Akiba Blood Room besieged by otaku

14.03.2009 by Patrick W. Galbraith

Blood boils and moe blossoms at the Akihabara Red Cross Society Blood Donation Center (Akiba Blood Room).

Blood donors in Japan have along with the population been declining in recent years. But the Akiba Blood room has 1.5 as many as average, many repeaters. Over 85 percent are male, well over the 60 percent average. Its 30 seats are always full.

“We are very busy,” said staffer Makino Chiharu, 27. “We recently expanded to get more beds, but there are still times when the wait is one or two hours.”

After consideration, the appeal is simple: free drinks, a rest space to read manga and uniformed nurses who are as kind as any maid. If one goes in for the white blood cell donation, which takes over an hour, a selection of anime DVDs are provided for personal viewing. It’s the ultimate otaku hang out.

Akiba Blood Room has 800 manga titles, many donated by – you guessed it – the blood donors themselves.



The collection center opened in June 2005, at the height of the Akihabara boom surrounding Fuji TV’s Densha Otoko drama. In a bald publicity stunt, they hired maids from local massage parlors for a month long campaign in March 2006. It became a topic on the Net, and groups of 60 otaku or more at a time converged on the place.

Two years later, people still ask about the maids. Staff have put up signs announcing that there are not maid events to cut down on media and otaku interest.



But it isn’t stopping anyone. On weekends, otaku converge on Akihabara looking for idols and maids. When the idols aren’t out and the lines are too long for the maids, there are always the nurses.

Staff for their part know this, despite the signage, and depend on otaku repeaters. Right next to the announcement, “We are not conducting maid events” there is a sticker of Asuka in a maid outfit. Indeed, even the grotesque blood mascot character wears a maid outfit in Akiba.



“I guess you could say there are a lot of otaku types here,” admitted Makino, adding in a tsundere tone, “but it’s not like we encourage them.”