Rie Kugimiya’s loyal fans

I just tripped over this bizarre article over at ANN, which reports some (obsessed?) fans of voice actress Rie Kugimiya standing in line in the streets of Taipei (in Taiwan) eversince the beginning of this month just to get hold of her autograph. Though Kugimiya herself won’t be showing up in Taipei before the the 27:th of January at the Taipei International Book Exhibition 2010, her fans seems to prove their loyalty by sacrificing their time, energy and money on everything necessary to even stand face to face with her.

Of course standing in line isn’t even a fraction of what it takes to get a celebrity’s well coveted autograph…

To acquire Kugimiya’s autograph at the exhibition, fans could either buy one of 50 NT$2,680 (US$85) Shana ceramic plate online, or line up at the convention hall for one of 100 more plates. The online plates sold out in just 30 seconds on December 30, as 80,000 order attempts almost brought the server offline. Fans then began lining up for the remaining 89 plates.

And, wait – we aren’t done yet. There’s more to the story.

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Yes, how much – and what – are you prepared to do just to acquire an autograph? Personally I find other things in my life more important than a signature, even if it is one written by my favourite celebrity, so spending this much energy on it is out of question on my half. I think most of you think the same… right? ^_^’