Fellow voice actress’ lament at missing meat prompts Megumi Ogata to share her own story of unfulfilled promises.

One of the stranger aspects of Japanese show business has to do with TV shows where people try to win prizes in quizzes, competitions, and other challenges. It’s not the contests themselves that are strange, nor are the prizes, usually things like a night in a nice hotel or a modest-sized bundle of some sort of luxury foodstuff. What’s odd is that the participants aren’t regular people chosen randomly from the audience or through an application process. Instead, the people trying to win a night at a hot spring inn or a seafood dinner are themselves already celebrities, people who could presumably afford to simply pay for such relatively attainable luxuries out of their regular show business earnings without any real worry as to the cost.

As a result, I’ve always sort of wondered if celebrities really care all that much about the prizes they win, especially since the contests are usually segments of variety shows where the guests are already earning appearance fees and/or promoting their current work projects and personal brands. But it turns out some stars really are looking forward to the prizes they’ve won, as anime voice actress Satomi Akesaka is wondering why she hasn’t received her…

In September of 2024, Akesaka, whose most recent credits include A Wild Last Boss Appeared’s Benetnasch and I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability’s Talia, appeared on Say You to Yoasobi, an anime voice actor/actress-centered variety show on Japan’s Abema streaming service. As part of her appearance, Akesaka won some wagyu beef, but nearly a year later, she still hasn’t gotten to taste it, because the show’s producers never shipped it to her, as she recounted in a Twitter post on July 30.

▼ “It’s summer, so can I share a scary story? The prize of domestic-raised wagyu beef (value of about 20,000 yen [US$135]) that I won last year on Say You to Yoasobi…still…hasn’t arrived…”

Nearly 12 full months is definitely a long time to have to have been kept waiting. Still, that’s a drop in the temporal bucket compared to voice actress Megumi Ogata, most famous for voicing Evangelion’s Shinji and Sailor Moon’s Sailor Uranus, who chimed in with a reply revealing that she’s been waiting over a decade for a shipment of condoms that she was promised.

“Akesaka…I feel so sorry for you…
Can I share a scary story too? I still haven’t received…the prize I won from Anison AAA…a year’s supply of condoms…”

AAA in this case is an acronym for “Act Against AIDS,” with Anison AAA being an anime music AIDS awareness event. Ogata appeared as part of a four-person performing unit at Anison AAA’s third iteration which was held at the Zepp Tokyo music club…all the way back in 2014.

The very next day after Akesaka shared her story about her unfulfilled beef promise, the official Say You to Yoasobi Twitter account sent a reply saying that that they are scrambling to set things right, and are hoping to have the wagyu beef in her hands sometime this week. As for Ogata’s case, though, it appears that the last Anison AAA was held in 2019 and the event is now discontinued, so she’s probably on her own for procuring prophylactics.

Source: Twitter/@akekodao, via Hachima Kiko, Twitter/@Megumi_Ogata, Lantis
Top image ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!