Initial results suggest hardcore anime fans are dirty, but maybe they’re just precise?

For some otaku, the strength of their love of anime doesn’t show itself just through the depth of their passion, but the narrowness of their interests. The absolute hardest of hardcore fans sometimes seem to have little motivation to do anything that doesn’t directly relate to acquiring and consuming more animated content, which in extreme cases pushes bathing out of their regular routine.

As a metaphorically scratch-and-sniff illustration of this phenomenon, Japanese Twitter user @Lambda39 recently shared the results of a poll that asked otaku how often they took a bath, with the worrisome results being:
● Every day, obviously: 81 percent
● Roughly every other day (because it’s a hassle): 10 percent
● Two or three times a week (but I don’t smell bad): 4 percent
● Once a week or less: 5 percent

▼ Anime has the power to broaden minds, connect nations, and offend noses.

“One in 20 otaku only takes a bath once a week,” tweeted @Lambda39 with the numerical results, setting off a chain of revolted responses from other Twitter users.

“Once a week isn’t nearly enough to remove seven days’ worth of stank.”
“So they’re on the same cycle as Weekly Shonen Jump.”
“Are they worried they’ll change sex with hot water?”
“No wonder places where otaku gather have always smelled like pig farms.”
“So there’s probably a portion of them who don’t change their underwear every day either.”
“Maybe they just go commando.”

However, those looking for a ray of light shining through the odorous miasma latched onto two things. First, the results @Lambda39 posted came from only 477 respondents, which limits how representative they can be of otakudom in its entirety. Second, though, the Japanese phrase used in the survey’s question, ofuro ni hairu, literally means “take a bath,” so it can be interpreted either as referring to bathing in general or strictly as bathing while sitting in a bathtub, i.e. excluding showering while standing up. Because of that, @Lambda39 decided to run the survey again, this time specifying that the question was about bathing in general, with baths and showers both to be treated as positive responses. This time 75,449 votes were collected, and the breakdown was:

● Every day: 90 percent
● Roughly every other day: 6 percent
● Two or three times a week: 2 percent
● Once a week or less: 2 percent

Those numbers are a lot more encouraging, though they still work out to one in 50 otaku bathing, at the very most, one time a week (with, terrifyingly, no specified bottom-end infrequency). Two percent is a lot better than five percent, though, and hopefully new advances in body odor-detecting technology will help get that number even lower, perhaps one day leading us to a future free of the Comiket Cloud.

Source: Twitter/@Lambda39 via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s freshly showered AND shaved.