Attendees at this month’s otaku gathering can get their hands on not just art books and posters, but limited-edition prophylactics too.
Specifically, the condoms will be distributed at the west hall’s Re 25a booth, which is promoting the series Ueno-san the Love Hotel Employee (Rabuho no Ueno-san in Japanese).
For many years, Japan’s manga and anime fan communities were overwhelmingly male and alarmingly unbathed, with the collective effect being a heavy reduction on their chances for sexual encounters.
One could argue that for a long stretch of history, otaku had a built-in, practically bullet-proof method of protection against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases: being otaku.