Forum - View topicNEWS: 1.72 Million Otaku in Japan
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Isn't that how it usually goes? I mean c'mon the people that are making them rich are the "otakus". Hell you could almost invest stocks in it. But yeah makes sense. If nobody like fans existed to purchase things in the most extreme way then no one would be making money. So it seems that's a whole other market that makes is increasing Japan's economy.
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Lothar
 Posts: 67 |
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They're including people obsessed with railroads, cars, and electronic gizmos in this study? I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing a lot of overlap between these people and manga collectors. There really ought to be a lot more specifics on what constitutes an "otaku" besides obsessive buying. Does collecting cookware or clocks count too?
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.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
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Animation otaku doesn't necessarily mean anime otaku, but this whole otaku survery...maybe a bunch of survery otaku did it. Who else has that kind of time?Go outside and smell the roses. As for the term "closet otaku", I'll have to add that to my vocabulary.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2309 Location: Online Terminal |
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Hmmm. You would think that there would be a catch-all "novelty otaku" group. At least there's entertainment otaku and fashion otaku. (This makes Genshiken even more amusing, but I digress)
Anyway, this whole otaku thing is somewhat contradictory, because you're supposed to* have a hobby in Japan. *-"supposed to" according to some generalizations of modern Japanese culture. There is probably some merit to this, but it sounds too much of a blanket statement to me. |
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Gawyn
Posts: 19 |
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The question is not if you have a hobby but how much you obsess over it. For instance it's fairly normal for people to have computers these days but there are a few people, whom we label as "geeks", who are obsessed with them to the point where they spend as much time and money as they possibly can (and then maybe a bit more for good measure) upgrading, rebuilding and modifying them. He's the kind of person you might look to if your computer's acting up but other than that you really don't socialise with them much.
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4604 Location: New York |
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That's a lot of nerds...
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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If you do it obsessively, yes. The only overlap is the fact that they are obsessive fans of a particular hobby. The word Otaku in Japan no longer refers to anime/manga fans exclusively, although anime/manga fans are responsible for its existence in this context. Otaku are people who's lives are dominated by a particular hobby or interest. -t |
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Flipnofunk
 Posts: 67 |
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you should also watch Densha Otoko shows every type of otakus through each person in the forum the main character goes too for advice |
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freshkazuki
 Posts: 235 Location: Texas |
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I think this whole notion of "otaku" is becoming just an imagined
and mythic word that is gradually losing its meaning and that has no relation to reality. I mean, c'mon, railroad and fashion otaku? I mean if you transfer this idea to the States, then we would have Oprah otaku and Martha Stewart soccer mom otaku, because they have to buy Martha's bedsheets and every item from Kmart, or that read and buy everything that Oprah puts her name on. And what about shoe otaku?? Cigarette lighter otaku?? And the ever American favorites, The National Rifle Association of Gun Otaku? "From my cold dead hands!!" And what about pet otaku, especially ferrets?? As with all labels, it is just an instrument for lazy minds that allow simplification of a very complex hobby. And what do these "closet" otaku do? Sneak out of bed at night to cuddle with their Nuku Nuku blow up dolls while their wives are asleep? I think once you get over a million people labeled this way, you can pretty much put it out of the negative category of just a fringe movement as it's always made out to be. I mean if people buy the stuff they want, even if they spend a lot, so what? They're fanatics? Some people spend all their money on nightclubs, dinner, alcohol, houses etc. Does that mean there are house otaku? American Dream otaku? What's wrong if some people buy anime and manga? |
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cat_clan
 Posts: 67 Location: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico |
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Closet Otaku as far as I understand are mostly women. At least according to Toshio Okada. The thing is that most of the married women just keep it a secret from their family and find time for their hobby while their kids and husband are out of the house. As a small fact around 60% of the attendees of Comiket are women.
I think that is hard for americans to understand the Otaku perception in Japan, due to the fact that in the US individuality is something that society encourage. But in Japan an individual is expected to follow the society rules, leaving room for a small hobby, but there are people that decide not to follow these rules and go crazy about their hobby. This individuals is what Japanese usually call Otaku. For example, an individual in Japan is expected to leave behind Manga and Anime by the time he/she starts working (male) or raising a family (women). At least that's how I understands it is. Last edited by cat_clan on Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Joe Mello
Posts: 2309 Location: Online Terminal |
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Well, in America, there's a social limit to individulality (the fine line between hobby and obsession again), although there's a cable network for just about every otaku.
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v1cious
 Posts: 6229 Location: Houston, TX |
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i liked the old clue better, that new one is just far too easy.
tha'ts just my opinion though. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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And here I was thinking closet otaku were hardcore fans of parts of the home used primarily for storage.
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SalarymanJoe
 Posts: 468 Location: Atlanta, GA, USA |
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I think the notion here in the States never had the meaning it has held in Japan. It's one thing to have a hobby, it's another to have a hobby that consumes much of your waking hours outside of work or school. Not to mention, the income derived from said job being spent, in turn, for that hobby. As far as things like trains go, these type of otaku not only build model trains or perhaps have a few coffee table books on trains; these are the type of people who have bookshelves of books about trains, blueprints/design sketches that they pour over studying and have their living space covered with running model train lines. Likewise for the fashion/celebrity/idol otaku; it's more than reading People Magazine or Mainichi Shinbun every week/issue. It's again, pouring over and memorizing stats, relationships, filmograpies and plastering pictures of thier favorites over thier free space.
Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no. After all, how much of the home is constituted of Martha Stewart products? Does the Oprah reader subscribe to her book club, her magazine, and archive her ten or so hours of programming? Even more so with the NRA thing. I'm a gun owner, plan on joining the NRA, but I do not pour over my guns, constantly cleaning them, nor do I engage in the spirited debates between 5.56mm vs. 7.62mm ammunition. A very good friend of mine exhibits all of these traits, even beyond the point of most othe gun owners we know. I would be on the verge of calling him an otaku.
The satire of the Closet Otaku got me laughing. I really liked that sentence. As pointed out in another post on this thread, it's people taking it beyond what the societal norm of a healthy hobbyis. It's not that they nessecarily spend a lot of money (such as an affluent lifestyle as you pointed out) or even so much that they are spending it on thier hobby (afterall, hobbies are simply money pits from which we gain enjoyment). It's what they are buying with it. Animation Otaku are quoted at spending 20bn yen over a space of 110,000 people; that's roughly 181,818,182 yen per capita. Judging by the costs of many related products such as DVDs, that's an awful lot of money spent on a hobby.* *Sorry, I couldn't find what the average per capita household earning in Japan is. EDIT: It's ~3,353,423 yen. |
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freshkazuki
Posts: 235 Location: Texas |
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I guess what I was trying to say is that if you had the same phenomenon as otaku culture in America instead of Japan, they wouldn't stand out as much. I know that there is much more pressure to conform in Japan. I remember some years back when some Japanese journalists were taken hostage in Iraq, and when they were released I remember one of the women had to go into hiding because the Japanese public just hated her for daring to go where she was told not to! And she was suffering from depression and was publicly humiliated, like they would've been happier if she had been killed. I thought that was really low-down. I guess in the US where we glorify rebellion, we take PRIDE in going against the system, instead of being embarrassed by it. Whether that is good or bad, who can say?
I sorta disagree that otaku spend an inordinate amount of time on their hobbies and spend most of their money on their hobby. I mean, if you have a job, whatever country you're in, you really don't have a lot of free time anyway, so you might as well enjoy things, and as for the money, as was written in Fight Club, how many of the things we buy are really necessary in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? Besides food and shelter, we all really spend our money on crap  . So more power to the otaku, and I actually respect them more since they are NOT conforming! An example of a problem with their hobby is an article I read yesterday in the local newspaper about online gaming in South Korea, where someone actually DIED after going about 56 hours playing a game with very little food and little sleep because he was so caught up in the game! Now that's taking it to the extreme! 
And there ARE people who buy anything Oprah puts her name on and tape all of her shows. They might not count her nosehairs or anything but they exist. They even have a name for themselves, but it slips my mind at the moment. Oprah otaku will have to serve as a stand-in. |
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