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The story
On October 4, 2026, Hello! Project group Rosy Chronicle (Rojikuro) played a show at a standing-only live house in Saitama (capacity 350). On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, a thread took off after a post complained that the smell in the audience was so bad that “even though it was supposed to be a fun show, I can’t even put my feelings into words.” The topic didn’t stop at a single complaint — discussion branched into comparisons with other groups’ shows like Juice=Juice, Tsubaki Factory, and trainee shows, and opinion split over whether the smell came from the fans’ hygiene or the venue’s layout. Female fans also voiced fear of “ending up next to some awful-smelling otaku,” and complaints about odor from both men and women ended up colliding.
What people said
Seriously… the smell… it was brutal… it was supposed to be a fun show…
It was honestly so smelly, I felt so sick, I can't even put my thoughts into words…
Feels like there's been a lot of smelly people around in general these past few days
It definitely wasn't me!
Soak your clothes regularly in powdered oxygen bleach
And if your breath is bad no matter what that day, just wear a mask
How would I even find out?
The back of your balls when you sweat
It's the smell of 2-nonenal from oxidized skin oil, so rub a finger behind your ears or around your nose — the oily spots that don't get washed properly — and smell it, you'll know
That's old-person smell
And to think it used to just smell like conditioner when you were a kid
Then once it started, the guy next to me straight up soiled himself while watching the show, dead serious
Rosy otaku are filthy
Then again, my first ever idol show was a Hello! one, and I went years watching nothing but Hello! shows, so I just assumed all idol concerts came wrapped in this kind of pungent smell — then when I finally went to a non-Hello! show, it was shockingly fresh, like a highland meadow, total culture shock
Barely any bald guys either, no weird dorky old men
Hello! otaku are just not normal
This person seems to go to a lot of shows
So this time must've been especially bad
@
What I learned after hitting underground idol shows at 13 venues over about a month and a half: Hello! Project shows are 1000 times smellier.
I used to think I was just oversensitive to smell since I was always complaining about the stink at every show, but I realized I almost never said the word "smelly" at underground shows. Sure, the venues themselves can smell since they're underground, but the otaku there aren't smelly at all — is that because they're close to their oshi and more careful about it, or are Hello! otaku just abnormal…
Smelly armpits
Smelly breath
Smelly shoes
Even their moles smell
Old-person smell
Still wearing last year's shirt
There's also a chance they hate the new female fans and are deliberately spreading stench to drive them off
Seriously, there's probably at least a handful doing it on purpose
Trying to keep the show to themselves
Armpit odor
Hello! otaku-specific stink molecules just cling thick to the receptors deep in your nose
Is this a Kanto-only thing, with multiple people doing it?
This time it was a standing-only live house in Saitama, so I think people were packed in tight up front
Standing venues are smelly
It's sweat, so there's nothing you can do about it
A 350-capacity live house, huh — sounds rough….
@
We were crammed in so tight it was unreal… I couldn't understand at all why they picked this venue…
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Were there a lot of men?
@
Overwhelmingly more men!
@
Groups like Tsubaki and Rosy
Maybe that's the bottleneck? 😫
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I was in the women-only area today, but even among the women there were some with zero manners, so I don't think it's really a men-vs-women thing 🙃
Re: #66
> I was in the women-only area today, but even among the women there were some with zero manners, so I don't think it's really a men-vs-women thing
Luna_the_Cat @Luna_the_Cat16 · Sep 25
What Hello! Project or the event organizers probably don't understand is:
Women are pretty sensitive to smell
The fear of ending up next to some awful-smelling otaku
That's why, even at a 200-capacity standing venue with a ticket number in the top teens, I'll still go straight to the women-only area without hesitation to avoid the risk
Even if I could get to the front row, if some awful-smelling otaku ends up next to me, the show's ruined anyway
If female otaku and you just didn't show up, it'd be pretty comfortable
Suddenly remembered that at TIF (Tokyo Idol Festival), only the Hello! otaku smelled bad. Everyone's equally drenched in sweat outside, so why is it only during the Hello! stage that there are people smelly enough to sting your eyes…? Why?
@
A Morning Musume leader actually figured out the cause of Hello! otaku stink, legendary
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HNCEzjHaUAAwx2j.jpg
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Just reading the title made me burst into tears
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJ8Y0tsaQAAdkU5.jpg
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Was walking through Iidabashi thinking something smelled bad, and sure enough it was a Hello! otaku
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYIOzANasAAISNX.jpg
Background and Points of Debate
The claim raised in the thread that “2-nonenal is the main component of old-person smell” is itself a compound generally recognized as a body-odor component formed from oxidized skin oil, and it’s presented here as scientifically grounded. On the other hand, eyewitness accounts like “a non-paying customer farted” or “the person next to me soiled themselves” have no way of being verified beyond the poster’s own word — they remain nothing more than individual testimony on an anonymous message board. Within the thread, opinion is split between those who frame this as “a problem specific to Hello! Project shows” and those who blame “the venue conditions — standing-only, 350 capacity, in Saitama” — and no conclusion has been reached on which is the main cause. There’s also a comparison claiming it’s “smellier than underground idol shows,” but it’s worth noting this is limited to one poster’s personal experience and isn’t a rigorous comparative survey of Hello! Project as a whole against other scenes. Female fans also brought up the smell of makeup, so the odor issue isn’t confined to one gender — it grew into a broader conversation about venue crowding and hygiene management in general.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Sad News: Rosy Chronicle Show So Smelly It Made Female Otaku Cry.”
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