Star of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Symphogear gives a very special hello to her fans’ butts.
Top anime voice performers do more than just portray their characters. For example, Aoi Yuki, the voice of Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s titular Madoka Kaname and Symphogear protagonist Hibiki Tachibana, also sings anime theme songs and appears at meet-and-greet fan events, all in the name of building buzz for her projects and servicing their fan communities.
Those two supplementary activities converged last Wednesday in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood where Yuki held a mini concert to commemorate the single CD release of “Unbreakable,” the opening theme to currently airing TV series Infinite Dendrogram, which went on sale that day.
▼ “Unbreakable”
As a special thank-you to their most loyal fans, anime singers, like their idol singer counterparts, will often have handshake sessions at the end of their events, pressing palms while expressing their gratitude on an individual, face-to-face basis. However, after giving a live performance of “Unbreakable” and its B-side “Break down” at the central fountain plaza of the Sunshine City shopping center, the 27-year-old Yuki used her hands for a very different purpose: administering spankings to her fans.
▼ Aoi Yuki
Yuki didn’t rush into the crowd and start indiscriminately slapping butts, though. Instead, the backside whackings were given to willing fans who asked for them, and delivered via a harisen, a type of large folded-paper fan used by Japanese comedians and designed to produce a sonorous sound when it bashes booties.
Still, “Come and get spanked by your favorite anime voice actress!” is a pretty out-there invitation, even by hard-core otaku standards, so how many people would actually take Yuki up on her offer?
According to the voice actress herself (via her Twitter account) 200!
As shown in the photo, a huge line of ardent fans and unprotected butts snaked around the plaza, with Aoki employing an especially fierce-looking two-handed grip. In the recipients’ defense, this unique promotion wasn’t based entirely in masochism, as the official video for “Unbreakable” features Yuki, in the same costume she wore at the Ikebukuro event, smashing up a computer room using a crowbar, baseball bat and other instruments of destruction.
▼ Thus making the spanking session only, like, 75 percent based in masochism. 85 tops.
The “Unbreakable” video starts with a warning that it “includes violent expressions and vandalism scenes,” and asks viewers to “Please be careful when watching.” Yuki echoed those sentiments, telling fans that in their actual lives they should treat even inanimate objects with gentle respect, and that they should watch the video as a form of cathartic release, without emulating her on-screen actions, even if they wanted their own rear ends to be on the receiving end of her rampage.
Sources: Twitter/@staff_aoi via Hachima Kiko, Animate Times
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