[Omegaman]

Doesn't this feel kind of backwards? Maybe I'm being naive, but drinking age laws are put in place to protect people that society has determined aren't mature enough to be responsible with alcohol, or to whom it poses a greater health risk because they're still maturing. Underage drinking is basically always the result of someone else's negligence, and in that sense, someone underage drinking really should be considered the victim, especially since the person most harmed is themselves. It doesn't sound as though she got behind the wheel of a car or acted aggressively towards anyone.

I get that the letter of the law is that what she did was illegal, but it really seems like a situation where someone deserves support and help rather than total blacklisting. I don't necessarily want to speculate, but it does seem plausible that this was a response to the awful rumors going around about her, as substance use often is a form of escape, though I maintain that this isn't really deserved either way. Rather than sending the message that "Drinking before you're 20 is bad," I feel like the main thing this communicates to all the kids out there is that one small mistake can totally ruin your life.

I don't argue that her agency wasn't within their rights to do this, but that doesn't mean I can't think they're pretty scummy for totally cutting her loose. It seems like it's going to have a more negative impact on the show than keeping her on ever could have as well, as I've seen a number of people saying they're dropping it -- if not for solidarity with the actress, simply for how mangled the last episode was by the attempts to scrub her from it. Sorry for dropping the paragraphs, I just wanted to get my two cents out there on this since I'd been stewing on it the past couple days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Here I'd like to quote from memory Hiroshi Fujioka's words after the scandal with Tetsuo Kurata: "I'm an ordinary person, and like everyone else, I sometimes do wrong. But I also understand that I'm a role model for many, and that's why I try to exercise responsibility."

No disrespect to Fujioka, and it's a very admirable way to handle being in the spotlight, but he has had 50 years to develop that sense of maturity and responsibility. I don't think it's fair to expect the same thing from a 19 year old. If there's one thing that's almost universal about that age, it's making dumb decisions, and hopefully getting the chance to learn from that so that you CAN be a better, wiser person in your later years.

[BlazeKing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DH21965

THIS. So many people on here who seem just as clueless as children

Or... They just don't follow stuff outside of the show itself because it's not that important to their lives to do so.

[Daikaijuman54]

I'm gonna keep this brief, but I did hear of this as the news dropped but was waiting for any other information to be sure, and well, it sucks.

I know Japanese Entertainment is a cutthroat industry and drinking laws are important, but given what's available, I can't rule out that she wasn't caught intoxicated and the agency (who I'd honestly put most of the blame on) wouldn't stand for that, or if someone found a bottle of scrumpy in her trailer or something, so I'm rather neutral on that stance. I'm not going to blow up Toei for some Agency's decisions or blame the person or culture in question.

As for the "allegations," as I'll call them since I don't think any of its confirmed, I'm going to rule out the racism since Japan, or any Asian countries don't care about that, but for the possibility of a scandal with a married man would certainly do it. Again, I only learned about these recently, so I'm not considering these as "big reasons."

Personally, I'm not going to focus too hard on something I don't have the information or ability to fix, and while I can understand that things like this are taken seriously, I personally have been enjoying this show which has always been a highlight of my week and with the Unconfirmed End of Super Sentai with Gozyuger being the finale, it's just not going to feel the same going forward and I'm sad this happened to her (heck, even anyone else and this would be terrible), I'm wishing the best for Imamori-San.

[acdcguy]

The uproar about underage drinking when she's a year off is odd. Especially when this is the same production company that gave us Choujin Sentai Jetman in 1991. Gai smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and sexually harassing women isn't exactly role model material regardless of the actor/character's age. I get that the character is meant to be hedonistic and not the ideal hero given the story of Jetman, but still the excuse of underage drinking getting Maya fired is dubious at best. It does seem more like a coverup for a bigger issue. Some saying it's from an alleged affair while others saying Japan's new nationalist PM caused the studio to swerve towards racial purity by firing a mixed Japanese-Filipino actress. It's truly a chaotic and unfortunate situation.

[Annuga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

As for the "allegations," as I'll call them since I don't think any of its confirmed, I'm going to rule out the racism since Japan, or any Asian countries don't care about that, but for the possibility of a scandal with a married man would certainly do it. Again, I only learned about these recently, so I'm not considering these as "big reasons."

What are you talking about? There's a shitton of racism and discrimination there too. Shit, Ghandi was a racist back in his day. If racism wasn't a real thing in Japan, why would there be countless examples of Japanese media tackling the theme? I follow a news site that talks about Japan and it always brings up stuff like conspiracy theories that the guy who who Shinzo Abe was a foreigner. In fact, the term Gaijin is a derogatory term, the proper term would be Gaikokujin. I'm not gonna assume you're saying that out if maliciousness, but it's important to understand shitty people who look down on their fellow people for whatever arbitrary reason like that exist worldwide

[Daikaijuman54]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annuga

What are you talking about? There's a shitton of racism and discrimination there too. Shit, Ghandi was a racist back in his day. If racism wasn't a real thing in Japan, why would there be countless examples of Japanese media tackling the theme? I follow a news site that talks about Japan and it always brings up stuff like conspiracy theories that the guy who who Shinzo Abe was a foreigner. In fact, the term Gaijin is a derogatory term, the proper term would be Gaikokujin. I'm not gonna assume you're saying that out if maliciousness, but it's important to understand shitty people who look down on their fellow people for whatever arbitrary reason like that exist worldwide

I'm sorry, I didn't word it correctly, I meant that I don't see "racism" as a reason someone got fired, unless it was on a particularly vile level (like murder or something). I am aware of the issues and such, but I was referring to the business model and not the issue itself, so I apologize if I was unclear.

I'm not happy about any of this either, but I also don't want to spend too much time blaming a foreign company on how it deals with issues I only understand from my side of the pond, nor to speculate on whether there's some heinous plot behind the scenes. I initially didn't even want to talk about this since a lot of people are going nuts over this, and I really don't like discussing drama.

[acdcguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

I'm sorry, I didn't word it correctly, I meant that I don't see "racism" as a reason someone got fired, unless it was on a particularly vile level (like murder or something). I am aware of the issues and such, but I was referring to the business model and not the issue itself, so I apologize if I was unclear.

I'm not happy about any of this either, but I also don't want to spend too much time blaming a foreign company on how it deals with issues I only understand from my side of the pond, nor to speculate on whether there's some heinous plot behind the scenes. I initially didn't even want to talk about this since a lot of people are going nuts over this, and I really don't like discussing drama.

Sorry ignore my comment.