ARTIST BEWARE: Soaru/Hatchimi UPDATE

Jun 16, 201613 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Jun 16, 2016

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Cydnee-B
The Royalist of Jellies

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UPDATE 6/22 pt2:
hatchimi is no more. Her account has been deactivated.

UPDATE 6/22:
Further evidence has appeared from charachump second account about their paypal transaction with hatchimi. They have found out that it is possible to recover old notes and has sent me this screenshot. It is a bit confusing, because the emails used are backwards in order, and the B_L_ email hasnt been seen before until this moment, however it contains hatchimi's real name. The note screenshot says (to avoid confusion i will go by email addresses):
"money was sent to B_L_, refunded by B_L_, and then resent to Dollrot."
The paypal screenshots say:
"money was sent to Dollrot, refunded by Dollrot, and then resent to huggles."
It is known that you can switch, add, or remove paypal emails, so therefore hatchimi has been switching her emails around between her paypal accounts.

UPDATE 6/20:

Sorry guys for taking too long with this much needed update. I was at Indy Popcon this weekend so I barely had time to sit. Anyways back to the task at hand.

So lets add stuff that has happened after submitting my journal:

This is the Journal Hatchimi made herself to try to clear her name. She had uploaded her email and a new unseen note that she exchanged with Soaru. However people had already found them fishy even before I could get to them.

With this email, people have noticed that Hatchimi's MSN is defaulted to MSN Canada, which Soaru is confirmed to be Canadian on her page.

Someone has also mentioned that on web archive, Hatchimi’s page (then Dollrot) that her profile had Canada on it as well.

This is Hatchimi’s note to Soaru about her commission. Two things are suspicious of this note: one being the strange arrangement of the dated notes and the second one being how its says “hatchimi said the following…”. If she noted Soaru February 9th 2015, it would say Dollrot, not Hatchimi. Proof of when Dollrot became Hatchimi in 2016.

A comment on Hatchimi’s journal (that is now hidden) pointed out her handwriting being similar to Soaru’s.

Handwriting overlay

The last thing I present is a note I received from charachump’s second account. Their first account is now deactivated and they wish to keep their current one secret, but if need be they don’t mind me revealing it. They were the original owner of this adopt. In the note, they link to these transactions in paypal:

sta.sh/01ien34txf7a

sta.sh/02e2olqnkxmj

sta.sh/01q6cpnfueco

(Censored out Soaru’s real name on her account for her safety, and charachump’s banking info). Apparently, as the note states, Charachump sent money to hatchimi's (then dollrot) paypal account. But for some reason, Hatchimi refunded and told Charachump to resend the money to Soaru’s paypal email.

//END UPDATE

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Almost two years ago, soaru opened her icon commissions with unlimited slots. I ordered two icons while knowing it would take some time, because 1) she kept them open for a good while and has a long to do list and 2) she had to recover from her carpel tunnel. She promised to keep updates on her recovery so everyone knew how things were coming along. It was fine initially, but then she started to have long pauses of inactivity to the point she just stops.

I never noted Soaru, but utaemon, who is also on her neglected to-do list, said she sent a note herself, but never received a reply even though it was marked as read. On Soaru's front page you can even see an un-replied comment left by an unsatisfied customer. And lets not get started on the comments in her journals.

Come now the start of 2016 where, by chance, I and Theangelofmemories have found an account named Dollrot (hatchimi ’s original account name). In the back of our minds we felt that her style looked familiar but we couldn’t put our fingers on it, until eventually we figured out it reminded us of Soaru.

if you read the Artist Beware post, there is a more indepth analysis of Soaru's hiatus, links to the journal posts, art comparisons, and other findings that link the two together.

This issue isn't something you can simply do picture overlays and call it a day. Hatchimi's style looks more improved in comparison to Soaru, but they carry the same little habits in their style. Examples include the way they draw hands at the sides, draw feet pointing inwards, and their tendency to only want to draw icons, base chibis, and the occasional bust shot. I’ve sent a note to Hatchimi accusing her of being Soaru and she denies and claims that she like other artists just happen to share similar style. I have no idea what artists she's talking about.

Hatchimi was caught with her pants down for a moment when she uploaded her art vs artist meme. The photo used was not only compared to a self portrait that Soaru has up in her gallery, but some individuals I’m assuming found out she its the same image from Soaru’s instagram page (which is now conveniently set on private). She admits (not publicly from what I have seen) that she had taken Soaru’s likeness, photoshopped it, and used it as her own face. She’s willing to take the fall for impersonating Soaru since she has been caught red handed, but its still not enough to make her confess to being actually Soaru.

I later received a note from softsheeps (formerly Owlliegator and milkboys, another victim of Soaru) about confronting Hatchimi’s art vs artist meme and receiving denial as well. I asked her to send me the conversation and she provided me these screenshots. Please note that the upload date to sta.sh was on June 2nd and in the notes the conversation happened almost 2 days ago, May 31st. My first note to Hatchimi was sent on May 29th, 2016. If you notice the conversation, Hatchimi’s way of writing is fairly different than the way she replied to my first note, between the span of 2 days.

I noted Hatchimi once again with the published artist beware post. (this is the version of the note where I failed to somehow link the Artist Beware but I resent a second note with the link a few seconds later). Now I receive a response written in the same fashion as to Softsheeps, where she is throwing in emoticons, over uses the exclamation points, and carries a lighter tone in her writing. Her first reply to me was more serious and properly punctuated. My personal writing style to her hasn't changed in between notes, so there shouldn't have been anything to suddenly warrant her changes, unless its Hatchimi trying to develop a different 'personality'.

We, Hatchimi and I, sent replies back and forth a few more times. She claimed she commissioned Soaru, but then in the next reply she suddenly never commissioned her and found her email from one of Soaru’s adopt auctions or a journal where Soaru has multiple times posted her email publicly. Her discovery of Soaru's email leads to Hatchimi providing a screenshot of her exchange between herself and Soaru. What gets me is that apparently Soaru has time to reply to Hatchimi’s email but not to any of her abiding customers’ notes or comments. She also shows such a mild concern over someone using her face and referencing her art. If it were to happen to anyone else, I’m sure they would be extremely creeped out and do much more than give a verbal slap on the wrist, because this is seriously identity theft. I also see the similar writing style of Soaru’s email reply in the first note Hatchimi sent to me. But this is my personal observation as I deal with languages and linguistics to catch these things most people would overlook.

After that note, I replied that I wasn’t going to buy into her email in a situation like this. If Hatchimi is indeed Soaru, she can very easily fabricate her email by just mailing to her old Soaru email, wait a few days, then reply. She claims my proof is just a giant pile of coincidences so in return I can claim her only evidence is a sham.

Taken from the Artist Beware LJ post, my 'coincidental' proof involves her photoshopped face (that she has said she thinks Soaru is pretty, but she alters Soaru's face as if she know Soaru's imperfections), the uncanniness of their style (just look at the hand comparison at least and tell me they don’t look anything a like), her bubbly handwriting, and even her computer user system name. Individually, these evidences wouldn't stand on their own, but together they lead to either Hatchimi really trying to take Soaru's identity or Soaru and Hatchimi are the same person.

I've reached out to all of the people on her to-do list and because a good portion of them are inactive now thanks to time, only a handful of people replied back, but I thank them for helping me help us get this far. The most I want to out of this is a refund, because Soaru have unrightfully stole more than at least $920 collectively from people who sympathized with you. But I know I took a lost and I've learned my lesson. But I and any or your 40+ victims are not going to let you get away unscathed.