On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Tulip Ryan wrote:

> > voice actresses. This week, media exposed that Sakurai Tomo
> > married and gave birth of baby girl in 1999 but kept secret.
> > Such odd things happen because her office wanted to sell
> > her semi-nude picture collection book (stupid reason!).
>
> But if it was a secret, how did this fan find out about the birth,
> unless it was from a private source? ^^;

A year after Sakurai Tomo's baby, she publically announced that she was
actually married and had a baby after all.  Fans had speculated it for a
long time, but the official response had always been "we can neither
confirm nor deny those rumors".  The reason why she came clean was because
she said since it was so far after the fact that there was no reason to
have the cover up anymore.  The phrase used was "cover up".  I.e., like
some illicit black operation.
   It's not because Sakurai Tomo has ever been shy about her personal life
in the past.  My gosh, this is the former Lemon Angel we're talking about
here.

> What has the birth got to do with selling a coffee table book of
> semi-nude photos? ^^x

Because it's part of a fantasy.  Whenever an attractive person gets
married or has kids, it's always a letdown to fans.  For idols sold on
their looks, most fans have at least a slight crush on them.  As a result,
no fan wants to hear that somebody else has already beaten them to the
punch.  Look what happened when Elvis got married.  Did most young girls
say, "Good for her!" at the time?  Yeah, right.

What Sakurai Tomo did, however, is getting toward the thin line of Selling
Out.  Basically, she did the semi-nude portfolio when she was already
pregnant.  Since the photos are targetting lonely single males, it's sort
of sad that they won't even admit that Sakurai Tomo wasn't even married at
the time.  I can certainly tell that this is a marketing ploy.  This was
to insure the fantasy was being sold at full tilt so guys wouldn't have a
chance at being "turned off" by the idea.

> Recently, a Hongkong actress promoted a similar
> book of herself. She is, however, well known not only for her sexy
> figure, but the fact that she is already a mother.

Then that's her.  That's what separates her from Sakurai Tomo and that's
what the author is trying to say.  Why bother with the coverup?  Isn't
that implying that Sakurai is being sold as some image, rather than a real
person?

How about that one contest where you got to "kiss" Sakurai Tomo?  Of all
the cheap ploys to target lonely men, this had got to be the worst.  In
the end, the fan only got to kiss this plexiglass plate, and Sakurai Tomo
kissed the other side.  It was like watching one of those prison movies.
   Also, a long time ago, Sakurai Tomo had a "wedding" event where you
could "marry" her for a few hundred bucks.  Of course, as you can guess,
you didn't really get married (just photos to a fake wedding), but it's
great for sucking money from lonely single men (as always).
   I've always thought that this was the lamest seiyuu event ever, but
I've been told by so many people that this was a perfectly acceptable
concept.  I was told that this was no different than paying $50 to get
pictures taken with Michael Jordan and his autograph.  Okay, whatever.

--
   Kevin "Grouchy Bear" Lew -- kasumi@usagi.net
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