Otaku

For the Ōta-ku ward, see Ōta, Tokyo.
The Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo is a popular gathering site for otaku.

Otaku (おたく / オタク?) (oh-tah-kooh) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, or video games.

Contents

Etymology

Part of a series on
Anime and Manga
Anime eye.svg
Anime
History • Companies
Fansub • Fandub
Longest series
Manga
History • Publishers
Scanlation • Dōjinshi
International market
Longest series
Mangaka (List)
Demographic groups
Children's
Shōnen • Shōjo
Seinen • Josei
Genres
Harem • Magical girl
Mecha • Yaoi • Yuri
Selected biographies
Shotaro Ishinomori
Rakuten Kitazawa
Kōichi Mashimo
Katsuji Matsumoto
Leiji Matsumoto
Hayao Miyazaki
Go Nagai
Toshio Suzuki
Osamu Tezuka
Year 24 Group
Fandom
Conventions • Clubs • Cosplay
Anime music video • Otaku
Yaoi fandom
General
Omake • Terminology
Anime and Manga Portal

Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family (お宅, otaku) which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun. The modern slang form, which is distinguished from the older usage by being written only in hiragana (おたく) or katakana (オタク or, less frequently, ヲタク), or rarely in rōmaji, appeared in the 1980s. In the anime Macross, first aired in 1982, the term was used by Lynn Minmay as an honorific term.[1][2] It appears to have been coined by the humorist and essayist Akio Nakamori in his 1983 series An Investigation of "Otaku" (『おたく』の研究 "Otaku" no Kenkyū?), printed in the lolicon magazine Manga Burikko. Animators like Haruhiko Mikimoto and Shōji Kawamori used the term among themselves as an honorific second-person pronoun since the late 1970s.[2]

Another source for the term comes from the works of science fiction author Motoko Arai. In his book Wrong about Japan, Peter Carey interviews the novelist, artist and Gundam chronicler Yuka Minakawa. She reveals that Arai used the word in her novels as a second-person pronoun, and the readers adopted the term for themselves.

In Japan

In modern Japanese slang, the term otaku refers to a fan of any particular theme, topic, or hobby. Common uses are anime otaku (a fan of anime), cosplay otaku and manga otaku (a fan of Japanese comic books), pasokon otaku (personal computer geeks), gēmu otaku (playing video games), and wota (pronounced 'ota', previously referred to as "idol otaku") that are extreme fans of idols, heavily promoted singing girls. There are also tetsudō otaku or denshamania (railfans) or gunji otaku (military geeks).

While these are the most common uses, the word can be applied to anything (music otaku, martial arts otaku, cooking otaku, etc).

The loan-words maniakku or mania (from the English "maniac" and "mania") are sometimes used in relation to specialist hobbies and interests. They can indicate someone with otaku leanings. For example, Gundam Mania would describe a person who is very interested in the anime series Gundam). They can also describe the focus of such interests (a maniakku gēmu would be a particularly underground or eccentric game appealing primarily to otaku). The nuance of maniakku in Japanese is softer and less likely to cause offense than otaku.

Some of Japan's otaku use the term to describe themselves and their friends semi-humorously, accepting their position as fans, and some even use the term proudly, attempting to reclaim it from its negative connotations. In general colloquial usage however, most Japanese would consider it undesirable to be described in a serious fashion as "otaku"; many even consider it to be a genuine insult.

An interesting modern look into the otaku culture has surfaced with an allegedly true story surfacing on the largest internet bulletin board 2channel: "Densha Otoko" or "Train Man", a love story about a geek and a beautiful woman who meet on a train. The story has enjoyed a compilation in novel form, several comic book adaptations, a movie released in June 2005, a theme song Love Parade for this movie by a popular Japanese band named Orange Range and a television series that aired on Fuji TV from June to September 2005. The drama has become another hot topic in Japan, and the novel, film and television series give a closer look into the otaku culture. In Japan its popularity and positive portrayal of the main character has helped to reduce negative stereotypes about otaku, and increase the acceptability of some otaku hobbies.

The former Prime Minister of Japan, Taro Aso also claimed himself to be an otaku, using this subculture to promote Japan in foreign affairs.[3]

A subset of otaku are the Akiba-kei, men who spend a lot of time in Akihabara in Tokyo and who are mainly obsessive about anime, idols and games. Sometimes the term is used to describe something pertaining to the subculture that surrounds anime, idols and games in Japan. This subculture places an emphasis on certain services (see fanservice) and has its own system for judgment of anime, dating simulations and/or role-playing games and some manga (often dōjinshi) based upon the level of fanservice in the work. Another popular criterion — how ideal the female protagonist of the show is — is often characterized by a level of stylized cuteness and child-like behavior (see moe). In addition, this subculture places great emphasis on knowledge of individual key animators and directors and of minute details within works. The international subculture is influenced by the Japanese one, but differs in many areas often based upon region. (See also: Superflat, Hiroki Azuma.)

On the matter, in recent years "idol otaku" are naming themselves simply as Wota (ヲタ?) as a way to differentiate from traditional otaku. The word was derived by dropping the last mora, leaving ota (オタ?) and then replacing o (オ?) with the identically sounding character wo (ヲ?), leaving the pronunciation unchanged.[4]

When otaku are studied, female otaku are largely ignored.[5] Reki-jo are female otaku interested in Japanese history.

In English

The term is a loanword from the Japanese language. In English, it is usually used to refer to an obsessive fan of anime/manga and/or Japanese culture generally, and to a lesser extent Japanese video games.

The term serves as a label similar to Trekkie or fanboy/fangirl. However, use of the label can be a source of contention among some anime fans, particularly those who are aware of the negative connotations the term has in Japan. Unpleasant stereotypes about otaku prevail in worldwide fan communities, and some anime fans express concern about the effect these more extreme fans can have on the reputation of their hobby (not unlike sentiments in the comic book and science fiction fandoms).[6]

Whilst a person who may be socially awkward but who is also intelligent and may be fairly "normal" aside from their interest in certain typically 'geekish' pursuits (video games, comic books, computers, etc.), otaku is closer in connotation to the English nerd, but the closest English-language analogue to otaku is probably the British English term anorak. Both of these English-language terms have more emphatically negative connotations of poor social skills and obsessive interest in a topic that seems strange, niche or boring to others.

While otaku in English-speaking contexts is generally understood to mean geek or even fan, this usage is not widely known in Japan and hence casual use of the term may confuse or offend native Japanese speakers if used towards them, and self-identification as an otaku may seem strange.

To indicate that one is talking about the Japanese definition rather than the English loanword, the spelling wotaku (ヲタク) is sometimes used. On Japanese forums such as 2channel, however, otaku (オタク) and wotaku (ヲタク) are used interchangeably, depending on the mood and personal style of the poster.

The term was popularized by William Gibson's 1996 novel Idoru, which has several references to otaku.

“ The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age's embodiment of the connoisseur, more concerned with the accumulation of data than of objects, seems a natural crossover figure in today's interface of British and Japanese cultures. I see it in the eyes of the Portobello dealers, and in the eyes of the Japanese collectors: a perfectly calm train-spotter frenzy, murderous and sublime. Understanding otaku -hood, I think, is one of the keys to understanding the culture of the web. There is something profoundly post-national about it, extra-geographic. We are all curators, in the post-modern world, whether we want to be or not.[7] ”
 
— Spook Country, April 2001 edition of The Observer

Negativity

In Japan there has been some negativity towards otaku and otaku culture. One example is Tsutomu Miyazaki, who became known as "The Otaku Murderer" in 1989. His bizarre murders fueled a moral panic against otaku. However, Japanese journalist Akihiro Otani suspected that the crimes were committed by a figure moe zoku, the amount and degree of social hostility against otaku seemed to increase noticeably for a while, as suggested by increased targeting of otaku by law enforcement as being possible suspects for sex crimes, as well as by calls from many persons in local governments for stricter laws controlling the depiction of eroticism in materials which catered to otaku, for example, in erotic manga and in erotic videogames. Nobuto Hosaka criticised a lot of the hype.

Otakon

Named after the label otaku, "Otakon" (short for "otaku convention") is a convention known for focusing on anime, manga, East Asian culture, and its fandom. The second largest convention of this type in the US and the largest on the east coast, it began in State College, Pennsylvania, in 1994 and has been held in Baltimore, Maryland since 1999. In 2008, Otakon was the largest convention of its kind in the US. Konami, the company which created the Metal Gear video game series, was given permission by Otakorp, Inc. to use the word "Otacon" (the adopted codename of scientist and self-professed otaku Hal Emmerich) in any title of the series.[8]

In popular culture

As otaku make up a good portion of the creative forces behind anime and manga, it is only natural that several works of manga and anime on otaku culture have appeared, often as a light-hearted pastiche. Some of the more famous works include:

See also

  • Akiba-kei
  • Anime and manga fandom
  • Anorak
  • Cosplay restaurant
  • Cosplay
  • Fan
  • Figure moe zoku
  • Fujoshi
  • Geek
  • Itasha
  • Japanophile
  • Moe (slang)
  • Otacon
  • Wapanese
  • Ōkina otomodachi

References

  1. ↑ May 2006 issue of EX Taishuu magazine
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 オタク市場の研究(Otaku Shijou no Kenkyuu), 野村總合研究所(Nomura Research Institude), ISBN 978-986-124-768-7
  3. ↑ Otaku uses manga and anime to improve Foreign Affairs
  4. ↑ Eric Prideaux. Wota lota love. Out on the town with grown men who adore girl idols. The Japan Times, 16 January 2005.
  5. ↑ Aoyama, Tomoko (April 2009). "Eureka Discovers Culture Girls, Fujoshi, and BL: Essay Review of Three Issues of the Japanese Literary magazine, Yuriika (Eureka)". Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific 20. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/aoyama.htm. 
  6. ↑ Eric Prideaux. Girl geeks find manga haven. The Guardian, 1 June 2008.
  7. ↑ "Modern boys and mobile girls". The Observer. 2001-04-01. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,466391,00.html. 
  8. ↑ "Otakon clock to come with select MGS titles". GameSpot. 2006-01-20. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142794.html. 
  9. ↑ http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/mclelland.htm

External links