Forum - View topicPoll: What does "Otaku" mean to you?
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Because negative news tend to attract more attention. Recent "positive" news about otaku, such as Daisuke Enomoto going to be the first cosplaying astronaut, would receive comments like "just another rich guy with weird hobbies," yet if there's another otaku murderer similar to Tsutomu Miyazaki then there'll be some big media fuss. By the way, anyone remember Yasuyoshi Kobayashi (小林泰剛)? I wonder why he wasn't branded as an "otaku kidnapper;" probably because of his looks and backgrounds does not fit stereotypical images of otaku: fat, dirty, glassed, poor because all money spent on merchandise. He was young, without glass, very rich (he had ¥100,000 allowance a month (小遣いは１０万円) back in elementary school), and bishounen-look with hair dyed blonde. 
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outlawwolf
 Posts: 645 |
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Sorry, can't recall Kobayashi and my japanese isnt exactly up to snuff to read the link. Exactly what does he have to do with anything?
Edit: Forget it, I googled the name. |
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Mihara
Posts: 15 |
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Generally speaking, an Otaku is someone who is immersed in a certain aspect or culture more than any other. So naturally, one could assume that anime/manga would be the biggest, if not only hobby a person has. Now since anime/manga is such a deep and diverse field, there's literally an endless amount of aspects that a person can be a fan of. There's also the occasional Otaku which like anime/manga more than the average person, but still balance it out with other interests. None of this means the person has to lead an unhealthy life though
The reason that a lot of times we're portrayed in such a negative light is because this is a new culture. It's not as mainstream as a lot of people think it is, if you ask a random person on the street "Do you know what manga is?" chances are they're going to tell you that they don't. I think, at least in America, that people connect Otaku to the stereotypical "overweight, lives in their parent's basement" criteria. I think it does have a lot to do with how Hollywood and certain people think about the culture. We're always portrayed as these antisocial losers that do nothing but watch anime and read manga all day, when that could be the case for maybe 5% of the entire fandom, and the people that are like that do have problems. |
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Area88
 Posts: 374 |
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After watching the classic that is 'Otaku no video'.
Otaku = Obsession |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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What I want to know is why do fans feel the need to call themselves "otaku"? What do they hope to gain from it? Do they think it makes them look cooler than other fans who don't call themselves otaku? I voted that otaku is an insult that refers to somebody who is so obssesed with one particular interest that they literally have no life. Calling somebody an otaku in Japan is like telling somebody in America to get a life. The difference between anime being a loanword and otaku being one is like what was already stated, anime has become accepted into everyday speech whereas otaku is only used by anime fans who have a misunderstanding of the original meaning of the word. Plus, anime only meant animation in its original definition, but when it was adopted in English, it was changed to mean Japanese animation, but it still refered to a form of animation, whereas otaku was originally an insult that went to meaning anime fan suddenly when adopted in English.
Can somebody please explain how a Japanese insult goes to meaning anime fan in English to me again? I know loanwords' definitions often evolve when they're brought over to different languages, but I really don't get how you get fan out of an insult. But even calling yourself an otaku by the American definition isn't exactly the smartest thing to do in the world because it gives people the impression that you're one of those ignorant newbie fans who download fansubs of licensed Shounen Jump anime titles without ever buying anime DVDs because they think fansubs are better than official subs, thinks Naruto is the greatest thing since sliced bread and every other anime is inferior, hates all dubs especially the Naruto dub, thinks all J-pop is better than any American music when they don't even know Japanese, thinks all anime is automatically better than all American cartoons just because it's anime, who isn't even aware of the original definition of what an otaku is, believes that you're perscuting them as a fan if you don't like anime too, and is just generally annoying. Even if otaku itself doesn't mean an insult in America, it's still viewed very negatively because of the types of fans stereotyped to use it, and even if it's not an insult in America, you're still going to be looked at like you're really weird by Americans if you go around calling yourself an otaku around non-anime fans. And anime fans wonder why non-fans refuse to have anything to do with anime when we have so many of these geeky fans going around calling themselves by Japanese insults while trying to force their hobbies down other people's throats who could care less about anime. What happened to the good 'ol days when we used simple American-made terms to refer to American fandom like "Japanimation" or just calling ourselves "fans"? I just don't see why people feel the need to give them some sort of special label like "otaku" to describe their fandom. It's just utterly pointless to me. IMO, we should have a poll that asks what we think sushi is. We'll probably get very different results from it. Last edited by Kouji on Wed May 31, 2006 8:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Twage
Posts: 363 Location: North Bergen, NJ |
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Odd that ANN excluded the definition of the word as it's used in Japan from the poll. Means that I can't really vote on this one. C'mon guys, pay a bit more attention to what you put on these polls! This is the second one this month!
That's an oversimplification. It's not a "Japanese insult." It only has a negative connotation in part of the general population, especially with the impact of Densha Otoko and the recent expansion of otaku culture. Some Japanese are proud of being otaku, and some admire otaku or at least look at them with bemusement. So there's no reason the word shouldn't be imported to refer to geeks that are hopelessly obsessed with things Japanese (such as myself). Watch Otaku no Video for some semi-fictional examples of proud Japanese otaku -- though understand that the pendulum has swung back and forth a few times in the intervening years. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10455 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Couldn't a used car salesman go home and have hobies completely unrelated to cars? Maybe cars don't even count as a hobby for him, but just a profession. How then would he be a "car otaku?" I don't really see your point. -t |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10455 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Hmm, I was sure that the last option, generally defined someone who was obsessive about their hobby and put everything into it, matched the Japanese definition. The only thing that changes from the Japanese, is that I mentioned Anime/manga specifically, as opposed to "any hobby." I avoided saying anything actually negative, such as stereotypes about being a recluse, nerd, anti-social, unbathed, etc... because many Japanese Otaku don't fit these stereotypes in the least. Likewise, I chose not to mention any requirement on being focused on research, because Otaku who are obsessed with researching their chosen subject matter (ie: anime) will still fit into one of those groups. Of course, some people feel that, to be an Otaku, you need to be focused on research, but this is generally only believed by those Otaku who are focused on research... What would you change? -t |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I would have quoted the whole thing but it's too damn big. I reaffirm what Kouji said. I also realize people in the west have different meanings so when someone calls themselves that it doesn't mean what I think it should, so there is no problem. But that doesn't change what I think the word actually means, which is what the poll asks. |
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Twage
Posts: 363 Location: North Bergen, NJ |
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Well, that's what I meant. I would consider a huge gaming nerd or a huge Boa nerd or, say, someone who has seen all of Im Kwon-taek's movies an otaku as well. I probably would have voted for "Someone obsessed with an esoteric or niche subject," or "Someone trying to collect an encyclopedic level of knowledge on an esoteric or niche subject" or some variation. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I might have misinterpreted the poll a bit; that analogy was stricken out. However, the four options of the poll differ only in one dimension -- see the chart I drew. That is, they only differ in the degree of obsessiveness, and neither professionism nor knowledge was mentioned. Example: One of my colleague at my day job highly anticipates the coming World Cup in Germany. Most of her favorite games will be held at night in European time, which is beyond midnight here in Taiwan (around 2-3 AM). Instead of setting up a video recorder and watch it the next morning, she has already made plans to stay overnight to watch the live broadcasting. Yet, she knows nothing about how the different designs of official World Cup soccer balls every four years would change the speed of it as well as different tactics, nor would she discuss how the formation of 4-4-2 or 3-4-3 would affect the result of a specific game. Same thing with her obsession of Apple Computer. She loves just about everything made by Apple and had stared and drooled (yes, literally) at a Mac Mini in a glass display case, yet she didn't even know that PowerPC 68k chips were manufactured by Motorola with cooperation of Apple and IBM until I told her, not to mention the battle between RISC and CISC chips. Obsessed? Yes. Knowledgeable? Afraid not. With my subjective definition, she fits for a soccer or Apple fangirl, but not an otaku of either. This old post might be able to explain my viewpoint. |
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jmays
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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I think it's kind of silly to debate the dimensional differentiation of an anime poll, but anyway, what would your version of the poll look like? |
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Twage
Posts: 363 Location: North Bergen, NJ |
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Maybe dormcat is misinterpreting the poll's purpose. Are these supposed to produce useful information about ANN's readership or are they just fun things to put on the front page? Both are good reasons for running polls, but everyone may be talking across each other if there's a misunderstanding. If it's the latter, then it doesn't matter, but if it's the former, then I think what dormcat is saying about the difference between obsession and knowledge makes a lot of sense. |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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I has nothing to do with being "cooler". Having a passion and incredible knowledge of a certain subject is what I like to think of as to what makes an otaku. It separates itself from just a fanboy who is crazy about something but possibly doesn't have any kind of extensive knowledge of the subject rather then just being obsessed about it. Those aspects are what I am thinking when I call myself an otaku. That is the reason I would like to be called an otaku.
Laying it out as vaguely as to say it's "an insult that went to meaning an anime fan" I would be able to see where you were coming from. But it's more then that. If it were just simply an insult there would not have been animes and shows based on otaku (Otaku no Video, Comic Party, Genshiken, Densha Otoko) portraying them in a postive light. It can have negative connotations but it's not really an insult. And the negative connotation was only derived by people who interpreted it as such (which unforunetly would include most people). It mainly just depends on the context as to whether or not it can be seen as an insult. In that aspect though, many, many words can be percieved as insults depending on the context. That being said, and completely ignoring any kind of negative/postive connotations, I see it as meaning an obsessive fan with immense knowledge of a certain subject in Japanese, and an obsessive fan with an immense knowledge of anime/manga in English. I can reasonably see it as a loanword by that sense.
You're right, which is the reason I have never used the term to describe myself outside of the internet. Once the term has established itself a bit more I'll probably decide whether or not I want to call myself one. For now, I don't think I'll be calling myself by one either on the internet or in real life. Unfortunate that it had to come to this, but I guess this poll made me realise it. I was just hoping that all the people who thought about it that way just had very loud and noticable opinions, and that in truth, I hoped they were in the minority. But I guess I was wrong. It's just a term so I try not to think much of it. It's more the principle of being such a fan that I like to think of, not the word. Last edited by PantsGoblin on Wed May 31, 2006 3:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Keonyn
Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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A fan is a fan, I see no reason aside from ego or pride to try to establish a system of tiers as to how much of a fan you are. Nobody looks at die-hards in a good light except the die-hards themselves, to the rest they're just seen as elitists who establish a term for themselves to set themselves above the common fan. We are still an english speaking country and I just don't see any real legitimate reason aside from those mentioned above to label oneself in such a way rather than to just use the terms based on your native tongue.
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