What whaaaaat? What is going on there? - Eeep

Wow that's so gross.

Hey guys and girls it_'s Cathy Cat from Tokyo

"Comiket no Yami" pretty much sayin "the dark side

of Cosplay at Comiket" is a video that has made the rounds

online after a certain scandalous little event happening here in Japan. This time

I am gonna go and ask Japanese people to react to it, and give us their opinion and maybe

and explanation why. If you haven't seen that video yet, it is in the description box below

maybe open it in a separate window, check out the very short clip. It's only like 10 seconds before

you watch the movie. We are not allowed to put that into our video.

The laws and rights for YouTubers here in Japan are even stricter than in your country.

So we are not allowed to put this in. Check out the quick clip and then come back to us and let's see

how Japanese people on the streets of Tokyo have reacted

to this little outrageous event. Let's go and ask Japanese.

Do you know the Comiket. - I know it. - I have heard of it but I don't know what it's about.

People that cosplay get together and take pictures and such

It's a place for that. - That connects to today's topic

Recently the Hashtag "Dark side of Comiket"

has recently been trending online. Yes Darkness. What darkness do you expect?

What? People putting up pictures without permission. - Sneaky pictures of girls in little clothing

Having some suspicious old men take pictures...

This happened. - What what?

What whaaaaat? What is going on there? - Eeep

They suddenly all crowded around the girls. What is going on?

Eeep! - How scary is that? - So scary! - They kept the distance before, and then...

Guess they wanted to touch the girls. - The cosplayer who posted this said

that she has not been touched but that they all came too close.

That's not the distance in which you can take pictures. - More like having the real thing there

That's scary. The girls must have been scared of this sudden development

Having a large group crowd around rather than just one or two

Seeing this, what did you think? - How dangerous this is.

The cosplayers might not have felt as much in trouble but...

out-standers would think its dangerous. - They were just right

before touching the girls, and they were dressed very sparsely too.

That's not a distance in which you can take good pictures.

They should have kept their distance properly.

I understand they wanted to take a picture, but there is a line.

Why did this happen. - Well they were not touched right? - Yeah

They just huddled together. - They must have wanted to take pics at a great angle.

They must have wanted to see the faces of the girls up close.

I think it's also because EVERYONE did it. I am sure the people

on the back just followed the man in front of them without knowing.

Might have been. - Just following the man in front? - Yeah.

If the guys at the front had acted properly things wouldn't have escalated

But the front line did it and the other ones followed.

So this weird video happened. - In this scenario we have

cosplaying girls and photographer men,

does the opposite happen in Japan too?

Having 3 cosplaying boys taking pictures like that.

When it's about Johnny's idol boys

girls flock around them. - But not THAT close.

But when on stage, many girls will get together to see them

that might be the closest similar situation.

They want to see them but would they crowd around for pics?

Hmmmm - Not from that distance.

I don't think that happens.

If you really like someone, you want to show you got good manners

and wouldn't do that. - You think of the other person first.

- I do. - If we did something like that, boys would hate us.

We would never get a chance. Having good manners is super important in Japan.

* CathyCat sneezing off screen *

Sorry girls.... Do you like anime? - I do. - Me too

What anime do you like? - I had time to watch anime in school

then I could watch more. Recently I've been watching "Kimetsu no Yaiba"

It's popular abroad. - Recently I watched "Cells at work!"

I like that anime and really watched that recently.

So then have you heard about Comiket? - I have.

Recently the hashtag "The darkside of Comiket" has been trending on twitter

Do you know why it has?

I don't know but I heard that some people meet there and get screwed over

And that there are many thieves and such.

Well first have a look at this video

These 3 cosplaying girls were having a photoshoot

But then this happened... please check it out

I have seen this one. - Girl that's scary!

So scary. - The cosplayer herself posted that they have not been touched there though.

Hmmmm how scary. - Those girls are in trouble.

Many people abroad were wondering why this happened in Japan.

What did you think seeing it? - From what I saw

all the other people are older men. If that many old men come at you

... they must have felt scared for their lives.

Why did this happen? Abroad people think that Japanese are very shy you see,

Is this the fault of "safety in numbers"?

Why did this happen? What do you think? - Rules...

If there were better rules the girls wouldn't have to be scared ....

They might be too much into their hobby to realize what they did.

But no matter how much you like it, you need to keep up your morals

most of all. I understand that. I like geeky things too.

I think I learned from this movie how important it is for fans to have good manners most of all. I understand that. I like geeky things too.

I think I learned from this movie how important it is for fans to have good manners

and can enjoy their work. - It's ok to be geeky BUT

don't cause a nuisance for other people? - Hmmm

That's what I thought. - Everyone let's be more careful! Everyone came so close....

but the girls were not touched. Why do you think the cameramen came up that close? - They wanted to

take pics you can only take there. Like their expression....

fans want to come as close as they can to their idols. Even when they can't touch them, they want closeness

and take pics. - Don't touch close but have that closeness on the picture?

Maybe they wanted to take a sexual picture ...

but from a viewer's perspective it looks like that because of the short skirts...

They wanted to take some naughty shots I think.

It's ok to be geeky, but mind your manners and don't give others a bad time.

Is what we take away.

What is the Comiket?

It's an Anime Otaku event. - In recent years there are foreigners

who visit the event. - When you hear "Dark side of Comiket"

what do you think?

That you spend too much money. - There are things you like

and people get hurt. - So these 3 cosplayers...

were doing a photoshoot.

And then this happened. Tell me your honest reaction to this.

Here we go.... - They are taking sneaky pics. - Oh that's what it means?

- Gross! - That's why the hashtag has been trending.

What? So scary. Did they get groped? - Apparently not.

I wouldn't like it still. This is SO JAPANESE.

Why is that "so Japanese"? - If one person does it, everyone thinks it's ok.

I see. - That's very Japanese. - "All do it, so I might as well"?

One person starts, everyone copies. - If one person does it

you might get away with it too. - When one makes the first step

everyone comes along. That's SO JAPANESE.

Same in coffee shops. One person orders and everyone will

stand in line then. It's very Japanese to follow others.

Foreigners will not be like that and buy whenever they want.

In Japan, if nobody is in the store, we won't go into the store.

That's a thing. We like copying what others are doing.

Do you boys know the Comiket? - I do

I know it. - What event is it? - Anime fans assemble

and they all show what they got. There are many cosplayers.

That's the impression I have. - Have you been? - Never. - Never

Ok let's go to our question then. Recently

"Comiket no Yami" has been trending online. Have you heard about it

or do you know what it's about? - No clue

Wow that's gross. - This is scary. - Why...

did this happen? What do you think? - Well

there were many male cameramen...

and the girls were showing a lot of skin, which caught their attention.

This wasn't about taking pictures more like the mood

of the situation there. Everyone crowding. - One person did it so

it's ok if all do it? - I think that's what happened.

Doing something because EVERYONE does it, is that a Japanese trait? - Yeah.

.... I guess so yeah....

Wow.... I mean my general reaction was like HOW WHY WHY did that even

happen? Japan is a very reserved culture, you don't generally get that close up to people

Even to people you know. Even to your family. I don't see many people in

Japan who get up that close to their own family members. Very distant culture so...

when I saw that clip I was like "Wow what just happened?" apparently

the situation was, the girls were doing a shoot and they

one of them mentioned that "we can make the circle a little bit smaller". Well that was a lot more than

"a little bit smaller" and you could see they were doing

something else at that time. According to the cosplayer who put the

video up online, she said well...

she didn't seem to complain about it, but she said wow this can happen at events

No one of them got touched but they had to get a member of staff to

pull them out of the pool of people that had come up too close to them.

Some of the reactions I got was: It's a group culture thing. One person does it: Everyone does it so

we do it too. Which doesn't make it ok but that might be one of the reasons

it's one of the explanations we got.

I still don't know what to think about it because generally in Japan the cosplay rules

are so strict. Generally at events even if you have a camera

you need to register your camera. I've seen that happening. For cosplayers there are certain cosplay

dedicated zones and stuff. If you wanna cosplay in Japan it's not easy

You need to abide to a lot of rules and the cameramen need also to

abide to a lot of rules that's why this video is a rare case

of something upsetting the system.

Which I hope doesn't mean next year at Comiket they make it even stricter on rules cause they're already

pretty strict. But maybe find away to protect the cosplayers from something like

this happening or becoming a thing. That's all I can say to it. Let us know what you think about

"Comiket no Yami" the dark side of cosplay at comiket.

Let's find out. Thank you for checking out our video. Don't forget to subscribe for more content here from

Japan also give us a like to say thank you for making this video. You know, just giving something back

I love it when you guys do that. I hope you have a great day. Catch you soon for more stuff here on Ask Japanese. Bye!