.
I could forgive her for singing badly if it were not her fault, but to deliberately do it is something else entirely.
It's not her normal voice moron!
i agree. it really sad.
yeah, it's mostly people jumping the bandwagon anyway.
>hey g-, h-, hey guys, guys i hate that too guys, am i cool yet?
I agree, like the old saying `there is no such thing as bad publicity` people are discussing her so that is good in one respect, I can think of loads of people famous for just being bad at something....
At least she is starting to get known "internationally"
Then, in my opinion, she should've picked a different song to sing. Besides, how would this look if a non-Japanese speaker sang a famous Japanese song? Do you really think anyone would defend that person like people defend Aki? Hell no! They'd get torn apart like she is now.
Agreed.
If she has that fake 7 year old cutesy anime voice she needs to stick to that genre. not to mention her english IS atrocious - should at least learn better pronunciation before trying. that's not just about the language, it's required to sing a song, just as any other professionals should when they are singing in a non-native language in a professional setting.
if she was singing this in a shower by herself, no one would give a damn. the problem is she is supposedly a 'professional', and performed this atrocious crap in a professional setting.
because obviously they're the same losers. I didn't like the video, I don't even like k-on or anything related to it, but I think people getting mad over it is silly. No one should be taking it so seriously.
She likes the song, she likes the Beatles and she just wants to express that. That's all. She obviously meant no harm and probably didn't think she'd get such a negative reaction assuming people might understand that she has difficulties with pronunciation. As for her voice I guess it varies person to person, but it's not like she was using the cutesy voice to mock the original version. And apparently that's just her normal voice.
People don't need to get mad, but people are allowed to say it sucks. I still think the video sucks. I don't hate Aki or anything, I didn't even watch K-ON, and don't generally give a shit what voice actors do in their spare time.
The problem is, the way she sings the song is absolutely terrible. She rasps half of the words, and as mentioned before, her pronunciation is terrible. Do you people really expect me to lie down and say oh well, its not her first language so its ok to suck at singing? When I suck at something, and I know that there are a lot of things that I do not do well, like art - jesus god I cannot draw to save my life, but if I'm going to do something, and have people watch it for any reason whatsoever I will PRACTICE.
I could get over the rasping if she would just pronounce the words properly. Even if she had someone who speaks English help her with this and practice the song, so she at least sounds like she really did listen to the original, and wasn't trying to guess what words are supposed to sound like by reading sheet music. There are several instances of Japanese singers using English in their songs and they don't sound terrible.
It sounds like she was dicking around one day, did this and thought, I know! I'll show this to my fans! Then proceeds to do so without doing any real work on the song.
Also agreed with above statement.
On another side note:
"Only crazies care about this nonsense."
Coming from these losers who went bat shit crazy to hear Aki was supposedly living with her boyfriend.
00:12 - You just made the point people are making. Maybe she shouldn't try and perform an english song, in english, if her english is not very good.
Sometime in the last 10-15 years, humans have evolved away the shame organ in their brains that tells you when you can't do something well and shouldn't post it online where it will be criticized by everyone. Actually I'm not sure evolved is the right word, because usually evolution is a positive or beneficial change.
Youtube, Facebook, just about any forum or comments site.. tell me I'm wrong. I dare you.
"if she was singing this in a shower by herself, no one would give a damn."
Y'know, I'd PAY to see her singin' in the shower.
i'll like to see. well no Hear you sing in another language. specially one you do not speak fluently or at all. then post it here or on youtube and see how they rip you a new one.
I also agree with the above. I give her credit for trying, but no matter how you try to justify it, the end result is a bad cover of the original song.
The only people who could really appreciate this cover would be her fans and as the ratings show, is only a small minority of the population and even then they would only like it/defend it because they are bias.
People need to be more neutral and stop being fanboys.
I don't even know who she is, but the song sounds alright. It's way cuter than the original.
I am not a fan and I am okay with it.
It doesn't matter that she doesn't speak English, she can't hold a fucking note! The rest of it is just sound mimicking.
There's also picking your songs based on your voice. I can sing The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Pearl Jam spot on, but I can't touch Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Foo Fighters because I'm not in that specific vocal range.
She wasn't in the right range for Hey Jude because it was sung by 3 Altos and a Tenor. She's a Soprano at the deepest!
Who the fuck voted down this man's sensible and perfectly reasonable comment?
I would too, maybe, because I disagree. I see no reason why you can't sing a song from a singer with a different vocal range than yours.
Sure, people who only want to listen to the original wont like it, but nothing will please them anyway.
When I sing girl's songs at karaoke, I bring it down an octave. but when I do that, no one gives a shit. Why? because I don't go to karaoke with dickheads who would complain about me because I happen to only listen to female singers.
Voting people down just because you disagree is the bane of any comment voting system. I'd like a world where people vote on the integrity of a comment, but that will never happen on the internet ever.
Angry fan boys that's who.
They are no better than fox news, you just cannot reason with them no matter how valid your arguement is.
I tip my hat down to you sir Erranty, probably one of the best comments on the thread, sadly was voted negatibly trolls will be trolls, till the end of times.
@Erranty: So what?
So that's why it's bad. It's not just random hate. There's actually a reason, and it's because she sung in the wrong key.
OK....so when American/Western Weeaboos destroy the Japanese language, everyone HATES them and calls them a million bad names.
But a Japanese that RAPES the English languages is supposed to get a pass???
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
If she can't speak English....then DON'T!!!
it is indeed retarded :(
you know that you're actually rating the video not the girl? The actual cover itself is just plain bad even if it isnt her first language.
You can make strong accents work ( for example Scandinavian accents tend to work really well ) but srsly everybody makes fun of asian accents already why would you think that ppl would like a song with one of those accents?
Which is why she shouldn't sing English songs in the first place. And don't get me started on yank weaboos singing Cruel Angel Thesis.
At least weaboos only do that shit in karaoke.
Anyone pissing and moaning about her English needs a slap, it is quite easy to understand her.
What is at issue is that she does it as Yui and that is fucking awful for that song.
If you don't speak the language, don't sing songs in it before everyone
In Beck Mongolian Chop squad the characters sing English songs and the performances are amazing, you can totally "get it," listening to them sing. Music is universal, even if languages aren't.
The west is just trying keep another Asians down just for trying to rise to intenational glory like they are trying to do with Jeremy Lin right now?
Jews: Proving Hitler Right Since 1945.
i don't understand how you get from an asian woman singing an english song to jews.
oh well, as long as it makes sense in your head...
butthurt people's agonizing squeaking. anything to comfort themselves makes sense in their head.
There's one thing I will say for antisemites: they're incredibly "creative".
The irony is that you people actually seem to believe that the Jews have superpowers or are all super-geniuses.
lolwat
another asspained immigrant shit talking crap about west that their parents whored up to so they can provide your current lifestyles. bitch and moan moar. your kind is nothing more than derivative garbage that belongs nowhere.
we should point out that controversy originated from japanese, not the west. so is japan 'keeping asians down'?
the way you think having yellow skin gives you bitching privileges or some moral high ground is laughable to people who had the guts to stick it out at the homeland.
bitch moar. i like it when bitches scream.