Post by Pupu on Aug 31, 2012 8:05:06 GMT
After gathering some bits of information mostly thanks to people on twitter and a little on tumblr and by googling, this is what I have gathered about an incident that happened some time ago (promotion event for the anime Kokoro Connect), but that didn't reach out really.
During a live promotion event there was a secret guest, B-voice actor Mitsuhiro Ichiki. He had been told he was going to get a anime original character and was asked to audition which was filmed. However, during the live event, this film was shown to the audience while Ichiki's good friend Takuma Terashima laughed and said cruel comments. And in reality he didn't have a role at all! All of it was staged for this "prank". Takahiro Mizushima, another male voice actor, didn't say anything but laughed too.
At the end of the live promotion, they offered Ichiki work within the PR section, however the offered position isn't much better than being a janitor.
In Terashima's radio show, he was laughing and making cruel comments about his "friend" Ichiki while talking about the incident too.
While working, Ichiki had to reach "goals" on some tasks. I don't know them exactly, but it would be something like having 20 000 followers on the Kokoro Connect twitter and similar. If he didn't reach these goals, he was punished, like they would do in a game show. One of these punishments was getting electric shocks by another voice actor.
It's heart-breaking and people who ordered Kokoro Connect merchandise cancelled their orders as soon as they found out about this. In Japan public humiliation is serious business. People commit suicide because of the shame. Sure, the do in the western countries too, but in east Asia these things are much more serious in the culture. You'd expect bullying backstage, but on stage? And in this cruel manner?
During a live promotion event there was a secret guest, B-voice actor Mitsuhiro Ichiki. He had been told he was going to get a anime original character and was asked to audition which was filmed. However, during the live event, this film was shown to the audience while Ichiki's good friend Takuma Terashima laughed and said cruel comments. And in reality he didn't have a role at all! All of it was staged for this "prank". Takahiro Mizushima, another male voice actor, didn't say anything but laughed too.
At the end of the live promotion, they offered Ichiki work within the PR section, however the offered position isn't much better than being a janitor.
In Terashima's radio show, he was laughing and making cruel comments about his "friend" Ichiki while talking about the incident too.
While working, Ichiki had to reach "goals" on some tasks. I don't know them exactly, but it would be something like having 20 000 followers on the Kokoro Connect twitter and similar. If he didn't reach these goals, he was punished, like they would do in a game show. One of these punishments was getting electric shocks by another voice actor.
It's heart-breaking and people who ordered Kokoro Connect merchandise cancelled their orders as soon as they found out about this. In Japan public humiliation is serious business. People commit suicide because of the shame. Sure, the do in the western countries too, but in east Asia these things are much more serious in the culture. You'd expect bullying backstage, but on stage? And in this cruel manner?