Halko Momoi Retracts?

Halko Momoi, who we talked about in our con wrapup podcast regarding the notorious treatment she received at AX 2007, has posted a thank-you which seems to double as a retraction. She now thanks the staff for their hard work, and talks about how great the concert was. (See the ANN news item about this.)

I’m an onlooker on these events, since I didn’t go to her concert on Monday, and it’s my understanding that her infamous negative blog post about AX 2007 was posted a day before that concert. As her apology notes, it was after a number of events, including her autograph session, were canceled. I suppose it shows how a good show can go a long way in repairing the feelings at least of an aggrieved performer.

I don’t think this letter, heartfelt as it is, totally negates the poor impression that her initial blog post caused for AX though. That a major guest would complain so openly and publicly is already something of a tipping point, a sign that all is not well at the root. It appears that the staff scrambled to make things better after the post, which is to their credit, and helped turn her overall experience into a generally positive one. She even notes at the end that she hopes to play more US shows in the future…will it be at AX again, though? Who knows.

This story ended well, but the lesson is still clear: don’t screw your guests of honor!

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

6 thoughts on “Halko Momoi Retracts?

  1. I really don’t think it was AX that treated her badly for the most part which led to her outburst on her blog. Apparently she did perform before her main concert on monday it was then when the supposed mistreatment happened. From what I read on someones blog who was very angry about this whole supposed mistreatment it was staff pro who got a little rough with people thus the crying Halko staff members. I really still can’t find out what really happened but that is all I’ve been able to find out from reading around on the net. It seems it was staff pro and not AX staff that did something that set her off.

    It still confuses me as to where she performed and that I missed it. I didn’t like that because of this everyone got in an uproar and assumed that all the guests were treated bad because of Halko and her outburst. As I said in my podcast I just thought that this whole backlash about AX is stupid. That’s my opinion though.

    As for the SOS concert, I recently saw the concert dvd from the one they did in Japan. The singing was just as bad. Even if the technical problems were fixed it wouldn’t have helped their singing much. I wish they would have had a live band for God knows and lost my music at AX though. They should have had a live band for all the songs. But most of the songs were the pre-recorded tracks like at AX.

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  2. That’s very useful information. Thanks for the input and for the nice comment on our new banner!

    Yeah I saw a snippet of the other concert too, and the singing was a bit more in time but still rather off key to my ears. I had no doubt that the timing issues were only partly the problem.

  3. Aya-chan isn’t a great singer – I’m beginning to wonder if she can even sing OK. There are a lot of manufactured singers in the idol world; however, as a seiyuu, I think she’s competent even powerful in some (OK, one) instances. Let’s hope she does more as seiyuu and don’t get fooled by the world of idolatry (snicker).

  4. I personally think Aya is a great singer from her studio work but she isn’t the best out there. Her voice acting is phenomenal though! Aya just needs to work on the live performances I think. It seems she is very new to performing live and she gets nervous very easily. It is something she really needs to work on if she seriously wants to pursue a solo singing career. Would mind if she did more photobooks though. XD

  5. I personally think Aya is a great singer from her studio work but she isn’t the best out there. Her voice acting is phenomenal though! Aya just needs to work on the live performances I think. It seems she is very new to performing live and she gets nervous very easily. It is something she really needs to work on if she seriously wants to pursue a solo singing career. Wouldn’t mind if she did more photobooks though. XD

  6. I know! I have a reserved copy and I hope she could sign it someday!
    Yeah, she gets nervous performing live. She often gets so touched by people’s reactions and cry like a little girl, ooh…

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