Tokyo church cancels anime singer’s concert because of her involvement with adult video games

Discovery of Rekka Katakiri’s erogame contributions cause venue to pull plug on event less then three weeks before it was scheduled to be held.

On March 16, singer/songwriter and Tokyo native Rekka Katakiri was set to hold a concert. While Katakiri isn’t a household name in Japan, she’s built up a loyal fanbase through her 20 years singing theme songs for anime and video games, and so while she wouldn’t need a huge, stadium-sized venue, she decided on one with a distinct visual appeal, which seems like a smart call, considering how important aesthetics are to otaku.

And so the concert was going to held at a church in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. However, on February 27, Katakiri received a notice from the church saying that they were no longer willing to serve as host for the concert, even though ticket sales had already started.

▼ A sample of Katakiri’s music

The reason? The church had discovered that in addition to singing theme songs for mainstream anime like When They Cry: Higurashi and Kokoro Connect, Katakiri has also supplied songs for erogames, or, as they’re also sometimes called in English, porn games.

“[Your] work with adult games does not fit with the image of a church facility as a holy place,” said the cancellation statement, along with “Not disclosing such work is tantamount to false representation.”

In a series of tweets detailing the situation, Katakiri insists that she made no effort to conceal or lie about her involvement in the erogame industry. However, she also believes that the problem was partially her fault. “To let them know my background and resume, I sent them the link to my website,” the singer says, “but recently I’ve been primarily promoting my personal [non-game or anime-related] songs,” and apparently it wasn’t until some time much later that the church noticed her connection to adult games.

“I regret not being clearer in describing my relationship to the adult game industry,” Katakiri tweeted, though she also explained that she had several discussions with the venue in the lead-up to the scheduled concert, and had voluntarily chosen not to include any songs that could be seen as “sexual or evil” in tone in her planned setlist.

“Had the venue known about my work with adult games from the beginning, they likely would have simply refused to host the concert upfront,” continued Katakiri. “I deeply apologize for the insufficient coordination on my part, and for the great inconvenience I have caused everyone.”

However, one thing Katakiri is not apologizing is for is for singing songs used in erogames. “In both my personal and contracted work as a musician, I put the utmost effort into creating music. I have no regrets, and instead feel nothing but gratefulness to the industry,” she declared.

The sudden cancellation has left Katakiri and her helpers scrambling to find a new site for the concert, and she says they’ve now narrowed it down to two candidates. Unfortunately, neither is as large as the initially intended church, and so additional ticket sales are being suspended, but the singer says that either of the two locations she’s looking at will be able to accommodate all current ticketholders. However, should the change in location prevent any of them from attending, Katakiri, in one more act of contrition, says their ticket purchase price will be refunded.

Still Katakiri says talks with the replacement venues are going well, and that it’s looking likely that the concert will be neither cancelled nor postponed, but instead take place on March 16, as originally planned.

Source: Twitter/@katakiri_rekka via Hachima Kiko
Top image: YouTube/rekka katakiri
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at 07:16

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