Hasegawa Shizuka Shuts Down Blog After Harsh Comments
19-year old seiyuu Hasegawa Shizuka, who voiced Kobayakawa Yutaka in Lucky Star and can currently be seen in the live-action version of Negima as Misora, made a sudden announcement on 16th February that her blog would go on hiatus immediately, deleting all previous entries made.
The whole incident started with an entry at 17:14 Japan time on the 16th, where Hasegawa apologised forhaving earlier announced the wrong date of the issue of Seiyuu Grandprix she was going to be featured in. Half an hour after the post went up, some smart-ass called 天音 詩温 comes along with a comment that is roughly/liberally translated to:
こんばちわ静香さん。(Hello Shizuka-san)
天音 詩温です。(This is TenOn ShiOn [misreading?])
歳上として、今回の事でちょっと苦言。(From somebody older, here’s some advice)
特定の一人の為に購入した人にとっては、
可 哀想な事になりました。 (People who buy [something] just for the sake of a specific person, that’s just pathetic) <—referring to ppl who bought Seigura just for Hasegawa Shizuka
恐らく静香さんのファンは、(Your fans are probably around the same age as you)
貴女と同い年かそれ以下の筈。(Or maybe younger)
金銭的には安くないはずです。(Since that [Seigura] wouldn’t be considered cheap [for them])<—- Saying that Shizuka’s fans can’t afford to buy so many issues of the mag ^^;
人間ですからミスしない筈は有りませんが、(You’re human after all, so making mistakes like this is not unusual)
今回の事は肝に銘じ、(So take this matter to heart)
こんなミスをしない様に御勤めください。(And go work hard so you won’t make such mistakes anymore)
And boom, at 22:39 Saturday night, Hasegawa posted that the blog would be on indefinite hiatus; adding that she had lost confidence in being able to upkeep the blog after the ’shock’ of those comments. She did say however, that she’d go away and reflect on the incident, work harder and eventually start the blog up again.
But….. Mr 天音 詩温 felt compelled to have the last say, and put up an entire philosophical lecture on humanity, full of spite and harsher words like:
なぜ、負けを、認められなかった。この件に関しては、長谷川静香のファンに、アンタ負けたんだよ。(Why don’t you just admit defeat. Regarding this matter, to Hasegawa Shizuka fans, you are a LOSER)
and etc etc
Hasegawa posted a follow-up yesterday explaining her reasons and expressing her surprise that the incident had escalated to such a large scale - from an initial 3000 hits the blog shot up to recording some 270k hits after being linked everywhere, including 2channel. She also apologizes for the whole fuss again, thanks the people who sent megssages of support and mentions that the blog will probably get re-started in a month’s time.
Wow, all that fuss over some stupid comments - most entertainers get thrown such crap most of the time; and almost all just ignore them and either employ commenting approval systems, or just shut down commenting altogether. OK, so I don’t think that dude was being very nice but I equally don’t think Shizuka should’ve just given in to that heckler and gone into hiding completely. Are all 19-year olds so emo? Or maybe there’s some other reason behind the whole thing, so some speculate.
See the remnants of the blog at http://yaplog.jp/shizukaburando/
February 20th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I’m 19 and I’d be just as shocked/mad as she was. Who does that person think he is? (Of course, this is probably an open invitation to troll my blog, but I’m not famous like her, so you really wouldn’t accomplish anything.)
February 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Ha ha wow
Anonymous of 4chan says much, much ruder things to english visual culture blogs and fansub group posts…which the recievers just suck up
February 20th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
*shrug* Maybe Japanese ppl are a fragile lot? I mean, someone just wished death upon me a few days ago & it only succeeded in making me laugh, not weeping to go see a therapist….
February 20th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hasegawa-san responded in a normal Japanese courteous way to her minor error, but the other person was not following the social rules. Short circuit. Fuse blows. Come back in a month.
Being ridiculously sensitive myself, I can feel her pain. But I’m interested to see how comparatively tame the guy’s comment was. If she’d got any of the things that show up all the time in Hirano Aya’s 2channel threads, she’d have jumped off a bridge by now.
Actually, it gives me respect for her as a normal person, not used to this crap. No wonder Koshimizu Ami stopped comments on her blog, and Hirano Aya never had them.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
If anyone’s really interested, the rest of the guy’s comments can be read here (in Japanese of course).
Allowing comments on a blog is an open invitation for ppl to hurl abuse and scrutinise every single thing you say, and it’s doubly worse for entertainers; especially in a country that demonises celebs for the strangest things (ie Koda Kumi’s recent gaffe).
Of course, I can understand that Shizuka’s feeling pretty down about this sort of critiscm given her young age & ‘relative newcomer’ status. Incidentally, Inoue Marina’s old blog suffered similar abuse of the comment system which led to every commenter now having to pass through the moderation system. Of course, the most effective solution would be to turn it off completely, but I’m sure celebs want fans to send them messages of love & support too
February 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
＠ hashihime: Huh? Amisuke stopped the comments? I only recently noticed that if I put a English word in my comments or something, it couldn’t be sent.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:13 am
@lil donkey — Yep, there they are. I guess my brain short-circuited. I could have sworn that was the case. I thought I noticed that months ago, so maybe (just maybe) she did turn them off and turned them back on.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:47 am
[...] blood when Chihara Minori asked to exchange phone numbers. ・houkoholic kills Ueda Kana. ・Hasegawa Shizuka shuts down blog after harsh comments. ・Goto Yuko’s blog’s sudden rise in popularity. ・Bandai USA get Code Geass seiyuu [...]
April 26th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
[...] my career go down the drain!’ turn as Misora in the Negima! live-action dorama, and the bizarre blog hiatus incident. The work seems to have gradually dried up since last summer - her stint as co-host of Ura Stacha [...]