Akihiko Kondofamous for having “married” the virtual idol Hatsune Mikuthe Vocaloid, dropped a bombshell on Twitter when he said that it had been included in an English teaching bookwhere they talked about her wedding with the fictional character, details about Hatsune Miku herself and her motivations.
However, his excitement did not last long, as shortly afterwards he was notified that the book had been edited and his part was eliminated. Kondo shared the following: «“This textbook, according to what the publisher told me, ultimately did not include me. They said they received complaints from some people. It's a shame».
This, of course, did not go unnoticed and comments of all kinds soon arrived. Many users were divided between those who supported him and those who did not understand why he had been included in the first place, pointing out that his “marriage” is not and should never be an example for society in Japan to follow.which in itself is already in a birth crisis.
Some of the most striking comments were:
- «If it was just Hatsune Miku, then it would be fine».
- «It's weird that they included it in the first place. If they didn't have official approval, that was a mistake».
- «At least if it had stayed in the book, they would have learned a thing or two about Miku».
- «He's not even a real 'character', he's a digital icon. What was expected?».
- «This guy is like a joke for Miku fans. I don't understand why people support him so much.».
- «How about we take it as a form of diversity education? People seem to forget that Miku is a figure that transcends many limits».
- «It seems he was seeking attention at all costs. He's gotten into a lot of trouble for things like this.».
- «If they hadn't shown the trailer, they probably wouldn't have even noticed. It's clear that his need for attention betrayed him».
- «Of course, I didn't expect there to be a fuss over this. It's just an English book!».
- «It's sad because I really thought that her appearance would help make characters like Miku visible in another context.».
- «In his desire to be the center of attention, he ended up attracting the attention of Crypton Future Media, who immediately ordered that text be removed.».
- «I would be very excited to see well-known characters in textbooks».
- «I think the content as educational material was quite well thought out.».
- «Surely the complaints come from feminists».
- «Why did you think Miku's fans would accept it?».
- «It seems that he did not understand that using Miku in this way was not going to be liked.».
As you can read, some speculated that the complaints could have come from Crypton Future Media itself, the company that manages Miku, who had already expressed their disagreement with the excessive use of the character in non-official situations. Although Kondo shared it with great enthusiasm, in the end it ended up attracting too much attention and spoiling everything.
Later, A community note on Twitter resolved all the doubts that were pending:
- According to a post by a person who contacted the textbook's publisher, Eihosha, on Twitter, it was revealed that:
- Akihiko Kondo mentioned that it had been included in the bookbut the book had not yet gone on sale at that time.
- Kondo leaked the reference materials that had been given to him on his social networksalthough the content of the book could still be subject to change.
- The textbook was planned to include Hatsune Miku's name and imagebut no copyright authorization or confirmation (from the official source) had been obtained from the beginning.
- Eihosha determined that the leaked photos and portions of the content could not be published due to rights issues.and at that time (when the query was made by mail) they were in discussions with the official source.
- Depending on those discussions, Content related to copyrighted characters may be modified or removed.
- Eihosha planned to ask Kondo to make adjustments to her social media regarding the book's content following the discussions..
- Now, as for my personal opinion, I think the root of the problem is that Kondo tried to take advantage of the situation to spread his own activities and opinionswhile Eihosha has quite sloppy rights management.
- Furthermore, both Kondo and the publisher seem to have shown a lack of awareness about the rights of licensed characterswhich led to this misunderstanding.
Fountain: Yaraon!
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