Otaku Elect Fan Sex Rino in “Creepiest Ever” AKB48 Election

AKB48’s latest “general election” sees sex scandal idol Rino Sashihara leading the pack even as the group’s creepy otaku fans have succeeded in driving their sales to record levels.

HKT48’s 20-year-old Rino Sashihara, best known for being caught having sex with one of her fans in a scandal which if anything seems to have only increased her popularity, seizing the top spot in the 5th AKB48 “general election”

According to Oricon sales figures, their new “Sayonara Crawl” single has just shipped a record 2.3 million copies, beating out their previous high of 2 million.

Not surprisingly their outstanding musical excellence has provoked much admiration online:

“2 million new CDs for the trash.”

“2.3 million frisbees.”

“They are not selling CDs, they are selling hand-shaking event tickets!”

“AKB shinrikyo.”

“This lot frankly seem to be going out of fashion.”

“Doesn’t stop them selling though.”

“For all the CDs they sell as many people lose all interest in music.”

“They really ought to switch to charting the number of buyers rather than the number of CDs sold.”

“A lot of garbage to be getting rid of.”

“How much energy will it take to dispose of this lot?”

“It’s a mystery who buys this stuff…”

“Japanese music charts are now almost completely dominated by idol groups rather than actual music, it’s pretty amazing really.”

“This single is awful. Who’d buy this? How many real buyers do they have?”

“I reckon it’s a ratio of 5 discs to 1 buyer.”

“I think even without the tickets they have plenty of good songs and would sell nicely. Although the haters are going to get me for saying that.”

“Rino is doing rather well thanks to the scandal it seems.”

“If you guys hate AKB48 that much, just vote for her and you’ll soon finish them off.”

“Remember, it’s only the otaku voting on the first day with all their mass-purchased tickets. The light-weights will vote later and that may change the result.”

“As if there are any light-weight fans who would actually vote in something like this.”

“Wait, didn’t Rino quit AKB48 and join some other group, so how can you vote for her?”

“You can vote for any of their sister groups.”

“I can’t believe she is in first…”

“All the people who pre-ordered just put in their votes so it’s possible.”

“She has 28k votes to the number 2’s 15k after the first day. There is no way that lead is going to be reversed guys.”

“There are over 2 million in total, it may still change!”

“There has been huge inflation in the number of votes in these elections, the winner in the first had 4k votes, the fourth had 110k.”

A glimpse into just how these sales figures are being sustained (as it likely not through the quality of their music, or through 2% of Japan’s population buying a copy each) – one fan has been bragging about spending 1.9 million yen on discs for the event, paying cash on delivery just to rub it in on the poor courier:

With this AKB48 fans are cementing their reputation as the creepiest around:

“What are you doing, Japan?”

“The poor courier must have been trembling on his way out after accepting that…”

“I once spent 300,000 on them at a convenience store but he has me beat.”

“You are just a trainee fan!”

“What are these guys doing? What you do with the money you earn is your business, but this is completely wasteful.”

“Why cash on delivery?”

“You could buy a car for that. Still, it is his choice.”

“So these boxes all contain the same CD? I’m speechless…”

“This must have emptied out the delivery truck.”

“I suppose it is better than spending it on Puzzle & Dragons…”

“At least that produces no mountain of garbage.”

“Dumping all those CDs looks like a hassle.”

“The last election:

“Abnormal.”

“This is basically a religion.”

“It is not possible to understand these people.”

“I wonder how badly they will regret doing this in 5 or 10 years.”

“He could open a music store. It would only stock one CD, though…”