Ueda Kana apologizes for threatening to “erase” oyaji
This has been all over internet news and message boards for the past few days - at first I didn’t think much of Kana’s supposedly offensive comments when I heard it on Marunage, but news spreads quickly over the internet & people start making a big fuss. When ’something a seiyuu said’ starts making the mainstream news sites… you know it’s time for a public apology.
The incident:
During the Marunage show that aired on 7th December, the two hosts (Ueda & Shimizu Kaori) were chatting away as they usually do when Kana brought up something that had happened to her/them recently. Basically Kana and Kaori were in a train minding their own business. Kana had put down her empty canned drink on the seat next to her, intending to dispose of it after she disembarked when a middle-aged man (oyaji) came over and more or less ‘told her off’ for leaving rubbish around.
That pissed Kana off and she started ranting about it on the radio, stating her now much quoted ‘このオヤジを社会的に抹殺したい’ ([I] want to socially erase this oyaji) and going on to discuss with Kaori ways to humiliate said old geezer because ‘it was his fault’ for embarassing them. For example, trying to attract attention by screaming and/or asking for ‘help’ from the station attendant/railway guards, or faking a call to the police telling them to wait at the next station because they had ‘run into a bit of trouble’. Generally, not very nice things to say on a mainstream radio station (Radio Kansai) programme, albeit at 1am in the morning.
The apology:
…after a week’s worth of criticism, the latest Marunage episode has the duo apologising for the comments that ‘may have made some people uncomfortable’, giving a less exaggerated account of the incident - that they had encountered a drunk man on the train who made unpleasant comments to them, and no matter how angry they felt at the moment, they should not have said what they said. And dragged out the old ‘まだまだ未熟ですが、ご声援いただければと思います’ (aka I’m still stupidly inexperienced and am very sorry, please don’t blacklist me!) plea.
The short clip of their comments was taken off Youtube by Radio Kansai, and all the weekly uploads of the show on Nico Nico Douga have been wiped out. Keep your mouth shut (or stop drinking before you record the show) girls, mmmkay?
Personally it was all bullshitting to me, given both Kana & Kaori’s tendencies to let their mouths run away, but I guess with anything & everything public figures in Japan say getting pulled apart (lol politicians) these days, it’s best not to make any un-PC comments.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
lol @ people taking a drunk Ueda Kana seriously. It was just a joke anyway.. poor Marunage girls.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I feel sorry for them
Poor Kaori got dragged into it :p
December 18th, 2008 at 2:52 am
oh no… I used to download those from Nico Douga every week in hopes that I will one day understand them… where am I going to get them now? Wow, Japanese people are just a TAD uptight, don’t you think? It’s ok! I still <3 you, Ueda Kana!
December 18th, 2008 at 5:54 am
I too feel sorry for the two of them
That show is always about jokes anyway. I can’t understand why anybody would take them seriously
Aww…and I liked the clips of Marunage on nico too…
December 18th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Jeez, do they really broadcast while drunk? Wish I could drink during my lunch break.
JimOne’s links to some Stupid Japanese Politician Tricks makes me wonder; what kind of politics do most seiyuus have? Who did Minorin and Aya Hirano vote for in the last election? For that matter, are they even registered?
I did hear on Hashihime’s site though, that one of the seiyuus from Lucky Star appeared in a commercial for the New Democratic Party (which I guess is like Japan’s version of the U.S. Democratic Party).
December 18th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
If they were drunk during radio broadcasts they’d probably get kicked off lol. Though Ito Shizuka has turned up for many a recording with a hangover…
@Andrew
I doubt seiyuu, like most young Japanese, have much interest in politics.
December 19th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Speaking of politics (this was on Sankaku), I recall Katou Emiri featured in an interview for a newspaper operated by the communist party in Japan. That sparked a small furor over its significance.
Off topic: Yesterday I realized that I recognize Ueda Kana by the virtue of her nose when I saw her on the Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Seiyuu picture (again Sankaku).