TOKYO (TR) – The editorial department of Weekly Shonen Magazine was forced to issue a statement on Wednesday after eagle-eyed readers spotted a bizarre editing fail: a gravure photo of Hinatazaka46 idol Aimi Ohno appearing to show her with six fingers, reports Oricon News (Sep. 2).
The controversial photo appeared in Issue 40 of the Kodansha-published manga anthology, which went on sale the same day. Immediately after the magazine hit store shelves, social media lit up with comments from netizens pointing out the anatomical anomaly on the idol’s hand.
Addressing the uproar, the magazine’s official social media account acknowledged that the image had taken on an “unintended appearance” and offered an explanation for the botched editing job.
According to the publisher, a technical mishap during the pre-press process was to blame.
“Upon checking with our operator, we found that this phenomenon occurred when adjusting the overall brightness of the photo for printing,” the statement read. “The shadows around the contours were lightened too much, which caused this to happen.”
In an attempt to do damage control, the editorial team subsequently released a newly adjusted, corrected version of the photo on the magazine’s official X account.
Ohno, the idol featured in the optical illusion, graces both the cover and the opening gravure spread of the issue. She was recently selected to serve as the center for Hinatazaka46’s 16th single, “Cliffhanger.”
