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OTAKU LOUNGE – Rethinking ‘Otaku’

Given the name of this column, it seems appropriate that my first piece of writing should deal with the word ‘otaku’ – what its linguistic roots are, what connotations it carries today, and why some people today (myself included) feel okay about applying it to themselves.

Simply put, ‘otaku’ is derived from a Japanese term meaning ‘your home’, or ‘your family’, although it has also been used in the past as an honorific second-person pronoun. However, as commonly understood by both Japanese and non-Japanese today, the word refers to someone with an unnatural obsession with any given hobby or interest.

This particular use of the term was coined by Nakamori Akio in 1983, a humorist and essayist who published a series called ‘An Investigation of “Otaku”’ in the lolicon magazine Manga Burikko. Presumably, Nakamori was linking the linguistic term to the fact that anime and manga otaku were apparently too fixated with their hobby to often leave the house.


Derogatory though it may have been, many non-Japanese audiences have been using the word for years as a replacement for fanboy/fangirl, and in particular a fan of Japanese anime, manga, and other forms of pop culture. While Japanese society envisions otaku as people who socially withdraw in order to indulge their fantasies of marrying magical girls with large breasts and tiny skirts, one major Western perception is that otaku-hood is something to be proud of or aspire to.

This can at least in part be attributed to William Gibson, who first popularised the word in his 1996 novel, Idoru.  Gibson went on to write an article in London’s The Observer in 2001, in which he commented: “The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age’s embodiment of the connoisseur … 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.”

However, the contempt towards otaku in Japan did not really morph into disgust and suspicion of sexual and social deviance until the later 1980s, when a small but very noticeable number of cases came to light of apparent otaku killing young women. Perhaps most famously was the mutilation and murder of four girls aged between four and eleven by Miyazaki Tsutomu between 1988 and 1989. Miyazaki also admitted to sexually molesting the corpses of his victims, and to drinking the blood of one of them and eating a part of her hand. A search of Miyazaki’s home turned up a collection of manga and approximately 6,000 videotapes, many of which contained pornographic anime.

This collection was later used as reasoning for his crimes, and the media soon came to call him The Otaku Murderer. Although critics suspected that the information being released was playing up to public stereotypes and fears about otaku in order to help police secure a conviction, Miyazaki’s killings aided in fuelling a moral panic against anime and otaku culture.

More recently, on November 17, 2004, Kobayashi Kaoru kidnapped and murdered a seven-year old girl named Ariyama Kaede, drowning her in a sink or bathtub.

From Kobayashi’s room, police confiscated a video and a magazine containing child pornography. The media was quick to jump to conclusions about the crime; even before Kobayashi‘s arrest, journalist Otani Akihiro suspected that the murder was committed by a member of the ‘figure moe zoku’ (literally ‘figure budding tribe’, or more colloquially ‘figurine-loving gang’), an otaku group who collected figurines. Otani claimed that this group was composed of potential criminals, and that although he did not intend to blame otaku for the crime, his theory was that Kobayashi murdered the victim soon after the kidnapping because the killer was not interested in her living body, but in her corpse. The lifeless body could then be described as a figurine.

Judging by the increased targeting of otaku by police as possible suspects for sex crimes following this case, as well as by calls from local government workers for stricter laws around the depiction of eroticism in otaku materials such as anime, manga, and video games, the degree of social hostility against otaku appeared to increase.

Nonetheless, instances of these sorts have clearly not damaged the term permanently.

Nakagawa Shoko, a Japanese voice actress, singer, and illustrator, has referred to herself as otaku more than once due to her well-known interests in manga, cosplay, and Super Sentai shows. Nakagawa’s official blog, which often uses board slang from the likes of 2channel and features otaku-style entries, is updated regularly and was reportedly accessed 1 billion times in February 2008.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Asō Tarō has likewise styled himself as otaku, citing his love of manga – his candidacy for the position of Prime Minister in 2007 actually caused the share value of several manga publishing companies to rise. In arguing that the embrace of manga and Japanese pop culture in general was an important step in cultivating ties with other countries, Aso intentionally used the otaku subculture in order to promote Japan in foreign affairs.

The rise of otaku subculture outside of Japan, while sometimes tainted with the same brush as in its country of origin, has also been responsible for its contribution to the wide array of knowledge relating to manga and anime that is now available to anyone with an internet connection. Prior to the 1990s, anime had very limited exposure beyond Japan’s borders. The growth of the internet, combined with the passion and creativity of Japanese pop culture fans, has resulted in an enormous rise in fansubbed anime, which has in turn led to the commercial success of anime not only in Asia and the United States, but also Europe and Latin America.

In fact, anime has made a visible impact upon Western pop culture.

A thesis published in 2005 on the correlation between anime and Japanese culture points out that “At this point, [anime] is almost inextricably linked with interest in other forms of Japanese pop culture and interest in Japanese culture and language.” Anime-influenced animation – non-Japanese works of animation that emulates the visual style of anime such as The Powerpuff Girls, Teen Titans, and the critically acclaimed  Avatar: The Last Airbender – continue to increase. Some producers of Western animation have even turned to Japanese animation companies for collaborative productions, as when Walt Disney Animation Studios contracted Madhouse to produce the Stitch! television series.

And in terms of academia, one only needs to do a quick search on Amazon to see that ‘otaku’ has become an acceptable word for both Japanese and non-Japanese authors.

I don’t encourage anyone to label those who do not wish to be labeled, but despite its sometimes negative connotations, you could do far worse than ‘otaku’ – ‘anime fan’ doesn’t quite convey my sheer enthusiasm for the medium, ‘J-fag’ or ‘Japanophile’ sounds like I spend most of my time watching porn and fapping, and it’s a hell of a lot better than ‘weeaboo’.

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