R-R Round 02 — Otakuism

June 15, 2008 at 5:52 pm | Posted in Blog Stuff, Life | 17 Comments
Tags: female, otaku, round robin

First week I’m doing the R-R, so sorry if I’m a bit out there. xD

Otakus. Some hate ’em, some love ’em. Some of us think we are, and some think we’re not. It’s all a matter of perspective. Some see us as what the stereotypes are, some don’t. I know most parent probably see the Otaku lifestyle like that of the extreme stereotype.

I know we all can name some *ahem* bad and unliked types of Anime Fans/Otaku. And I’m pretty sure we at least all know a few good anime fans.

So, let me press enter a few more times and kill some space and get to a cut.

Hokays, nice and cozy in the full length of the blog. I <3 images, but I know I can use the space. Sorry is people go tl;dr on me. I’m going to TRY not to get long and lengthy without pictures.

Moving onto the actual topic, we’re first supposed to define “Otaku”. Well, I forget how I cam across it (Probably reading another one of the girl’s posts), but I watched the videos in this post yesterday. I quiet like the way it explains it, but I know that I should be saying my opinions, so I’ll not leech off Shoko. xD Personally, I hold two definitions for “Otaku”, the one that is common in Japan, which infers the person stays at home and watches anime all day and all that bad stuff. I also hold a lighter version of it as “the American version”. This is the one I normally use, since I am American after all. “Otaku”, in America, while still holding bits of the “Stay home and watch anime all day”, it’s less so. American Otaku are a bit more of the hardcore cosplayers and anime-con goers. Plastering Anime posters over the walls are added bonuses. They do find a bit of life outside Anime, but ussually whatever it is has some connection back to it.

While there are different times of “Otaku” according to Shoko in the videos from the link above, there’s a few that don’t exsist in America and some that exsist here that don’t in Japan, due to what we have and what we don’t. We have the “Anime Ota”, “Manga Ota”, “Seiyuu Ota” (Not as many, though I’m pretty sure), “Cosplay Ota”, “Figure Ota”, “Idol Ota” (To a smaller scale), “Game Ota” (Also a smaller scale), “Gunji Ota”, “Eroge Ota”, and “Pasocon Ota” (Though those mesh with the “geek squad” kind of people here). We don’t have “Maid Ota” and “Testudou Ota”. We don’t have Maid Cafés nor really any railroads (working or made for people to ride, we’ve just got those darned subways), thus we can’t have those subgroups. Though I think there’s a few replacements…

Firstly, there’s the “Narutards”, excuse the name, but that’s what they’re called. Most of these watch Naruto, and sometimes Bleach (Thus “Bleachtards”). While I know there are Naruto fans that aren’t the worst of it, I do know I don’t like Naruto due to the large number of fans that are a bit out there… more so then me.

And Secondly, we have Yaoi/Yuri Ota. Yaoi fans are in larger amounts though, since Yuri is barely here. >T (Which I don’t like, but whatever) These fans love to slash characters of the same gender and call it almost cannon. I know this happens in other things, not just anime, but Anime Fans seem to have an overwhelming number of them.

Anyways, I think I’m getting slightly off topic. Since I’m supposed to say if I think I’m Otaku… Erm… wow. I kind of think I am to an extent, but more as a mix of some of the “types”. Though definatly not as Otaku as others. Most likely I’d fit into the Manga Ota subgroup, somewhat into Cosplay Ota, and iffy into the Pasocon Ota. And of course I’d be in the Yaoi/Yuri Ota, but on the Yuri side. xP

There, an image. xP

Moving onto other questions posed, is it acceptable? Well, it’s all up to the person. Since technically, an Otaku is a form of a Nerd in some senses, it is acceptable from my veiw. Being a dork or a nerd really doesn’t matter, so long as a person can funtion mostly in the real world. Everyone has problems with reality, and if being what people call a “dork” is how you want to escape reality for a bit with, the fine. It’s the same reason people read, write, draw, go out with people, go shopping, play video games, ecetera. While they may not exsactly “exscape from the world”, it’s getting their mind off things and helps a person.

As for being labled one, I personally hate the labling crapola. It’s stupid and such. Thus, I think one shouldn’t worry if you’re labled an Otaku or Jock, or Nerd, or whatever the frick people want to call you. If they want to judge you on your lable, they have a problem worse then they think Otakuism is.

(can you tell I like NHK? xD)

On thje topic of the Akihabara shootings… I just don’t know what to say. Whenever big things like this happen I just don’t get it.

Though I want to say that Otakuism shouldn’t be such an “OMG THIS IS WAI” thing that everyone has to say something about it in the articles, there’s part of me that says I shouldn’t. But I just did. Whatever. What I’m trying to say is, while Otakuism shouldn’t now mean You’re going to kill people because that guy did, it is in the lifestyle to an extent. Not saying everyone will turn out that way, but I doubt some form of statistic will prove it wrong. Hopefully being an Otaku doesn’t become linked to murderers at some point due to this.

Since I’m done talking, here’s a picture of Misaki and the links to the other posts.

Spifforz. Pictorz.

• Mei
• Elezend
• Death By Moe
• Hoshi
• Fang-Tan
• Hynavian
• Hikkikomori-Chan
• Animemiz