[Thessair]

This is unfortunate. Even outside of Fourze, I am a fan so not getting any new material from her is pretty sad. From what I've read, her parents introduced her and three sisters into this thing from birth so it's not like she found this cult and then decided it was for her. She was indoctrinated from her earliest days.

What's really sad, to me at least, is the kind of underhanded nature of the whole thing. Reportedly, her agency knew nothing of her involvement in said cult, she was secretly working with lawyers to break her contract, and she basically disappeared off the grid a week or so ago, canceling all appearances, and claiming health issues to ride the last few days until she announced her retirement. She even refused to return contact attempts from her agency.

Now I know agencies in Japan aren't generally considered white hats, in fact they can be pretty darned despotic, but everything I've read paints her in not the best light. She apparently burned quite a few bridges on the way out and if she ever does decide to return to entertainment, she may find some doors closed to her because of this thing. I do wish her all the happiness in the world, but I'm not sure a cult like this is the best place to find genuine, unfettered joy. The illusion of it, certainly, but the real thing? Doubtful. I had a friend from school that joined a cult and it didn't really end well. This Happy Science thing is surprisingly large at something like 11,000,000 members worldwide, the vast majority (91% or so from what I read) in Japan.