A maniacal AKB48 fan’s purchase of some $30,000 worth of CDs so he can cast 1770 votes for his favourite idol has inspired the usual speculation as to what drives creepy otaku to such extremes, and why they seem to be appearing in increasing numbers and with increasing budgets.

For those not familiar with AKB’s marketing model, fans have to buy multiple CDs to get tickets which allow them to attend handshaking events or cast votes in popularity polls so as to project their favourites to the top.

This has been honed to such a fine level of perfection that some creepy otaku have been conditioned to buy thousands of the discs, much to the general incomprehension even of less creepy otaku:









“I love Sasshi too much! I put in like 1770 votes for her. Well done everybody!” “Talk about the influence of money on elections…” “Is this some form of mass suggestion in action?” “This is a sickness.” “He spent ¥2,000,000 on this. What an imbecile.” “Is that how much he spent?” “More like ¥2,500,000, at about ¥1600 a disc.” “That many won’t even fix the outcome. You need to put in at least 5,000.” “I bet this is faked by the organisers to make fans think they need to buy more.” “Too moronic. There are limits even to what you can reasonably do with your own money.” “1700! Most normal people only vote 100 times or so!” “I still want to know what happens to all the CDs!” “These guys are idiots. Think how many JKs you could buy for that.” “How many trips to a brothel does this buy you?” “They could at least give them a hand for that much!” “I guess there must be others around who are even worse than these guys.” “Spending may be good for the economy, but you have to consider where the money is actually ending up…”