The recent AnimeFest 2022 has brought about its share of controversy as issues with how the event was managed, and the outfit choices by certain cosplayers making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Another major issue that has propped up is the apparent sexual harassment that some cosplayers endured during the event.
Recently, another case has surfaced recently where a 19-year-old cosplayer confessed that she was allegedly tricked and raped at the event by a photographer.
The allegations were first shared anonymously in the Facebook group Tantan Confessions Malaysia.
In the confession, the netizen said that she had attended the event in cosplay, which was a first for her.
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She had apparently planned to only attend the first day, however, her plans changed when she met a boy who she referred to as A.
She described A as a decent person who wore glasses, was short and was of mixed heritage. She added that he spoke Mandarin and had a talent for taking photos.
He’d apparently asked her for her contact info, but she stated that she would only share it with him if they met again on the last day of the festival.
“I never thought this would become my nightmare,” she admitted.
Her nightmare
They ended up meeting on the last day of the festival and this time, A stated that he wanted to take photos of her and insisted to do it in a hotel room, as he claimed that there were too many people around and that the lighting was bad.
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She eventually trusted his judgement after seeing samples of his work and the two did their shooting in a nearby hotel where A suggested taking more sexy photos. Although she had her doubts, she relaxed when A focused on taking photos and didn’t react to her being undressed.
After the shooting was done, A told her that he was going to get some food and drinks for them.
Although she didn’t suspect anything was wrong, she started feeling strange after having a drink offered to her by A.
“My whole heart was racing, I felt giggly. My throat was burning, it felt like I was drunk. I eventually passed out, without any awareness of my surroundings,” she said.
“I woke up at night, I wasn’t wearing anything. Yes, I was raped by him.”
She explained that the sheets were stained and that she found semen and according to her, A had apparently left her with no way to contact him.
Although she was initially afraid to tell her parents and the police, she later claimed that she had filed a report and stated she had supposedly discovered her photos on Mega with her Instagram account attached.
M’sians divided on whether or not it’s fake
Her confession has garnered plenty of attention. However, some users called it out to be fake. A user claimed that it was fake and stated that Mega was a cloud storage service which boasted security and privacy.
They added that the anonymous posting had been done to create drama about Anime Fest. “If you were a real person, you would have started a TikTok post or Twitter too,” they added.
However, another user defended her and alleged that A was a repeat offender who’d started in 2017. The user claimed that A apparently had quite a collection of indecent photos and videos stored online and that A’s IP address was somewhere in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
Additionally, they claimed that they had found footage being sold online for about RM150 to RM500, including in Telegram groups.
Whatever the case, whether or not it is true, we hope that cosplayers remain aware and vigilant especially during events due to the amount of reports of incidents which have happened in the past.
What do you think of the cosplayer’s confession? Let us know in the comments.
Also read: PDRM: Stern Action Will Be Taken Against Officer Who Victim-Blamed Cosplayer Who Was Harassed
