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[thatskynews]

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[midorichan10]

Moments I have witnessed intense KnB fans in Japan

Upon request here’s my post of personal experiences I’ve seen or been in that show how Japanese KnB (mainly Akashi) fans are that you probably won’t see too often back in your home country.  *If you are one of these fans, I’m not saying stop doing it or you shouldn’t do it, but just be responsible and don’t neglect other priorities and don’t inconvenience others...and be reasonable. Also these are things I’m not used to seeing so for me it’s quite eyebrow-raising. Thanks. 

Fans with multiple and intense ita-bags (bags with character merch usually dedicated to 1-2 characters)

Many people cover every inch of their bags with badges/straps of a character and I’ve seen some intense Akashi ones. Also they many have duplicates of the same badges and I’ve seen people who have like THREE bags they take to J-world or an event.  *(I also have my own itabag and I know other Tumblr users have their own as well. And I can say, those are normal and I wouldn’t classify them as the ‘crazy’ bags I’ve seen)

Fangirl logic in Japan as said by someone in an interview: The more you spend on rare merch of a character you like the more you love them, or something. Hence why girls collect 50 duplicates or more

Girl spending over $600 on Akashi Newstyle badges

Last year they had NewStyle badges which were from a lottery/kuji at certain arcades. You could choose who you wanted so buy the time I got up to try all the Akashi ones were gone. The Akashi badges in particular were VERY expensive on auction. A two-badge set went on average at the time like $60. It would’ve been cheaper but there was this ONE girl (same girl because the username was the same) who kept BUYING THEM ALL OR WINNING ALL THE AUCTIONS. I had the auction pages saved (since I was keeping an eye on them while I was bidding) and I calculated the total of the ones she won and it went over $600....

I eventually got my own set for $90........

Also pretty sure I’ve seen the acutal girl because she had like 40 New Style badges on her bag and these weren’t common badges compared to the usual KnB ones from J-World......she also had 3 intense Akashi bags and I see her frequently..

Fans spending TONS of money to get a high rank in Cross Colors.

There is no hack or cheat people literally do spend hundreds of dollars to get a high rank for a 5 star Avatar in Cross Colors. I’ve seen the same people try one event after another so it’s not like they save up for months and then go all out. Fans do this for other game apps too like Ensemble Stars. 

Girl hyperventilating at the site of an Akashi lifesize cardboard cutout (I’m not exaggerating, she was holding up the line to take pictures)

Girl hugging a Kuroko cutout as if she was embracing him romantically and looking into each other’s eyes. (not the typical let me take a picture with him because I can sort of thing)

Fans being over the top seeing a guy in an Akashi mask/costume at J-World.

I just wanna say first of all, even his hands are gloved and since it’s a mask, he can’t talk. Think of it like Mickey at Disneyland or any other mascot

I’ve seen a girl actually trying to strike a conversation with him and all he could do was stare back and nod and gesture her to move on because she was holding up the line.

I’ve seen another girl jumping up and down in front of him showing off how she got the Akashi movie clearfile. Again not much of a reaction from him. 

When I got a picture with him, there were girls peeping at him from behind the backdrop like some stalkers.....it was really unsettling....

When he walks around J-World, he ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL has a herd of fangirls following him trying to take pictures of him, and I know some of those girls are J-World regulars and already have a pic with him. One time the guy was going back to the staff area but they had to do one last round of pictures because the girls would’t leave him alone. 

This is probably a thing in multiple fandoms and even back at home but KnB stageplay tickets selling out within 10 min. And a lot of those tickets were bought merely to just be resold at a much higher price. And that was just for the first play.

People going to Jump Festa and sleeping overnight in line when you’re not supposed to but guess the staff allowed it anyway....I went at 3:30am so I could get a shot at the limited KnB Merch and I barely got them...

I’ll also add people buying KnB merch not even for themselves but for the sake of selling. How do I know? For example the Oreshi Puni Puni doll is limited to only two per customer and then I see on auction the same day one seller selling two of them. Unless they asked their friend to pick it up too so they could sell for money but I feel that’s still pretty bad and unfair to those who actually wanted it.Also seen people sell like 40 KnB Jump Festa keychains...which by the way sold out.  

GIrls (specifically girls) shove you and knock you over to get in line for the goods even when staff members are there demanding you line up calmly and no running. I had one girl fully jab me in my arm with her shoulder to get ahead of me. 

Last year’s Jump Festa had an exclusive Akashi wall scroll that sold out in less than 30 min despite the limit they set per person. The original price was about $32. I found one on auction for $100 and bought it right away. Sad thing is, that was the cheapest. Later when everyone else decided to put their own scrolls up for auction they went super high like $300-500 if I remember. I remember one auction it was a fight between three buyers and then it got down to two buyers and they kept outbidding each other and the auction got extended for 2 extra hours because they wouldn’t stop bidding. (Yahoo auctions only end if there are no bids in the last 5 min otherwise they automatically get extended for another 10 min). Ending price was at almost $700, or if not it WAS $700 depending on the currency exchagne rate. 

Girls trying to compete with you on how much goods you have

My friends and I were at J-World just chilling at a table resting and these two Japanese girls walk by and one of them points at my Akashi bag and shows her friend. They weren’t in my line of sight but my friends who could see them from our table said that the other girl sat down and started pulling out ALL of her Easter Akashi merch ranging from badges, straps, putting on her decked out Easter Akashi lanyard, and displaying them on their table. I was just sitting there talking and my bag was just casually on a chair because we had space for it....I wasn’t trying to start anything. And it was very clear that she had more merch than me anyway so I don’t get why it was necessary to show that she is clearly the “winner.” 

Jealous fans who won’t stop staring at you

Example of this was when my friend and I were at a KnB Cafe. There was a mini game the staff did halfway through where you try to match the same picture as them and if you’re in the top 5 (I think) you get a special sparkly holograph coaster of a random character. My friend managed to be one of the lucky ones but the coaster you get is random. My friend luckily drew the capsule that had the Akashi coaster so she gave it to me. Once someone picks that capsule the staff doesn’t put it back in the box so in other words no other winner can get an Akashi coaster. One Akashi fan across the room kept creepily staring at me after that because her friend also won a coaster but because the staff came to us first, her friend had zero chance of getting Akashi. That girl kept staring at me for awhile and it was quite unsettling....

Fans declaring they love Akashi more than anyone else

I actually saw someone’s profile on Cross Colors that said that....

Last year for Valentine’s, the Jump Store had a lottery campaign where if you tweeted a picture of a Valentine’s Card you got from them and tagged it with whatever hashtag it was, then you can be entered for a KnB poster lottery of your choice. One girl literally made an account just for this on twitter and spammed every hour a post so she could try to get the Akashi poster. Now that’s not the worst part. Each post had some sort of sentence of her declaring her love for Akashi and how she loved him more than anyone else in the world (she actually said ‘world’). How she only thought of him ever since she “met” him 3 years ago. She even jokingly said as a reference to Akashi’s phrase, “If I don’t get that Akashi poster I won’t forgive you Jump Store lol” at least I hope it was a joke. 

If you just google image search 赤司部屋 (Akashi room) you can see how dedicated some fans can be into decorating every inch of their room with Akashi merch....literally every inch....though I’ve seen rooms like that for other characters too and other series. 

You’d think fans would be happy that you like the same character as you right? Or everybody in Japan is nice? Well, sadly for Akashi fans that’s not the case a lot of the time. When it comes to showing off merch on twitter fans seem pretty chill but when it comes to actually getting the goods and in person, well.....good luck....

So that’s my report of personal experiences of crazy KnB fans within my 3 years of Japan. I really wished I was making these up but I don’t think I ever could. Here’s to hoping none of you guys have to experience these XD;