Just two years ago the VTuber industry was turned upside down after an unexpected announcement: the popular VTuber of Hololive Production“Uruha Rushia“, would be immediately fired after a controversy. At the time, “Uruha Rushia” had gotten into trouble with her own fan community after she received a private message via Discord while I was broadcasting live. This message came from Mafumafua popular Japanese independent singer, who wrote to him: «I just finished my broadcast, I’ll go home now, Mi-chan…».
“Uruha Rushia” followers immediately felt betrayed after learning in this way that their beloved VTuber could be in a romantic relationship. And we must remember that VTubers in Japan are treated “like idols” and, consequently, they must “live for and only for their fans.” It is unacceptable for a VTuber to find a partner and be discovered, since she risks media ruin when her fiercest fans end up abandoning her.
This oversight by Uruha Rushia (not muting Discord direct messages) led to Hololive Production firing her and her “having to leave through the back door.” For reasons of “leakage of information” and “damage to the company’s reputation,” Uruha Rushia lost her contract with the VTubers giant in Japan in a matter of days, after a long and successful career on YouTube.
But today, two years after this incident occurred, the flames of controversy have been rekindled on this matter after Mafumafu himself decided to break the silence. It turns out that, in response to a recent unpublished interview, the popular singer revealed that he was married and, after a short time, decided to divorce and that now he is even in a legal dispute with his ex-partner. Checking the dates, fans assume that this is Uruha Rushia herself.
«We started dating before the summer of 2021, got married at the end of December of that year, and divorced in July 2022», explains his statement. If we remember, the Uruha Rushia scandal was in February 2022, so the dates are quite close. The point is that, to avoid further problems, Mafumafu has decided not to reveal the name of his ex-partner, and he only refers to her as “A-san (A子さん)”, which only fuels the theories more. The extensive history of him wrote:
- Until the spring of 2021, I had given up on love and marriage, as I had said in a magazine interview that I couldn’t fall in love, and I had found myself unable to have so-called romantic feelings for other people. It was at that moment when I met this person and he told me that he liked me like that. I thought it would be nice for us to support each other and live together, even if it was different from the general view of love. There was a lot of opposition from close friends and family, but we overcame it, got together and got married. It is undeniable that “A-san” was serious.
- I thought many times that I wanted to announce the fact of our marriage. Of course, it was a complete change from what I had said before, and I was terrified to make it public. Even so, I would have preferred to announce it from our own mouths instead of it being known inadvertently. However, at the time we registered, “A-san” was also popular on the Internet, and we were unable to make a public announcement, partly due to the wishes of “A-san” and the people at his work.
- Due to some controversy, I thought about making our situation public. A lot of misinformation spread on social networks, and threats after threats emerged. And although I tried to find the right moment to reveal the truth many times, I was unable to do so due to various issues.
- At that time, I was in a state of emotional blindness and didn’t know what “normal” was, so I only acted to solve “A-san’s” dissatisfaction and not make her angry. Every day I would sit in front of the computer, open LINE and Discord and immediately contact her. We exchanged more than hundreds of messages a day daily, but even then she suspected that I was cheating on her, so she made me log into Discord 24 hours a day so that she could monitor my behavior, prove that I was not cheating on her, and even still receive notifications while sleeping.
- And so on… It’s hard to believe, looking back again, but at that time I had accepted these situations as normal. Even under these circumstances, they would say things like “I guess he married you for money,” and I would keep apologizing without really understanding what was going on. I couldn’t make any decisions for myself, I didn’t know what to do, and it was the words of my precious companion that saved me.
- When I came to my senses, I finally realized that many of the things “A-san” had said and done to me were domestic violence, and I began to consider divorcing her, because I didn’t want to be with her anymore. At first, “A-san” firmly expressed her intention that she did not want to divorce me because she was sorry for what she had done, so I tried to find a way to improve our relationship without divorcing her.
- At first they had bought a new house to live together. I thought that if we could live together, I could resolve “A-san’s” anxious feelings. However, as the relationship had become complicated, “A-san” stayed in the new house and I stayed in the same rental apartment, keeping our distance. Shortly after, “A-san” began making repeated comments on social media that hinted at his dissatisfaction with me.
- The content was very different from the facts, which encouraged third-party criticism of me. I have told him repeatedly through my attorney to stop making those statements, but there has been no improvement. To improve our relationship and stabilize our mental state, I asked “A-san” to at least make some of the facts public and correct the misinformation to put an end to the incessant slander.
- However, “A-san’s” representative unilaterally rejected our request, claiming that the time had come to restart his activities with a new character, so he should refrain from announcing his marital status, and made no attempt to reach out. to an agreement with us. At the end of May 2022, I could no longer stand “A-san’s” attitude, contrary to his words, and I formally filed for divorce through my lawyer. Thus, without being able to reveal the truth, we began the divorce proceedings through our lawyers.
- At the same time as I was filing for divorce, I also decided that I needed to recover, as I was no longer able to stand up, and decided to take a break after the live performance at the Tokyo Dome. The decision to take a break was difficult and caused a lot of inconvenience to many people involved. Initially, he hoped that by announcing the suspension and telling the truth, he could reduce the amount of slander that had spread around the world.
- However, due to “A-san’s” demands, I could not tell the truth about my marital status, and as a result, I decided to announce the suspension by only saying that I was recovering from my illnesses. I felt frustrated at not being able to tell the truth and also resentful of my own inability.
- At the beginning of the divorce talks, “A-san” did not agree to them due to his poor health and again unilaterally demanded money and other things. When talks stalled, allegations that “A-san” had been unfaithful during the relationship came to light, and the divorce was finally finalized in late July 2022, with no money paid to either party.
- After the divorce, there were so many cardboard boxes and trash strewn around the new house that there was nowhere to step, and even her pet urn had been left in the trash. I took the remains home and still have them placed at the top of the living room so they can rest in peace. “A-san”’s infidelity came to light when I spoke to a man (hereinafter “B-san”).
- For more details, “B-san” gave me screenshots of Discord and LINE, and I was able to connect the calls and get an explanation from him. The captures included an invitation for a date and an exchange of gifts for Valentine’s Day. On December 25, registration day, and the next day, December 26, he had given up his Christmas plans with me and invited me to play at the end of the year, and in May, during the divorce process, he invited “B-san” to share a room with him, while sending messages to Mafumafu telling him that he wanted us to get back together. I remember being so surprised that I fell asleep.
- “B-san” apologized to me over and over again, and since he didn’t seem to know what was going on, I thought he was a victim and we made up. Now “B-san” and I are good friends. But that was not all. During the divorce process, “A-san” and third parties harassed me on social media and in anonymous forums. There were many messages that made it seem like I was “committing domestic violence” or “having an affair with multiple women,” which of course is not true and is a lie.
- I was repeatedly harassed during my suspension from activities, and without being able to reveal the truth, the days passed with only more misinformation and slander. As a minimum resistance, I was determined to reduce the slander as much as possible, so I decided to file a disclosure request against the anonymous forum. As a result of that disclosure request, the court recognized the illegality of the slander and the request was granted. And as the article says, most of the messages were found to be from “A-san”.
- There were many slanders, but one of the worst was that “Mafumafu killed ‘A-san’s’ cat by hitting it against a door.” ‘A-san’s’ cat was an old cat who was blind in both eyes when I met her, and she was very friendly to me. I myself have two cats and I take good care of them. I would never do anything to harm an animal..
- After more than 10 years of activities, being slandered was an everyday occurrence, so I think I could have tried not to care if I had been a conventional person. However, “A-san” is a person who regularly speaks out against slander and defamation, and if the person who says those things was hurting people by registering as a paying member on an anonymous forum, I thought I couldn’t ignore it.
- If the case goes to court, it can be heard and everyone can get the right information. If I tell the truth on the Internet without any context, it could be our fault, but in the legal sphere of a court, they will give the most correct verdict. That’s why I decided to go to court, even though I was prepared for everything to come to light.
- The civil case remains open against “A-san”, accusing her of slander and defamation. Also, last year, at the end of summer, I consulted with the police and spent eight hours making a statement. “A-san” was also subpoenaed and confirmed that the case was successfully filed late last year, so I think the prosecutors are now thinking about how to move forward with the case. It may seem excusable, but I planned to tell the truth at that time, since everything will come to light once the trial, whether civil or criminal, takes place.
Certainly this extensive statement completely changes the way fans saw the popular “Uruha Rushia“. There are many elements to realizing that she is the person she is referring to in her statement, such as the fact that “He was a very popular person on the Internet” or that when he wanted to reveal the truth, “She couldn’t do it because she was going to return to the Internet with another character.“, perhaps referring to “Mikeneko“, the new VTuber that the person behind “Uruha Rushia“.
Nowadays all this is a tremendous scandal, but Mafumafu has cleared his name since two years ago Uruha Rushia’s followers kept blaming him for the VTuber’s departure from Hololive Production. What will come next?
Fountain: Mafumafu Personal Blog
