AKB48 imouto group NMB48 has courted fan ire after it was discovered that a sign in the background of a backstage shot of the group revealed they were throwing all the gifts their adoring fans gave them straight into the trash as a matter of course.
After buying hundreds of CDs in order to get a handshaking event ticket, many fans bring gifts for the girls to the events, which are graciously accepted.
The group does however publish detailed regulations about what will be accepted, with prohibited gifts including animals, foodstuffs, electronics, data storage media of all kinds, cash and coupons, cosmetics, drugs, explosives, and – of course – underwear.
What actually happened to the gifts may not have weighed too heavily on the minds of the kind of people to buy 100 copies of the same CD, but the mystery was in any case solved by a chance glimpse of signage in the back of a recent group photo.
Why they were doing this is perhaps best not dwelt upon, but fans examined the photo in forensic detail and soon deciphered the writing on a handwritten sign in the background:
In translation (in Japanese it reads “プレゼントは11/23処分します 置いてある物は各自で処理してください”):
Presents to be disposed of on the 23rd. Please deal with anything left over individually.
Amongst fans perhaps expecting the girls to sleep with their creepy gifts by their beds, the revelation that they will soon be consigned to a landfill will likely not be taken well:
“Harsh!”
“Poor fans…”
“If you are just going to bin it all, don’t accept it in the first place!”
“How did he spot this!”
“If it’s not money, it’s garbage!”
“Difficult issue. If they really did use any of it they would only encourage more.”
“Looking at the list, what exactly can you give them anyway?”
“Money?”
“That’s NG according to the list!”
“I’m sure this sign is just for what is left over after they have taken out what they want!”
“The fan letters go straight into the shredder too I guess.”
“Definitely throw away any food your fans give you!”
“I bet they did get some weird stuff sent them, so it seems a given they’d do this.”
“Expect cameras and recorders in those soft toys.”
“Their fans are a bunch of perverted maniacs so there is no telling how those presents have been interfered with.”
“I appreciate they are not wise to eat any of their gifts, but some of that stuff is expensive and can at least be resold.”
“It seems the correct decision by their management.”
“Warning: Please sort your gifts into the following categories: plastic articles, glass and other incombustibles, paper, articles including batteries, and miscellaneous combustible materials.”
Those with a taste for irony may note that fan treatment of ***48 CDs is not much better…
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*Starts looting the trash for free stuff*
One man's trash is another man's treasure.
specifically, one man's treasure is another woman's trash which becomes another man's treasure
And with that, the (re)cycle is complete.
True, true
Some may call this junk... me? I call them treasures.
i see what you did there...
Oh my god, a Higurashi reference...
+1 respect.
ゴ、ゴミじゃないよ！・・・レナにとっては宝の山だもん。
Gotta find that underwear somehow.
Got to get them all....................
Don't you mean was?
If it was, it would be, "One man's trash was another man's treasure."
Why would that make sense? Why would a man throw away his treasure, or part with it?
I support Recycling
if you found a panty, are you gonna put it on your head? just like your avatar?
What better way to smell it.
if they're panties in the trash, just hoped there is no jizz in there.
implying that's a bad thing
We're also talking MALE panties here. Or do guys also throw their trunks on stage?
Maybe they didn't have enough hands to sort their trash, and decided to enlist the help of potential shrewd sign-readers.
You'll probably find a lot of "white gold"
*see that all of it are semen in a cup*
ahh.. a mindset that is needed in the zombie apocalypse.. you will survive long enough
Yeah, I don't blame them for thrownig most of it away, especially after glimpsing what some otakus do.
Yeah... some of that stuff may have fanboy DNA.
Plus they probably get a lot of it. What are they supposed to do, make a shrine for it? Also the one dude who commented saying they shouldn't accept it in the first place, that would only cause a scene.
One woman's is another ones treasure.
One Bitch is every Otaku's treasure.
"The group does however publish detailed regulations about what will be accepted, with prohibited gifts including animals, foodstuffs, electronics, data storage media of all kinds, cash and coupons, cosmetics, drugs, explosives, and – of course – underwear."
A DILDO IS FINE TOO.
Who sends gifts to celebrities?
Someone with no life.
Someone with a very sad life.
"throwing all the gifts their adoring fans gave them straight into the trash as a matter of course."
The sign says nothing like that at all. Why do people read this shit site?
I'm not sure how long you've been around, but he posts made up shit like that all the time and people eat it up. Doubt he really gives a fuck either way, because he's probably making good cash from ad revenue.
Nobody said that that was what the sign said... It wouldn't make any sense if the sign said that. Why would they put up an informative sign that seemingly appears to tell outsiders what the idols do?
Did you even read the story? That is exactly what he said:
"a sign in the background of a backstage shot of the group revealed they were throwing all the gifts their adoring fans gave them straight into the trash as a matter of course."
Not word for word maybe, but the meaning is clear.
Yeah, that's what the story said but that was not what was written on the sign.
Japaneses otakus are really creepy, you can't blame them!
Who can blame them for doing this? Most of the gifts are probably covered in semen. If it were I that had to handle these gifts I'd be wearing a hazmat suit when doing so.
I still think the way otaku in Japan are exploited by these companies is shameful. The people on both sides of this are creepy and wrong in different ways.
Eh maybe.. what kind of people would they be, as a business of which the goal is the same as every other company (making money), if they didn't take advantage of this? If anything, I'd do the same as them. If the ones on the other hand are stupid enough to let themselves be exploited to such extreme ends, too bad for them.
So, do you imply that every company is in fact a kind of a mint, or that, for a company - being a mint is like scoring an own goal?
“I’m sure this sign is just for what is left over after they have taken out what they want!”
^Japanese commenter already gave the voice of reason. Pick out what you want, get rid of the rest. No sane person or even fan could think the idols keep everything.
No “explosives”? Aw, shit! Anybody need a block of C-4 with a pretty pink bow it?
I can't speak for NMB48, but there is plenty of photo evidence that gifts from AKB48 fans are kept by the members who receive them. Hell, a necklace a friend of mine gave to a member showed up in a blog photo of hers a few weeks later.
I imagine that this sign is related to the prohibited goods, birthday decorations etc (every member has a fan-made birthday committee who organises floral arrangements for her birthday, which the girl always poses with in photos).
I have to agree with some of those comments. Considering the creeper nature of most of the fans that would send gifts to teenage girls, throwing them out is just common sense.
There's also the fact that these kinds of fans will see an idol's acceptance of a present as an acceptance of that fan's feelings. Thus leading these creepers into believing they have any claim to the idol's private life.
Actually, these kinds of gifts aren't quite as bad as the more common kind, when there is an expectation to procure something to give away. In such cases the objects picked may still be unwanted by their recipients, and are made harder to obtain to those that really need them. The guesswork is a waste of time as well.
And the fans all know that avoiding reciprocity issues is easy, all it takes is to think of the gifts as bait, tribute or hand-me-downs. So they don't have to hold back.
They should have just resold the trash back to the otaku through a third party supplier, and then the otaku would give it back to them, only to sell again and again for infinite moneys
This is why Johnny's band boys never accept any gifts in the first place. If you don't accept ANYTHING, then no one can find out that you're, say, keeping the good stuff and throwing away underwear or dildos or whatthehellever.
No "explosives"? Aw, shit! Anybody need a block of C-40?
Hand me that shit. Need it a.... class project. yeah, that´s it!