Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
At AKB48‘s concert at Saitama Super Arena on March 26, member Kawaei Rina announced her graduation. Normally I wouldn’t care about news like this, but it’s relevant because she was one of the victims of the saw attack at a handshake event, and her graduation is a direct result of that.
During the personnel reshuffle, there was a surprise announcement that Kawaei Rina would graduate from the group. It was announced by the general manager Kayano Shinobu. When Kayano stated, “Kawaei Rina, graduating”, the fans’ screams shook the whole venue.
Kawaei explained in tears, “Because of the incident last year, I haven’t been able to attend any handshake events. People around me told me not to worry about it, but I did. Though AKB48 cherishes the handshake event, I can’t attend it, and I will never be able to… so I was thinking what to do.”
Naturally, everybody is understanding of her decision, but it did piss me off that she was basically living her dream and then was robbed of that as a result of some random asshole who just wanted to hurt people.
During her speech, she did mention that she wanted to get into acting, so hopefully she finds some success in that field even if it’s not quite the same for her.
