18-year-old’s two-year relationship has angry fans calling the development a “betrayal.”
Generally speaking, most idol singer managers in Japan would just as soon their performers not have any love life at all. Anti-dating clauses are often explicitly written into singers’ contracts, and even when they’re not, there’s usually an unspoken understanding that any scent of an idol being involved romantically with a guy will damage the specific image of virginal beauty that gets hard-core idol fans to open their wallets extra-wide.
However, 18-year-old idol singer Asuka Kiraboshi recently revealed that not only has she been in a relationship for the past two years, but that she’s now pregnant, and that the father is her 22-year-old manager. Kiraboshi, a member of relatively unknown idol group Star-Bright until last October, broke the news through her Twitter account and official blog, saying:
“I’m sure this comes as a big surprise to many of you! I think that some of you will no longer be interested in me, but I have no intention of stopping my career, and from now on, I’ll be doing my best with my baby inside my stomach.”
▼ Asuka Kiraboshi
However, the news prompted several angry responses from fans, or at least people who had been fans up until they learned of the pregnancy. Online reactions included:
“I’m so disappointed. And with her manager, of all people? That’s the absolute worst. Well, I’m done being her fan, but here’s hoping for a happy future for her.”
“I’m no longer a fan. Sleeping with your manager and having a kid is an insult to your fans.”
“If they were amateurs, it’d be a different story, but neither of them has the right to call themselves professionals.”
“Betraying your fans like that, to put it mildly, was stupid. Way too rude.”
“What is she thinking, not even taking care of the few fans she has? Does she think her fans are stupid?”
“Her manager should quit immediately.”
Kiraboshi’s manager, however, has said that he intends to continue representing the singer. Both Kirabaoshi and her manager also apologized for any trouble they have caused, with the manager going so far as to say “What I did was a betrayal of the people who have supported [Kiraboshi], and I realize I have done something I shouldn’t have.”
Some fans some seemed able to take the development more or less in stride, reacting to the news with:
“Well, good luck you too (not my problem).”
“No undoing what you did, but here’s hoping your baby is happy and healthy.”
“It’s life a real-life eroge [erotic video game]!”
Other fans’ anger simply can’t be placated, though, such as the one who, using questionable logic, fired off the comment:
“If you’re apologizing, it shows that you realize you did something wrong, so I’m praying for your continued unhappiness.”
Eventually, the vitriol got to be enough that Kiraboshi herself started, gently, fighting back, tweeting “A lot of people have been calling me ugly or uncute, or that I’m a bad singer. If you have a complaint, please come to my next concert,” and “If you have a complaint, let’s talk about it face-to-face.”
Despite the word “betrayal” being bandied about, Kiraboshi’s pregnancy doesn’t seem to be the result of a commitment-less fling. In addition to the couple having been romantically involved for the past two years, she says they had discussed their mutual desire to have a baby. The manager also posted a message on the singer’s blog saying that “While I want to apologize to her fans, I also feel happy [about becoming a father]…Taking everyone’s opinions into account, I will devote myself to becoming the world’s best manager and father.” Kiraboshi has also said that while she and her baby’s father have yet to set a date, they plan to register their marriage “once things settle down.”
Sources: J Cast News via Otakomu via Anime News Network/Lynzee Loveridge, Twitter/@kirakira416a, Twitter/@8kvxKnfLAHI8v0V