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The story
The collaboration between VTuber Shigure Ui and children’s clothing brand “mezzo piano” was canceled just before its planned October launch. The move came amid growing backlash on social media over the fact that Shigure Ui’s signature song “Loli God” deals with lolicon themes. On 5ch, opinions split: some questioned why a children’s clothing brand ever greenlit the project and worried about damage to the brand’s image among the parents who make up its customer base, while others argued that canceling the collab was an overreaction.
On the 17th, coly Inc. announced it was canceling the “Shigure Ui × mezzo piano” collaboration between illustrator and VTuber Shigure Ui and junior apparel brand “mezzo piano.” The event had been scheduled for October, but the collab had already drawn a variety of reactions on social media.
The project was set to release merchandise featuring newly drawn artwork to commemorate the collaboration, with pop-up shops planned at Nagoya PARCO from October 3–12, SHIBUYA109 Shibuya from October 15–25, and Shinsaibashi PARCO from October 17–25.
coly, the company behind the project, announced the same day, “Due to various circumstances, we have decided to cancel [the event].” The company apologized, saying, “We deeply apologize for the great inconvenience this has caused our customers,” and added, “To customers who had been considering attending, we are truly sorry for this last-minute notice.” It also stated, “All applications submitted for this event will be automatically canceled. We once again apologize for the inconvenience caused to those who had applied.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
In a situation where good conduct is expected, you can't just get a pass for being into someone because it's same-sex, in an era where same-sex attraction isn't rare anymore.
High school girls are still very much minors, you know.
A grown adult who's long past adulthood publicly declaring they like high school girls is not okay.
This is a problem that has nothing to do with same-sex attraction to begin with.
No matter how cute the avatar ("gawa," the character skin) looks, it's a character packed full of internet poison.
Companies doing collabs need to not misjudge that.
That said, personally I think canceling the collab over something like this is overkill.
It's not about what's generally true or what the facts are — if the customer base gets even a millimeter of the wrong impression, that's already a dealbreaker.
But the actual buyers are the parents, not the kids themselves, so it can't be helped.
You're basically buying image and status with a brand like that.
and it's starting to feel creepy.
I don't think "well, it got canceled at the last minute, so it's fine" really covers it.
Society's moral brakes are starting to give out.
There was also that movie collab between "Love Joto" and the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — this kind of thing's been happening a lot lately.
whoever was in charge of planning this is in for a serious dressing-down — this is just too dumb.
then going out of your way to kick up a fuss about it —
what's up with this apparel brand and the people complaining?
I guess it's kind of like having a poop-themed character star in a curry commercial?
Either way, it's just a bad match.
It's just a handful of idiots making a big fuss.
That sums it up.
The internet today is different from ten years ago, when it was nothing but otaku.
You can't bring internet humor into a tie-up with clothes real little girls actually wear, lol.
Same goes for Re: #4 and Re: #22, lol.
This is what happens when you drag internet humor out into the real world.
5ch is always trash-talking VTubers.
People are probably just posting whatever while drinking a beer or something.
Once one person posts something nasty, others chain in and pile on.
It's pointless, so people should just stop.
In the sense that she should just keep doing what she's been doing, sure, she's not at fault.
But the collab itself was a failure.
The problem is there was zero need for the brand to appeal to that demographic in the first place, given what they actually sell.
Seems like something that should've been obvious from the start — the real mystery is why a kids' clothing maker ever thought a collab was a good idea.
They should absolutely catch whoever's behind it.
Same as with the Okinawa governor case — they should report it to the police right away, so why isn't there any follow-up news on that?
The fact that a song was built around lolicon as its subject is messed up to begin with.
Given that she's basically someone who shot to fame because of "Loli God," she was never an appropriate collab partner for a kids' clothing maker to begin with.
Even if they wanted a VTuber collab, there must have been more suitable candidates — why on earth did they end up making the single worst possible choice?
Even with the collab canceled, VTuber fans were never this brand's customer base to begin with.
Is it more of a "how dare you badmouth my beloved VTuber" kind of thing?
What they were actually trying to sell with this collab was acrylic stands and one-size adult tracksuits, so I don't think existing customers were even on their radar — the real goal was to sell to otaku.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
“Loli God” is known as Shigure Ui’s signature song, and while its lolicon-themed content has actually been part of its appeal, there have long been voices raising concerns about the song’s title and content too. Because this particular collaboration partner was a children’s clothing brand aimed at preschoolers and elementary schoolers, the gap between the two images drew renewed attention. The thread split over two questions: whose judgment call was really at fault — the side that proposed the collab or the side that accepted it — and whether the criticism was actually aimed at VTuber fans in general or at the legitimacy of the project itself. Some posts claim there have been death threats, but neither the truth of this nor any details of harm could be confirmed within the thread, and it hasn’t been covered in news reports either.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “mezzo piano announces cancellation of collab with VTuber “Shigure Ui,” apologizes “we deeply apologize” — signature song draws controversy over lolicon themes.”
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