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Jump Festa Cancels Kuroko's Basketball Events Due to Threats
posted on by Egan Loo
The official website for this year's Jump Festa announced on Thursday that the Kuroko's Basketball Super Stage event has been cancelled. In addition, other Kuroko's Basketball events, exhibits, and the sale of tie-in goods at the December 22-23 festival have been cancelled. The publisher Shueisha apologized to its readers and fans.
Shueisha's Jump Festa staff said that Makuhari Messe, the convention complex in Chiba that is hosting Jump Festa, had received a threat or threats demanding the cancellation of stage events, exhibits, and sales tied to Kuroko's Basketball. The staff discussed the issue and decided on the cancellations, with the safety of visitors as the top priority. The rest of the festival is scheduled to continue, but security will be increased with more guards.
Since last month, more than 20 locations linked to Kuroko's Basketball creator Tadatoshi Fujimaki, including the Comic Market dōjinshi event, have received threat letters with powdered and liquid substances. A source in the investigation of Kuroko's Basketball threat letters said there is a high possibility that the liquid sent to Sophia University on October 12 could emit a lethal dose of hydrogen sulfide if vaporized.
Two Kuroko's Basketball dōjinshi events, "Shadow Trickster Osaka," and "Miracle Quarter" in Sapporo, were canceled this month. The Tokyo Big Sight event complex received a threat last month, but the "Shadow Trickster 3" event proceeded without incident on October 20. The official "Kuroko no Basuke produced by Namco Namja Town" event in Tokyo did end 19 days early as a result of the threats, and Animate Café Tennoji in Osaka cancelled a planned Kuroko's Basketball collaboration event.
Last December, Jump Festa reported an attendance of 163,000 during the December 17-18 weekend. The festival centers around Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, V Jump, Jump Square, and Saikyō Jump magazines.
[Via Yaraon!]
Update: The Kuroko's Basketball Super Stage event would have been held on Saturday, December 22 at 1:30 p.m. The scheduled guests would have included voice cast members Kenshō Ono, Yūki Ono, Junichi Suwabe, and Fumiko Orikasa.
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