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Tohru Furuya Apologizes for Misleading Fandom with Tweet

Accomplished voice actor Tohru Furuya (Amuro in Mobile Suit Gundam, Pegasus Seiya in Saint Seiya, Tuxedo Kamen in Sailor Moon) got into a bit of water on October 11 when he posted this tweet regarding another of his roles, Case Closed's Tohru Amuro:

Today's Case Closed news is the Shuuichi Akai & Tohru Amuro Secret Archives and the Case Closed DVD Collection: Tohru Amuro Special Edition, both on sale November 28! I spoke with Shuuichi Ikeda [Shuuichi Akai's voice actor] about everything from the movie (of course) to Scotch. ♪♪♪ You've gotta buy the Sekian cluster (^_^)v

Seems harmless enough -- but the "Sekian" bit proved controversial. The term comes from combining the character 赤 (seki) with 安 (an); both characters are in Akai's and Amuro's names, so the term indicates both men. But combining characters in this way is also common practice among shippers (much like the symbol ×, or combining names a la "Brangelina"). The suggested couple rubbed some people the wrong way, and they duly complained.

Within a day, Furuya made an apology:

The other day, a controversial announcement used a "couple" expression purely to abbreviate and fit the strict character limit. I have received e-mails pointing this out from saddened and displeased people. I'm sorry m(_ _)m I should just try harder with character numbers. I will refrain from this sort of expression from now on.

A follow-up tweet thanked those who complained and asked people to notify him about similar slip-ups in the future. Most of the online commentary surrounding this expressed bewilderment that this should even be an issue.

Furuya frequently travels to anime conventions; for instance, he attended Animaga Expo 2016 in Melbourne, Australia this year and last year. He also showed up to Eiichiro Oda's star-studded house party last year.

Sources: Nico Nico News and Tohru Furuya Twitter