Can’t understand why someone would want to marry someone who’s not real? That’s not what’s important, Kiss frontman says.

Back in 2018, Akihiko Kondo decided to get married. At the time he was 35, so age-wise it wasn’t strange that he was ready to settle down. What was out of the ordinary, though, was that he decided to marry Hatsune Miku, Japan’s most popular virtual idol. Since the Japanese government not officially recognizing marriages between humans and fictional characters, this was more of a symbolic union, but Kondo went all out, holding a formal wedding ceremony and reception for Miku, himself, and some three dozen guests, with the tab coming to roughly two million yen (about US$17,700 by exchange rates at the time).

Four years later, Kondo remains, in his heart, happily wedded to Miku. The New York Post recently ran an article about him in which it points out both that Kondo’s credits his affection for Hatsune Miku and her music as helping him cope with previously debilitating depression, but also that none of his family members attended the wedding ceremony and that Miku is, canonically, a teenager.

Even in Japan, the country that created the word “otaku,” Kondo’s devotion to his 2-D crush is seen as unusually strong, and by mainstream American societal standards, it’s an even more extreme case. He does have one very prominent supporter on the other side of the Pacific: rock legend and Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, who took to Twitter to assert the one and only thing he feels matters regarding Kondo’s situation.

“It doesn’t matter if you understand this relationship,” Simmons tweeted. “It only matters if this otaku man is happy.” Sure, the 72-year-old musician may have slightly flubbed the definition of otaku by limiting it to manga and tech fans, but it’s still a compassionate show of support for those with an interest in their hobby that’s intense enough that it can be difficult for others to comprehend, but which is a source of joy to the otaku themselves.

Who knows, maybe one day Simmons will be able to travel to Japan and wish Kondo and his bride well in person, perhaps while they share a meal of Hotter Than Hell Kiss steamed meat buns.

Source: Amass via Otakomu, New York Post
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