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Composer Hajime Kikuchi Steps Away From Band eufonius
posted on by Egan Loo
Composer Hajime Kikuchi confirmed on Sunday that he will not participate in the rock band eufonius for now, after making what he described as "careless remarks." On the band's website, he expressed his profound apologies for his comments and for the resulting consequences for eufonius and the band's fans. As a result, he decided to exercise self-restraint by not taking part in the production of the band's music for the time being.
Kikuchi (standing left in photograph) had made denigrating comments toward singer Halko Momoi on Twitter last month. Kikuchi later apologized for his comments, but both Kikuchi and Momoi have stopped using the service since then. Online posters discovered a number of controversial statements in a subsequent search of Kikuchi's earlier Twitter posts.
One of Kikuchi's Twitter posts led to another controversy about the Kokoro Connect staff's treatment of voice actor Mitsuhiro Ichiki. Ichiki had auditioned for an anime-original character, but he was informed at a June advanced screening event that he would instead act as the Head of Public Relations for the series, not as part of the voice cast.
After the fan backlash for the "Candid Camera-style project," the anime's production committee said that it had planned from the beginning to make Ichiki part of the voice cast for the last episodes of the series. The production committee apologized for "insufficient consideration regarding performers" leading to "widespread discomfort and misunderstanding" in its publicity campaign.
The rock band eufonius was involved in the soundtracks of many anime titles, including True Tears, Clannad, Futakoi, Polyphonica, Himawari, Noein - to your other self, Yosuga no Sora, Bungaku Shōjo, and most recently, Kokoro Connect.
[Via Hachima Kikō]
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