One fan of the boy band is taking their idol worship too far.

In Aichi Prefecture, a user of the Anjo City Library handed staff a magazine from their periodical racks with a simple question: Where’s Arashi?

Little did they all know that this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to articles featuring the extremely popular idol group. Further investigation revealed that dozens of books from their library’s archives, including women’s magazines, had been defaced and de-Arashied by what appears to be an obsessive fan.

A final count of 50 publications and 332 pages worth of Arashi-related material had been stolen, leaving other heartbroken fans wondering what Masaki Aiba’s favorite flavor of ice cream is.

▼ The real victims are the many other law-abiding Arashi fans

The library’s director told media, “Because this is the property of the citizens, I want this to stop once and for all.” The Japanese public was also up in arms over this desecration of public information and some even suggested that this was not an isolated incident.

“I live in a different city, but I too once took out a magazine only to have an article about Satoshi Ohno cut out. This seriously has to stop.”
“Awful…just awful.”
“This was clearly done by someone without a conscience.”
“Completely inconsiderate to their fellow Arashi fans.”
“As both a resident of Anjo and an Arashi fan, I’m embarrassed by this crime.”
“Magazines are so hard to replace too, since they go out of print.”
“If you want it so bad, just buy the stupid magazine.”

Even more peculiar, the person who removed the articles did so with remarkable precision. Articles were carefully cropped with an X-Acto knife and full pages were removed by gently pulling away at the binding. As a result, it would have been very difficult to even notice that the articles had been removed at a quick glance. This was clearly the work of a pro.

We are asking everyone in the Anjo City area to be on the lookout for a super-fan of Arashi with an encyclopedic knowledge of the group…which admittedly isn’t much to go on. Furthermore, if you happen to come across a suspicious looking fan, do not approach as they are clearly good with knives and have little regard for anyone who isn’t a member of Arashi.

It’s an especially unusual crime in this day and age when information, pictures, and even video of Arashi can be fairly easily acquired over the Internet. It’s also especially dangerous, because in the event that a future major disaster wipes out all information except for that which is contained in Anjo City Library, this person will have effectively erased Arashi from history – surely the ultimate sin for any fan.

Source: NHK News Web, Hachima Kiko
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