[Norovirus is real though.]
Despite speculation that the initial wave of infections would quickly burn itself out, doctors are now speculating that the nyorovirus (Churuyautsuraurakakaus) has firmly established itself within the general population of anime fandom.
The main symptom of the virus include holding up a hand to the mouth, against a :3 facial expression, and saying: ‘Nyo~ro~n’ in response to being told that one has just said or done something incredibly dumb. Other symptoms include an unreasonable fondness for smoked cheese.
The reservoir of infections were initially limited to sufferers of Haruhi Mania Syndrome (Suzumiyaharuhinoyuutsus) but meme-mutations have caused the nyorovirus to spread to other series watchers. The primary vector for infection closely resembles the original 4 panel structure (yonkomaus) of the original nyorovirus. Protective measures such as N95 respirator masks, googles and surgical grade gowns all the way but to full military Biological Defence suits appear to be ineffective as long as a person has been visually exposed to an infected sample.
Though highly contagious, those infected by the nyorovirus do not always exhibit symptoms and it is uncertain if they are infectious while they are asymptomatic. However as the nyorovirus is non-lethal and somtimes actually quite amusing for onlookers, the initial public health warning was quickly withdrawn and the Main Office will not be issuing a new advisory.
Just slightly late to the party but slightly late was still almost too late when it comes to pre-orders, or so I thought, so I resorted to Ebay to get my hands on Max Factory’s Ryoko Asakura - also via a Japanese reseller but, thankfully, without having to pay any significant premium over the release price. My guess is that the seller’s margin came from the 20-30% discount that Japanese online shops often give so, potentially, this was a pareto-efficient outcome where everyone got a good deal out of this situation. 
Two orders from RightStuf arrived today. Over the three weeks it took them to make their trans-Atlantic journey, I’ve been brooding about the relative success of US-based anime distributors’ strategies vis-a-vis my wallet and how we, fansub-downloading anime fans, can better market ourselves.
