Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazryonh
Can anyone explain what the roots of the "Nagi virginity fiasco" are? Japan isn't exactly a puritanical society with strong religious prohibitions against premarital sex. To be fair, however, "virginity fiascos" aren't exactly restricted to fictional characters; I've seen on sites like Sankaku Complex that otaku can get real stabby when popular female seiyuu get boyfriends or are seen with men.
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I'm not sure if it's possible to answer this question with
pure facts, but I think it basically goes like this:
1. Some (obsessive?) fans like to believe/pretend that they are or could be a celebrity's first and only boyfriend (because they are that celebrity's "true fan"). (The same can apply for female fans and male celebrities, feeling jealous if their favourite celebrity gets a girlfriend -- this happens even in Hollywood culture.)
2. If a female celebrity actually does get a boyfriend (or "heaven forfend", lose their virginity), they are no longer "pure". This also ruins the aforementioned fantasy, since even if the celebrity did encounter the fan, the fan would almost certainly be rejected since they won't measure up (and they wouldn't be able to be the celebrity's "first" anyway). (This is the same double-standard at play in much of the world, where a girl who has had multiple sexual partners is considered a deviant, whereas a guy who has had multiple partners is acceptable, perhaps even enviable.)
3. Some fans applied the same celebrity obsession principles to 2D characters. However, in many cases, the fan may insert themselves into the role of the protagonist of the story (since most realize that they personally can never interact with the character directly), so as long as the character is "pure" for the protagonist, it's okay if the protagonist starts dating the character (since they can imagine that it's them).
4. Online message board 2ch (among others) likes to make fun of these obsessive fans by playing it up and exaggerating the issue as a joke. It has become a meme that, whenever something like this happens, a whole bunch of people will feign outrage, referencing the fact that there are actually
a few people who really feel that way (though no one knows just how many given the meme and "fake outrage"). Most of the "ripped up manga" and other things you see are from attention-seeking people acting crazy as part of this meme.
So for practical purposes, the origin of the fiasco is 2ch making fun of the obsessive Nagi fans who
may have felt hurt/jealous/outraged that their pure goddess may have been "tainted" before having met the protagonist, Jun. A more thorough reading of the story shows that even this isn't really an issue for all intents and purposes, but the meme was triggered anyway, and some people took it too far (as tends to happen).
As for a deeper insight into the societal reasons why this attitude about celebrities exists in the first place... well, that'd be even broader speculation, so I guess it probably belongs in a different thread (though it is an interesting subject).