Love Live! fans in Japan recently noticed that the domain previously used by the official fan club for Aqours – the school idol group appearing in Love Live! Sunshine!! – has been put up for auction. While it’s not clear who’s responsible for this, fans of the franchise are expressing disappointment with publisher Bandai Namco for what they perceive as a lack of care about security and Love Live’s brand image. Meanwhile, bids for the domain have reached absurd amounts (currently over $615 million dollars).
To give some background, the official Aqours Club was shut down in June last year, after which the “lovelive-aqoursclub.jp” domain simply displayed a thank you and goodbye message featuring the fan club’s official logo. However, as of May 1, the domain redirects visitors to an auction hosted by a domestic domain registration service called Onamae. The auction is set to last until May 27, and the current highest bid sits at 97.11 billion yen or over $615 million dollars, which many believe has got to be the result of false bids or trolling.
In response, Love Live! fans are voicing disbelief at the domain being auctioned off a mere year after the fan club’s closure, along with concerns about what happens if the domain ends up being purchased by a malicious third party. As Japanese news outlet ITmedia explains, “if the domain falls into the hands of a third party, there is a risk that phishing sites mimicking the official fan club could be created. Since the domain is identical to the genuine one, it cannot be ruled out that such sites could bypass browser security features or cause password management tools to automatically fill in usernames and passwords.”
Users have pointed out past examples, like a domain previously associated with the official Rilakkuma brand (rilakkuma-tomonokai.jp) which is now owned by a third party and appears to illegally host pirated sexually explicit manga. Another X user commented, “As someone who’s been a member of the Aqours Club since it first launched, this makes me really sad. More than anything, I’m worried that someone might use this domain to create a site that looks official, or set up an email address like @lovelive -aqoursclub.jp. If I received a scam email from an address like that, I’d probably open it. To prevent this from being exploited, I want the official team to take responsibility and buy the domain back. The price we’re paying for skimping on a few thousand yen a year is too high.”
