Once again, this belief about the bad smell of otaku is present on the internet and this time it was the fans of Love Live! who were the target of this controversy. In social networks, a publication began to go viral where it was said that some baseball fans were not at all happy with Love Live! fans, since they attended an event at the same place and those people who went for the sport complained about the bad smell of the otaku.
Baseball fans are not very happy about sharing spaces with Love Live! fans, due to their bad smell.
It is already well known that there are many stereotypes towards the otaku community, inside and outside Japan, and one of them is precisely related to the bad smell that this group of people have because they “don’t like to bathe”. Although the taste for the whole world of anime and manga has become more and more normalized, at least outside Japan, there are still certain stereotypes that people on the Internet tend to use in a derogatory way to make fun of anime fans, as we see this time with the fans of Love Live!
However, some people on the internet commented that people who watch Love Live!, or are involved with this story in some way, really do smell bad. Someone told his experience in a private event, where he says that a staff person sitting in front of him or her was giving off a pretty nasty smell, even when the person telling his experience was wearing a mask, but still couldn’t breathe through his or her nose because of the terrible smell.
And as of course, there are many people who did not believe that this was true, users of the networks claimed that it was real and that until they attended an event that had to do with Love Live! they would not experience it and verify its veracity. Another popular comment was that Love Live! was the lowest point to which an otaku could fall.
Clearly, as in every debate, there are two versions, and this time was no exception, since, although as mentioned above, some people claimed that this stinky thing was true, other people said the opposite. The first argument against this viral publication about Love Live! fans, said that most of the comments made on the internet about “stinky” otaku, were lies.
And justly, in support of the previous argument, it was said that if you are a normal Japanese otaku, it was most likely that such comments were only a form of hate because people were generally clean; it was also added that in other countries of the world people usually bathe more than once a week and that the fact of not bathing, was not something “exclusive” of people who are fans of anime, but even in developed countries like France, people did not bathe very often.
Similarly, one person commented that when people attend sporting events in stadiums, almost everyone leaves smelling of sweat, so it was not that only otaku, specifically on this occasion Love Live! fans, were the ones who gave off the bad smell, so there was no reason to create this kind of false arguments to generate hatred towards this type of communities. Finally, many users decided to take it with humor and said that this kind of comments had already become a meme on the internet and did not take it seriously. What do you think about this issue?
