Summary
It is not every day thata famous person gets arrested, and when it does, it is always big news. Of course, someone whose face is famous on the internet or TV is always going to be more recognizable than those who work more behind the scenes, but that does not stop public speculation. And the big news to end this week in the otaku world is that a famous anime music composer has been arrested in Tokyo - for a shockingly common crime.
The person in question is composer Yūya Saitō, who composes music for anime likeSmile Pretty Cure!,Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage: Mirai no Tomodachi,My Sweet Tyrant,Kan Colle,Absolute Duo, andWe Without Wings - Under the Innocent Sky. Several of these anime, including his most famous work,Pretty Cure!(sometimes romanized asPrecure!), areaimed at young girls. And that is what makes his crime even more terrible.
RELATED:20th Anniversary Video for Precure Now Streaming
Yūya Saitō was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police at Akabane Station, just north of the otaku neighborhood of Ikebukuro in Tokyo. His crime was voyeurism; specifically, he was caught filming up the skirt of a junior high school girl at the station. Saitō was caught in the act by the police, so he was not able to claim his innocence.
In fact, once Saitō had beenofficially arrested, he admitted to the crime. The composer blamed “stress” as the motivation behind his actions. What happens next has not yet been revealed, but it is likely that Saitō will not be making new anime music any time soon, and especially not for the genre of anime he had been working on as it casts a dark shadow on their titles.
“Upskirting” (the act of taking photos or videos of women under their skirts without their knowledge or consent) is a common crime in Japan and is especially prevalent inotaku neighborhoods like Akihabaraand Ikebukuro. Akihabara has signs warning women about the crime all around the station, and especially on escalators and stairs. This type of crime is such a problem that it is one of the reasons it is not possible to turn the shutter sound off of phones and cameras in Japan, so it is more difficult to take secret photos of anyone.
Luckily for fans of anime likePretty Cure!, there is plenty of music already produced for the shows that can be reused and recycled. As word of Saitō’s arrest, and especially the reason for it, get out though, there may be some negative repercussions against the works he had a hand in. Especially for parents who havedaughters who like showslikePretty Cure!, the news will likely come as an unpleasant shock. We will be following Yūya Saitō’s case as it moves into Japanese courts.
