Recently I'd noticed that my blog posts about
Nishioka Kengo - former member of
MAG!C☆PRINCE and one of my all-time favourite idols - had been getting a lot more views than normal. I was aware that since leaving Magipri, Kengo (also known as Gonchi) was doing work as a solo idol so I mainly put it down to that. That was until another fan made me aware of some unsettling rumours about Kengo that had been doing the rounds. Thanks to a blog post by my friend and Magipri super-fan Rainbow Pudding (check out that post
here) we now have the proof that it unfortunately wasn't just rumours and that Kengo has accused Osawa Tsuyoshi - the (now former) producer of MAG!C☆PRINCE - of sexually assaulting him.
So where do I begin? I'm extremely angered and saddened that something like this has happened, especially to an idol I love so much and has helped me through so many hard times. As always the media aren't really talking about it, as was the case when similar things happened within Johnny's Entertainment and (allegedly)
G=AGE's agency. At the very least I'm glad that Osawa has been removed from his position as Magipri's producer and I seriously hope that he'll be brought to justice. Sexual assault from higher-ups seems to be a disturbingly common occurrence in the idol industry and I want to know why this is being allowed to go on with no-one really discussing it.
On a slightly positive note, I'm so proud of Kengo for everything he's doing despite the trauma he's experienced. He's working so hard at being a freelance idol, doing everything himself including designing his own merchandise and learning how to make his own website from scratch. I've also noticed him interacting online a lot with
Yamazaki Haruki (former
M!LK member) which I think is really sweet because they're both two of my absolute favourite idols and I feel like they would have a lot in common. They're both very cute, 'otomen' types and Haruki also left his group due to experiencing trauma, but in Haruki's case it was more to do with his own
mental health.
This blog post was a little messy and I'm not really sure what the point of it was, maybe just to get my own feelings out there. But really this is about Kengo and any other idols who may have been taken advantage of in this way that we may not know about. All we can really do as fans is make as much noise about it as possible so that the powers that be have no choice but to actually do something about it. Kengo has nothing but my love and support with this and any of his future, hopefully less traumatic endeavours and I hope that the situation will be resolved in the best way possible for him.
