Top cosplayer Enako asks fans to bathe before attending Comiket

This weekend is Comiket 106, the latest edition of Japan’s largest cosplay and doujinshi event held at Tokyo Big Sight.

But it’s also mid-August in Tokyo, which is hot, humid, and very sweaty. Comiket gets insanely crowded and also tends to attract a lot of otaku, who do not have the best reputation when it comes to personal hygiene.

This combination of seasonal climate and demographic has reached such a serious level that exhibitors are choosing to ask fans to make more of an effort.

Japan’s most famous and successful cosplayer, Enako, has issued a plea for fans to attend Comiket only after having a bath or shower.

She has even prepared a parodic poster (in the style of a public information poster) advertising her request, which she plans to distribute it at Comiket this weekend (which is kind of counterintuitive, since fans can hardly act on her entreaty once they are at the venue).

Enako warns fans to “stop looking for reasons not to bathe.”

In small print, the poster continues: “Your bath at home, a public bath, or hot spring: there are many places to bathe. You can even just take a shower. Show a bit of courage, even if you’ve had a rough day.”

While Enako’s eye-catching poster (featuring a picture of the cute cosplayer in a bath) does have an important message, posting it on social media in advance has also served as a promotional strategy for herself at a time when her career has probably peaked and, as a savvy operator, she needs to find inventive ways to boost her profile.

None of which is intended to suggest that Enako is on a downward spiral. Far from it. She just appeared on the cover of Young Champion manga magazine — one of fourteen cover shoots this summer — and is set to release her latest photo book, with the very final-sounding title of Epilogue, in September.