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Copied and pasted from ANN article can be found here

"Kamikaze Girls Author Booked for Cannabis Possession

Novala Takemoto allegedly had 0.22 grams, started smoking while overseas

Toshiaki Takemoto, the 39-year-old author who wrote the novel inspiration for the Kamikaze Girls manga and live-action film under the pen-name Novala Takemoto, was arrested in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward for violating Japan's Cannabis Control Law on Monday. An affidavit stated that Takemoto allegedly "began smoking cannabis overseas out of curiosity. [He] also carried it back to Japan." Dried cannabis (marijuana) and smoking paraphernalia were reported to have been found during a search of his home.

Takemoto is suspected of concealing 0.22 grams of dried cannabis in the right pocket of his trousers while he was on a road in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Sunday at around 5:15 p.m. A Shinjuku officer on patrol questioned him and discovered the cannabis.

The Kyoto-born Takemoto dropped out of the Osaka University of Arts before he began serializing his "Soleilnuit" essay column in a free Osaka newspaper in 1998. His writings on girls' interests and fashion led to his self-description as a man with "the charisma of otome (young ladies)." He published his first novel, Missin' in 2000, and an essay collection entitled Soleilnuit: For Becoming a Proper Young Lady in 2001. In 2002, he wrote Shimotsuma Monogatari, the novel that inspired the manga and film released under the English title Kamikaze Girls. He eventually started a Pour Lolita lolita-gothic tie-in with the Hello Kitty brand and the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright clothing boutique chain.

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright has since removed all mention of Takemoto and his Pour Lolita line from its website. Takemoto's personal website has been taken offline with only the following two lines:

"Notice:

We deeply apologize, but this homepage is being temporarily placed on hiatus."

Update on his sentencing can be found here

Nocturnal Scarecrow, I can see where you're coming from. I know that there's a healthy amount of Marijuana you can smoke, while there's those teenage and older who abuse it and use it to get high in the un-healthy way. The only way to tell if Takemoto-sama was using it in a healthy way or not. First of all, you can really tell when someone is "stoned"/high because of their eyes and actions. So, I will not jump to conclusions and automatically think, "This guy's a stupid moron, I want nothing more to do with him and his writing." That's just not the way I am. If I'm going to "abandon" someone or something, I need to have a good reason to do so. And so, with that said, CatNapCaps, if anything else about him comes up, will you please post it here? Since we don't live in Japan, at least, some of us don't, we can't hear all the latest on the local news.

Personally, I will stand by him no matter what. But, if he does get out of hand with smoking the stuff in the unhealthy way, then us Lolis would need to band together and persuade him to clean up his act for the sake of his health and the reputation of the Lolita community.

I've never been a big fan of Mana, as I haven't done any research on him to worship him like I do Akinori Isobe-sama and Kuniko Kato-sama, which I have "researched" a bit, just for my reference. If anyone would like to sum-up Mana-sama's "existence" for me, please feel free to do so.

-C'est la lune qui conduit la danse...-

rofl He probably started taking it when he was in California a few months ago! I lol'd when I saw the post on EGL LJ. xD

ilu Nobara. I wonder how he was acting for the policeman to be suspicious, though.


@Annai; Couldn't have said it better than myself.

-...quand le soleil sera couché dans ton âme froide.-

-C'est la lune qui conduit la danse...-

lol, seriously. I never really liked the characteristics of an otaku/mana-fan/ w/e else. For some reason they all act a certain way that just seem kinda 'eh'. xD

-...quand le soleil sera couché dans ton âme froide.-

I agree. They shouldn't be stopping those who use it but rather those who suppl it. If there is no supplier then people don't have the means to access it as often as they would like. I think sometimes they go overboard with how much they emphasize the arrest of a user but never of the seller. confused

-C'est la lune qui conduit la danse...-

I think they went too far with cutting off his BABY stuff and his personal website.

-...quand le soleil sera couché dans ton âme froide.-

I have a big ol head ache...so this may not entirely make sense:

I think the social reprocussions are more severe than anything. The U.S. and Japan are 2 different places with different laws and penalties. I love Novala for his ideas of being able to like what you want no matter who you are, and how he expresses himself. There was some article about an interview with him floating around somewhere, but I cant find it anymore talking about how being a lolita has something to do with rejecting the adult world, and thats what I thought about when I read the article. Everyone makes mistakes, and hopefully he'll be able to pull out of this ok. I will post any updates if I find them.

As far as the talk of Mana goes, I really admire Mana...but I'm more facinated by him than anything. I seriously thought he was a woman when I first saw him in the G&LBs. I love music by Malice Mizer and Moi dix Mois, and I fully understand that he didn't bring the concept of lolita to life I found out about Mana because of being interested in lolita fashion.