#akitomo kojima

[snowball-maltese]

Oc art dump!!

The background sucks ass lol

[ultimateplaylistmaker]

Was Sayaka traumatized during her pursuit to become a top idol, or was it just fanon?

She never directly states anything beyond this, but if you know anything about the idol business it is an incredibly traumatizing grueling business that very much chews people up and spits them out. So I'd say it's less...fanon and more an intended inference? Like how if you suggest someone works as a doctor you can assume they've probably seen some nasty things. If someone's an idol, it's very likely they've essentially gone through a lot of shit to get there.

It's not as intense as say being a k-pop idol, but j-pop is still REALLY competitive and cutthroat. Like, here's some quotes from the wikipedia page that i am going to put under a cut because it's gross shit and also long.

However the TLDR is that Sayaka doesn't NEED to explicitly say she was traumatized or abused by the industry, the industry is in itself enough of a traumatizing and abusive of piece of work that you just Know. There's a REASON Sayaka thought if she didn't literally kill to get out as fast as possible she may never perform again. It's very likely even she's never even had a sick day before this, let alone a vacation.

"Idols often spend time isolated from family and friends while enduring busy work schedules,[22] with some agencies withholding job assignments from their talents and notifying them of work on short notice to prevent them from taking time off."

"The idol system has been criticized for its strict rules, intense work schedules, and offering idols little control over their personal lives.[32][13][25] The system has been likened to salarymen in Japan who are unable to disobey their employers"

"Labor rights activist Shohei Sakagura stated that idols get very little revenue and are ill-prepared for the work force after leaving their groups, as many of them spend their academic years learning poor job skills"

"Sasetsu Takeda of GQ Japan wrote that talent agencies dismiss idols regardless of their popularity, sometimes intentionally blocking job offers in order to pressure them to leave, all while declaring that they are "resting from illness" to the public"

"Independently managed idol groups offer even less protection, with idols given ambiguously worded contracts that keep them in their companies for years, while offering almost no pay and compensation for transportation and costuming fees."

"Sasetsu Takeda of GQ Japan criticized some idol managements for intentionally preventing their talents from taking time off, mentioning it "strange" that idols are only notified of their assignments the night before.[23] He also condemned the idol industry for not providing talents access to better mental health resources, as idols are often suspended or dismissed for publicly showing they are stressed out of concern that they may cause fans to feel worried or upset"

"Allegedly, Omoto was working 10 hours a day at the expense of her studies and when she had asked to leave the group, a staff member threatened her with violence while Takahiro Sasaki, the head of her managing company, told her she would have to pay a penalty fee of ¥1 million"

"A talent agency filed a lawsuit against a 17-year-old former idol singer for accepting an invitation to a hotel room from two male fans, which had caused her group to disband within the first 3 months of their debut.[149] In September 2015, Judge Akitomo Kojima, along with the Tokyo District Court, ruled in favor of the talent agency and fined the woman to pay ¥650,000, stating that the dating ban was necessary for idols to "win the support of male fans."

"In 2017, through a survey conducted by the Japanese government, 53 out of 197 women contracted with talent agencies stated that they had been asked to take part in pornographic photo or video shoots of which were not previously disclosed nor included in their contracts. 17 of the women stated that they had performed the request anyway."