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  • Look this happened:

  • What whaaaaat? What is going on there? - Eeep

  • Wow that's so gross.

  • Hey guys and girls it_'s Cathy Cat from Tokyo

  • "Comiket no Yami" pretty much sayin "the dark side

  • of Cosplay at Comiket" is a video that has made the rounds

  • online after a certain scandalous little event happening here in Japan. This time

  • I am gonna go and ask Japanese people to react to it, and give us their opinion and maybe

  • and explanation why. If you haven't seen that video yet, it is in the description box below

  • maybe open it in a separate window, check out the very short clip. It's only like 10 seconds before

  • you watch the movie. We are not allowed to put that into our video.

  • The laws and rights for YouTubers here in Japan are even stricter than in your country.

  • So we are not allowed to put this in. Check out the quick clip and then come back to us and let's see

  • how Japanese people on the streets of Tokyo have reacted

  • to this little outrageous event. Let's go and ask Japanese.

  • Do you know the Comiket. - I know it. - I have heard of it but I don't know what it's about.

  • People that cosplay get together and take pictures and such

  • It's a place for that. - That connects to today's topic

  • Recently the Hashtag "Dark side of Comiket"

  • has recently been trending online. Yes Darkness. What darkness do you expect?

  • What? People putting up pictures without permission. - Sneaky pictures of girls in little clothing

  • Having some suspicious old men take pictures...

  • This happened. - What what?

  • What whaaaaat? What is going on there? - Eeep

  • They suddenly all crowded around the girls. What is going on?

  • Eeep! - How scary is that? - So scary! - They kept the distance before, and then...

  • Guess they wanted to touch the girls. - The cosplayer who posted this said

  • that she has not been touched but that they all came too close.

  • That's not the distance in which you can take pictures. - More like having the real thing there

  • That's scary. The girls must have been scared of this sudden development

  • Having a large group crowd around rather than just one or two

  • Seeing this, what did you think? - How dangerous this is.

  • The cosplayers might not have felt as much in trouble but...

  • out-standers would think its dangerous. - They were just right

  • before touching the girls, and they were dressed very sparsely too.

  • That's not a distance in which you can take good pictures.

  • They should have kept their distance properly.

  • I understand they wanted to take a picture, but there is a line.

  • Why did this happen. - Well they were not touched right? - Yeah

  • They just huddled together. - They must have wanted to take pics at a great angle.

  • They must have wanted to see the faces of the girls up close.

  • I think it's also because EVERYONE did it. I am sure the people

  • on the back just followed the man in front of them without knowing.

  • Might have been. - Just following the man in front? - Yeah.

  • If the guys at the front had acted properly things wouldn't have escalated

  • But the front line did it and the other ones followed.

  • So this weird video happened. - In this scenario we have

  • cosplaying girls and photographer men,

  • does the opposite happen in Japan too?

  • Having 3 cosplaying boys taking pictures like that.

  • When it's about Johnny's idol boys

  • girls flock around them. - But not THAT close.

  • But when on stage, many girls will get together to see them

  • that might be the closest similar situation.

  • They want to see them but would they crowd around for pics?

  • Hmmmm - Not from that distance.

  • I don't think that happens.

  • If you really like someone, you want to show you got good manners

  • and wouldn't do that. - You think of the other person first.

  • - I do. - If we did something like that, boys would hate us.

  • We would never get a chance. Having good manners is super important in Japan.

  • * CathyCat sneezing off screen *

  • Sorry girls.... Do you like anime? - I do. - Me too

  • What anime do you like? - I had time to watch anime in school

  • then I could watch more. Recently I've been watching "Kimetsu no Yaiba"

  • It's popular abroad. - Recently I watched "Cells at work!"

  • I like that anime and really watched that recently.

  • So then have you heard about Comiket? - I have.

  • Recently the hashtag "The darkside of Comiket" has been trending on twitter

  • Do you know why it has?

  • I don't know but I heard that some people meet there and get screwed over

  • And that there are many thieves and such.

  • Well first have a look at this video

  • These 3 cosplaying girls were having a photoshoot

  • But then this happened... please check it out

  • I have seen this one. - Girl that's scary!

  • So scary. - The cosplayer herself posted that they have not been touched there though.

  • Hmmmm how scary. - Those girls are in trouble.

  • Many people abroad were wondering why this happened in Japan.

  • What did you think seeing it? - From what I saw

  • all the other people are older men. If that many old men come at you

  • ... they must have felt scared for their lives.

  • Why did this happen? Abroad people think that Japanese are very shy you see,

  • Is this the fault of "safety in numbers"?

  • Why did this happen? What do you think? - Rules...

  • If there were better rules the girls wouldn't have to be scared ....

  • They might be too much into their hobby to realize what they did.

  • But no matter how much you like it, you need to keep up your morals

  • most of all. I understand that. I like geeky things too.

  • I think I learned from this movie how important it is for fans to have good manners most of all. I understand that. I like geeky things too.

  • I think I learned from this movie how important it is for fans to have good manners

  • and can enjoy their work. - It's ok to be geeky BUT

  • don't cause a nuisance for other people? - Hmmm

  • That's what I thought. - Everyone let's be more careful! Everyone came so close....

  • but the girls were not touched. Why do you think the cameramen came up that close? - They wanted to

  • take pics you can only take there. Like their expression....

  • fans want to come as close as they can to their idols. Even when they can't touch them, they want closeness

  • and take pics. - Don't touch close but have that closeness on the picture?

  • Maybe they wanted to take a sexual picture ...

  • but from a viewer's perspective it looks like that because of the short skirts...

  • They wanted to take some naughty shots I think.

  • It's ok to be geeky, but mind your manners and don't give others a bad time.

  • Is what we take away.

  • What is the Comiket?

  • It's an Anime Otaku event. - In recent years there are foreigners

  • who visit the event. - When you hear "Dark side of Comiket"

  • what do you think?

  • That you spend too much money. - There are things you like

  • and people get hurt. - So these 3 cosplayers...

  • were doing a photoshoot.

  • And then this happened. Tell me your honest reaction to this.

  • Here we go.... - They are taking sneaky pics. - Oh that's what it means?

  • - Gross! - That's why the hashtag has been trending.

  • What? So scary. Did they get groped? - Apparently not.

  • I wouldn't like it still. This is SO JAPANESE.

  • Why is that "so Japanese"? - If one person does it, everyone thinks it's ok.

  • I see. - That's very Japanese. - "All do it, so I might as well"?

  • One person starts, everyone copies. - If one person does it

  • you might get away with it too. - When one makes the first step

  • everyone comes along. That's SO JAPANESE.

  • Same in coffee shops. One person orders and everyone will

  • stand in line then. It's very Japanese to follow others.

  • Foreigners will not be like that and buy whenever they want.

  • In Japan, if nobody is in the store, we won't go into the store.

  • That's a thing. We like copying what others are doing.

  • Do you boys know the Comiket? - I do

  • I know it. - What event is it? - Anime fans assemble

  • and they all show what they got. There are many cosplayers.

  • That's the impression I have. - Have you been? - Never. - Never

  • Ok let's go to our question then. Recently

  • "Comiket no Yami" has been trending online. Have you heard about it

  • or do you know what it's about? - No clue

  • Wow that's gross. - This is scary. - Why...

  • did this happen? What do you think? - Well

  • there were many male cameramen...

  • and the girls were showing a lot of skin, which caught their attention.

  • This wasn't about taking pictures more like the mood

  • of the situation there. Everyone crowding. - One person did it so

  • it's ok if all do it? - I think that's what happened.

  • Doing something because EVERYONE does it, is that a Japanese trait? - Yeah.

  • .... I guess so yeah....

  • Wow.... I mean my general reaction was like HOW WHY WHY did that even

  • happen? Japan is a very reserved culture, you don't generally get that close up to people

  • Even to people you know. Even to your family. I don't see many people in

  • Japan who get up that close to their own family members. Very distant culture so...

  • when I saw that clip I was like "Wow what just happened?" apparently

  • the situation was, the girls were doing a shoot and they

  • one of them mentioned that "we can make the circle a little bit smaller". Well that was a lot more than

  • "a little bit smaller" and you could see they were doing

  • something else at that time. According to the cosplayer who put the

  • video up online, she said well...

  • she didn't seem to complain about it, but she said wow this can happen at events

  • No one of them got touched but they had to get a member of staff to

  • pull them out of the pool of people that had come up too close to them.

  • Some of the reactions I got was: It's a group culture thing. One person does it: Everyone does it so

  • we do it too. Which doesn't make it ok but that might be one of the reasons

  • it's one of the explanations we got.

  • I still don't know what to think about it because generally in Japan the cosplay rules

  • are so strict. Generally at events even if you have a camera

  • you need to register your camera. I've seen that happening. For cosplayers there are certain cosplay

  • dedicated zones and stuff. If you wanna cosplay in Japan it's not easy

  • You need to abide to a lot of rules and the cameramen need also to

  • abide to a lot of rules that's why this video is a rare case

  • of something upsetting the system.