It’s not often that seiyuus leave their roles, however, back in 2009, Yurina Hase famously left her role as The iDOLM@STER’s resident shrinking violet, Yukiho Hagiwara. In light of the recent passing of seiyuu, Miyu Matsuki, Hase recently shared the reasons why she left iDOLM@STER.

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While playing the role of Yukiho back in 2009, Hase said that she received some death threats and forced her to withdraw from many appearances and events. She had heard that if she herself could not attend, then it would be possible for the character of Yukiho to be removed from the iM@S franchise. However, she did note that this may have been a lie by her manager to keep her working as Yukiho.

However, she still felt that she still should have said something. She mentioned that the death threats have taken a toll on her and added that dealing with police made it physically and mentally difficult for her. She suffered from hyperventilation while in rehearsals and was generally stressing out. Although she did tell Namco that she could not appear in events, they did ask her to continue voicing Yukiho.

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Eventually, they found a new seiyuu for the character in Azumi Asakura, who is now recognized by many as the voice behind Yukiho Hagiwara, as she has voiced her in the TV anime as well as the movie. However, Hase was not notified of this by her manager to avoid any scandal. She did panic and was upset because of this, but she did compliment Asakura for a good job.

“…I think that the Yukiho I played is my Yukiho, and the one played by Azumin (Azumi Asakura) is her Yukiho. After all, if I didn’t think that, it would just be rude to Azumin. She’s a very cute Yukiho. A miraculous Yukiho. However, I also hold the Yukiho that I played very dear in my heart.”

As mentioned earlier, this comes into light with the passing of Miyu Matsuki, who worked with Hase. She talked about the late seiyuu by saying:

“She was like a big sister to me, when I first started out as a voice actress, she was incredibly kind to me.”

She then returned to the topic at hand and admitted how hard it is living after all those death threats.

“It’s a miracle that I’m still living now. No matter how poor I was, no matter how weak my body was, no matter how painful every day was, I am living now… I am kept alive. That’s why I have to do my best to continue living.”

She also talked about the late Chieko Honda, who passed away in 2013. Both Matsuki and Honda were seiyuus that she looked up to.

“I’ve thought deeply of these two people that I’ve had the honor of working with in the past. I’ve also had the feelings of The IDOLM@STER fans in my heart. I wish I didn’t wait until now to say all of this. I’m truly sorry for that.”

She then apologized to her fans

“Now that I think back on it, it was a wonderful experience. I really think that. That’s why I don’t hold a grudge against anyone, and I think this was for the best,” she stated, “I feel that if I didn’t say it now, though, I probably never would have said it all.”

Aside from voicing Yukiho in the original im@s game and the Live For You OVA, Yurina Hase is also known for voicing Aloe in Quiz Magic Academy, as well as ToHeart2’s Konomi Yuzuhara.

Source: ANN