One Piece star Mackenyu recently made an appearance at the Colombia Comic Con 2023 last November 25 and 26 at the Corferias, Bogotá, Colombia.
Conventions like these provide an opportunity for fans to meet their favorite actors up close. Given that this is not the actor’s first experience with the “1-mile-apart” meet-and-greet, it has once again become the center of people’s attention, reminiscent of what occurred at the recent Manipopcon 2023 here in the Philippines.
Some social media users have pointed out that they could have just photoshopped themselves into the picture instead of meeting with him.
People jumped in the comments and put humor into sharing what they thought about the said meet & greet at the convention.
Without really knowing the context, at first glance some may think that this is rude but there has also been a slight conversation about how the Mackenyu’s management handles these interactions, even with some blaming the actor for being seen as if he did not want to interact with them.
Although there has been a lot of criticism of the way he interacts with fans, some of the social media users came to his defense with one user who wrote, “Remember it’s Japanese, they’re not used to physical contact like us and some can accept it but feel uncomfortable, you have to respect that too.”
Another user defended him and wrote, “They are not used to showing affection understand it is another culture whether you like it or not.”
One user brought up what happened at the Manipopcon 2023 with a similar situation and came to his defense.
A lot of Filipinos chimed in when the Manipopcon started being mentioned:
While it is somewhat hilarious to poke fun at the situation, perhaps we can also give Mackenyu the benefit of the doubt regarding his actions during conventions. It is usually the artist or celebrity’s management that assigns mandatories during events or public appearance, and for all we know, the One Piece star may just be following what is stipulated on his contract.
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