Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24187738-20160609143214/@comment-24187738-20160610162605

I mentioned yesterday that this wasn't a professional account, so here I am once again with my own opinions.

I tried my best to ask everyone to stop spreading hate, but regretfully I still had to mute more than a dozen accounts who were mentioning this account with pictures of them threatening to destroy merchandise.

And I just found out that things are still escalating and there is now an account devoted to actually quoting these tweets of people threatening to destroy merchandise to the seiyuus. I'm flabbergasted. I don't know what to say anymore.

The only thing I'm certain of right now is that the seiyuus and the staff DO NOT deserve to see this. Whoever is behind that account, please stop it. This is not helping anyone in any way.

As for the people behind the original pictures, I don't know what to say, really. Logically, I would suggest deleting the original quoted tweets so that at least the seiyuus and staff won't be seeing this.

Right now, I just feel sorry for all the good fans out there who might have possibly been robbed, denied of their future chances to see seiyuus at overseas conventions.

I made a mistake yesterday in that I was so lazy I failed to discuss the issue of destroying merchandise in full, I took the shortcut out by writing it off as a cultural difference that people will not be able to comprehend. That led to a knee-jerk reaction because people were desperate to defend their friend no matter what, even if his original actions could have been wrong. That is definitely understandable and no one's fault. Again, it was horrible and inexcusable that my thoughtless actions led to someone being hurt that badly and it never should have happened, and I will always apologise for that.

But if people would at least please try to understand, I would just like to try and convince you why it's not right to deliberately destroy goods. Yes, you paid money for it so it is rightfully yours. That is definitely true. But no small amount of time went into the production of every piece of merchandise.

Take the original item in question, for example. A Maki Weiss Schwarz card. There are literally hundreds of people involved in its production, over the course of months if not years. Before it reached your hands, it had to first reach the shop, passing through many hands of regional distributors. Before that, it had to be printed and packed. Before that, it had to be prototyped. Before that, it had to be designed. But even before that, it had to be localized from the Japanese version, which is essentially a repeat of some of the previous steps (but even more complicated because of licensing). Trace it even further back and you reach the character design, drawn for SIF. Even further back and you reach the original concept by Murota-sensei.

Maybe some people are jaded and feel oh it's just a business. But everyone who has created something, know that creators feel a sense of pride and attachment to their work. To destroy it without reason is to trample all over the creators' efforts and loving care in making the product. Is it really worth trampling on the wishes and feelings of the creators, just to prove that this is something that belongs to you?

I don't know. You all are entitled to whatever you feel about it. But please do not be surprised when such things end up demoralizing the creators.

And I haven't even gotten started on the seiyuus, but it's common knowledge that they are tremendously attached to their characters over the last 6 years and that destroying their merchandise is like destroying pictures of them. No one would be happy to see it. Yes, no one intended for these pictures to reach them, but was there really a good reason for them to exist in the first place?

I don't know. Again, I'm sure some of you will believe otherwise. Please continue to discuss the issue, but I don't think it's really appropriate to continue posting pictures of merchandise being destroyed anymore.

I am literally the only person running this Twitter account for the past year, and I'm struggling to juggle my personal life alongside making translations for you all. I'm done with this issue.

Thanks again to everyone who has been sending me encouragement. For those who would like to contribute, please spam the @LoveLive_Staff and seiyuu Twitter accounts with love to flood out the negative tweets. You can find a list of them here:
 * @Nitta_Emi
 * @rippialoha
 * @pile_eric
 * @aya_uchida
 * @tokui_sorangley
 * @kusudaaina
 * @nanjolno
 * @mimori_suzuko