OxiClean officially sends detergent supply to Tokyo card shop struggling with sweaty, smelly otaku

Even players who don’t go home with a tournament prize will go home with some OxiClean.

A lot of people in Japan will tell you that though spring ends in May, summer doesn’t really start until July. June, they’ll insist, is tsuyu, which translates to “the rainy season.”

Honestly, though, you might as well call June “the sweaty season,” since the high heat and maximum humidity combine for pinnacle of perspiration-producing conditions. Even now, the weather is gradually moving in that direction, which is causing figurative headaches and literal nose-lamentations for Cardland, a collectible trading card game specialty shop in Tokyo.

【店舗からのお願い】
急に気温が上がり、温かくなってまいりました。
それに伴い、不衛生な状態でご来店される方が少数ではありますが見受けられました。
特に大会の場合は長時間同じ空間にいることになりますので、ご参加の際は入浴等を徹底して頂き、清潔な状態でご来店頂けるようお願いいたします

— カードランド秋葉原店@ONE PIECEカードゲーム取り扱い！ (@cardland_akiba) May 19, 2023

Cardland is located in the Akihabara neighborhood, Tokyo’s mecca for anime and video game enthusiasts, two demographics that aren’t traditionally renowned for their hygiene. In late May the shop sent out the above tweet, in which it says:

“A request from our shop.

The weather has become much hotter with the recent sudden jump in temperatures. With that, there’s been a small, but noticeable, increase in the number of customers coming to our shop in an unhygienic state.

We ask that customers thoroughly shower before coming to the shop and arrive in a clean state, especially when we are holding in-shop tournaments and many people will be sharing the same enclosed space for an extended period of time.”

Cardland also went on to inform prospective tournament participants that if their level of hygiene is judged to be a probable cause of discomfort for other players, they will not be allowed to participate.

However, bathing is only one aspect of proper hygienic grooming. Wearing freshly washed clothing is also important, and luckily about a week after Cardland’s request went viral, it received a care package from Graphico, the Japanese distributor of…

【店舗からのお知らせ】
なんと！！！
こちらのtweetを見られた"株式会社グラフィコ"様より、オキシクリーン(@OXICLEANJP)の試供品を頂きました！
大変感謝です…！！！

こちら、お買い物された方や大会参加された方に先着でお配りさせて頂きますので、是非ご利用頂ければ幸いですm(_ _)m https://t.co/UflloMxfKq pic.twitter.com/lrbkmTHH82

— カードランド秋葉原店@ONE PIECEカードゲーム取り扱い！ (@cardland_akiba) May 27, 2023

…OxiClean!

Inside the box were several stacks of sample packets of the world-famous laundry detergent. “We deeply appreciate this,” tweeted Cardland, who says they plan to give the samples to customers and tournament participants.

Online commenters have reacted with:

“This is the first step towards true peace in our world.”
“That’s some pretty smart marketing by OxiClean.”
“I’m envisioning OxiClean making special packaging designs with anime character on it.”
“They’d sell so much!”
“OxiClean really is very effective against accumulated proteins like sweat and body oil.”

Many, many others felt that their feeling could best be summed up with the word kusa, which means both “something stinks” and “this is funny.”

There is, unfortunately, no guarantee that Cardland customers who receive the OxiClean samples will use them. Still, anything that makes laundry less of a hassle makes it more likely to get done, and if nothing else the shop handing out detergent packs should be a pretty clear indicator of the consideration Cardland expects visitors to show before stepping through the door.

Related: Cardland
Source: Twitter/@cardland_akiba (1, 2) via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso
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