Female Tekken pro fired by team over “unacceptable” comments about short men
YouTube/BANDAI NAMCOA female Tekken pro has been fired after she made a controversial statement about short men during a live broadcast.
Japanese Tekken star Kana ‘Tanukana’ Tani has risen in the fighting game scene, notably placing first in the WESG 2019 Chongqing Tekken 7 Invitational.
However, her place as one of Tekken’s prominent female fighting game forces as a member of Cyclops Athlete Gaming will no longer be continuing after controversy erupted over her on-stream remarks.
As reported by Kotaku, during a February 15 broadcast, Tanukana said: “Men who are under 5 ft 7 don’t have human rights.” She further added that they should consider getting surgery to deal with their shortcomings.
「たぬかな」選手との選手契約解除のお知らせhttps://t.co/5v8dGMOzSm
— CYCLOPS athlete gaming (@CYCLOPS_OSAKA) February 17, 2022
Interestingly, the Japanese word for human rights is ‘jinken,’ but in regards to video games, the term means an item or character that players need to have. This has resulted in a bit of debate over her true intentions.
Tekken pro fired for saying short men “don’t have human rights”
Regardless, the damage has resulted in her org, Cyclops Athlete Gaming, firing the 29-year-old.
In a statement, the org apologized for their star’s comments: “We here at Cyclops Athlete Gaming apologize deeply for the inappropriate statements from our sponsored player Tanukana and the pain her words have caused people, as well as all the distress and trouble caused to the fans who support our team and the sponsors involved.”
“Miss Tanukana’s inappropriate statements in her live stream on February 15th of 2022 were not approved by us and have led to us terminating her contract,” they added.
私の配信中における発言は、決して許されないものであり、自分の認識の甘さが招いたことであると重く受け止めております。
この件により皆様を失望させてしまったことについては、弁解の余地もございません。— たぬかな (@kana_xiao) February 16, 2022
For her part, the pro also apologized on Twitter, calling her remarks “unacceptable” and took full responsibility for her actions. “There is no excuse for disappointing you in this matter,” she wrote.
It’s not clear what the future will hold for the fighting game pro, or if she has any plans on returning to streaming following this controversy.
