Forum - View topicRecent perception of otaku.
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MisterEd
 Posts: 97 |
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This morning I came across this article http://www.splicetoday.com/pop-culture/nerds-with-other-nerds and it made me think, are anime fans still perceived as freaks/weirdos? I know in the 90's and early 00's we weren't looked at in the best public eye, but I figured that in recent years the prejudice has subsided a little. What really makes anime fans different from American comic book fans. Heck, I like both.
I did some more quick research, just a couple searches on Google, and found a bunch of forums/articles with the same topic. It seems that people are just writing us off as geeks/nerds/weirdo's because we like anime, not even considering other hobbies that we individually could have. The perception is that all anime/manga fans are wannabe Japanese-pedophiles that are only interested in staying home all day and watching anime. I was at Otakon, the convention the article is about, and feel the author took a totally superficial standpoint. He seemed to think he was on our side, meanwhile demeaning all cosplayers into a box of grown ups "playing dress up." Do football fans not realize how ridiculous they look when they paint themselves black and purple and sit outside the stadium for 5 hours before the game starts? My question is, will anime fans ever be recognized as regular, normal members of society. Or will we always have to live in humiliation because of our hobbies? I hope the answer is no, but now I'm not so sure. Here's another example: http://www.psu.com/forums/threads/183399-Why-are-so-many-anime-fans-so-freakin-weird/page2 |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1302 |
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I think of it this way personally:
There;s nothing wrong with enjoying anime as a hobby. It;s as viable a source of entertainment as sitcoms or movies. When you like anime to the point of where it distorts your perception of reality however, you have a serious problem. Sadly some japanese otaku fall under the latter. As to whether or not otaku can be scene as regular members of society really just depends on the person I guess. |
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Darksorrow29
Posts: 412 Location: United States |
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Also keep in mind the perception of Otaku changes when you're in the US or Japan.
If Im not mistaken, in the US people are proud to call themselves otaku or nerds/geeks. The problem is though in Japan, Otakus are viewed as dirty, creepy, socially awkward/uncomfortable, and just weird. They're basically just obsessed over one thing in such a way that it's creepy. Obviously there are different levels to each nerd/geek, but usually otaku refers to the creepiest in Japan. Too be honest I do not think anyone will really care if you're an anime fan, assuming you're socially acceptable and not to the extreme. In response to "What really makes anime fans different from American comic book fans. Heck, I like both. " I think there are a few reasons. One is nostalgia and the other is that anime is foreign. When I say nostalgia, people seem to be more accepting of nerd related things sometimes because they grew up with it. For example everyone knows Spiderman etc. As for the foreign part, non anime fans usually have a hard time wondering how you can watch something japanese in subtitles. Plus you will always have the cartoons are only for kids mentality. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3715 |
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Anyone who goes to an event dedicated to their hobby is abnormal. But since they're at the event, no one cares. When they go outside their event, people will naturally look them with an "eww" feel. This is just as true of football fans as anime fans. If the dude with body paint tries to walk around normal society like that, the reaction he gets is not going to be all that positive.
The fact is, if you have a hobby, people who don't share it don't want to hear about it. I'm not into wood-carving, and if a person who was into it came up to me and started gushing about how awesome wood-carving is, I'd be annoyed. Not because wood-carving is weird or wrong, but because the guy doesn't understand limits. If a person could somehow wear wood-carving and walked around clothed it it, my response would be "what a weirdo." |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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Recognized by whom? Where? Unless you walk around cosplaying as a catgirl maid the vast majority of "society" will never suspect that you are an anime fan. |
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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Apparently there are some people who did just that, though they were wearing Naruto headbands at school.
Also anime/manga has already become another "scapegoat" for people in the media who report news. Especially when somebody accidentally dies trying to replicate a Naruto jutsu in his sandbox. IIRC there was some killer that was apparently fond of anime, since they found a ton of manga at their house. Also there has been at least one school suspension for somebody carrying a "Death Note" with students & teachers names written in it. People call me an Otaku, but I think I am a pretty normal person. Of course I don't spend hundreds of dollars on figures, don't have a pillow case with an anime character on it, and rarely attend conventions. |
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Ness_Success
 Posts: 18 |
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I guess I would have to consider myself an otaku... My entire room is filled with anime figures, plushies, posters, i even have a blanket and pillow case.... I also attend conventions here and there, and cosplay.
But the thing is, I never really considered myself as 'not normal' or anything like that. I've always had friends, not one of them into anime, but they knew how into it I was, and they accepted me. I'm sure there are some kids in my school who don't know me and think of me as 'that weird kid who likes anime', but that doesn't really bother me. The thing is I moved recently, (well not really recent anymore, about 2 years ago) and eventually made friends in my new school. The fortunate thing was, one of them was into anime! He watched it all the time, but didn't really talk about it, but after meeting me he warmed up to it more. And I even got some of my other new friends into anime. At first I never wanted to hang out at my house because I was afraid they would make fun of me for my room, but that was a long time ago, now were all best friends, and tbh spend more time with each other than we do at our homes. They even poke fun at me sometimes, but its not to be hurtful. I've ranted on long enough, I thought i'd share that with you all lol. |
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FaytLein
 Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
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The real reason why anime is still regarded as a "weird" and misunderstood is that it simply hasn't been around in the collective conscious for very long. Video gaming took almost 20 years to stop being a hobby for just kids, and now Madden and Call of Duty sales top movie ticket sales. People are going to look at cosplayers and collectors as weird people until anime gets to a level similar to video games, so when the current fandom starts having kids, and anime becomes a multi-generational thing, people will still look at us funny.
(BTW, I have tons of DVDs, figures and books. So I proudly call myself an otaku. Don't let people talking out of their rear affect you, do your own thing and not worry about what other people think.) |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24563 |
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I think the non-anime/manga population will always think our hobby is weird. Part of it is that, in the west, a lot of Japanese stuff is considered weird, so naturally their animation is going to be considered weird. And let's face it - a lot of it IS weird. Imagine trying to describe the plot of virtually any non-slice-of-life show to a non-anime person.
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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American comic book fans can hide in the live action Hollywood movies being 'mainstream'. No matter what, the American mainstream will just see cartoons when they look at anime, and we all know how bad animation is treated in the US: either for small children or just Family Guy-style sitcoms. No real way to say you like animation here because of the perception of it in the West. |
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Hypeathon
Posts: 1176 |
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@ TitanXL:
So you think Japanese society has the exact opposite mentality towards anime? |
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jsc315
 Posts: 925 |
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This. When I see anime fans just take things way over bored like everything is a internet message board forum is just get pretty sad and really embarrassing. I had a few friends like this in collage. I had no problem with it at all when I was with them or even in school but when I was hanging out somewhere public and act like your really a vampire or a warewolf or something of that sort is just become really cringe worthy and you want to just stay far away from them as much as possible. To be honest though I think people like that are the small minority. And when people act like a Weeaboo or what ever the stupid term is it just gets annoying and completely discredits anything of any value of what that person said and just give a bad name to fans of anime in general. |
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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To put it simply, there is nothing wrong with being an otaku. Being a weeaboo, on the other hand, well it's like the difference between a football fan painting his chest and the Oakland Raiders' Black Hole. Both deviate from normal, but the first is with acceptable bounds while the latter are a bunch of not-so-nice-people. And cons tend to bring out the asshole in kids, and cons are where the anime fandom has the highest profile, so anime fans get associated with teenage not-so-nice-people in the public mind. But if you're looking for social acceptance, you choose the wrong hobby, for the ones like us will never belong.
/That article reminded me of this |
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wcsinn
 Posts: 186 |
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First, while I agree that the article was condescending at best, where did you draw this conclusion from? The article says nothing of the kind, and basically states that cosplay is pretty weird - so how do you make the jump to wanna-be Japanese pedophiles? And as long as people cosplay and occasionally as another poster stated, go a little over board with their cosplay, the main stream press will always paint anime conventions and those attending them as "weird". Will that perception change? It is changing, Yeah, I think so - as things become more popular, more mainstream they will become more accepted - look at how G4 covers conventions, Comicon and cosplayers - its a world of difference. Also, anime fans are not singled out - sy-fi cosplayers get the same reception. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Lol. By the sound of it, if you showed the writer of that article anything slightly out of the ordinary then he'd respond with the same attitude of dismissive condescension. The guy just comes across as a bit of a douche.
I imagine there are a number of factors working against anime fans: 1) Anime is foreign. That right there makes it a lot more different than other nerdly interests and therefore more weird to a lot of people. 2) Anime is still relatively new to North America. Anime has really only been noticeable as a unique, distinct fandom for a decade or so to most people. As such, it and its fans can still be pretty shocking to people where as people have gotten used to the various weird tendencies of other fandoms. That doesn't make those other fandoms less nerdy necessarily but it means they'll cause less of a reaction. 3) Anime and its fans are, in fact, really really weird. Sorry. I can't help but be fairly forgiving of people who give anime fans a hard time. As far as nerds go, anime fans pretty much take the cake when it comes to being weirdos. I mean, look at comic book fans. As nerdy as they may be, they're actually pretty tame compared to anime fans. Same goes for Gamers, Trekies, D&D players...hell, even LARPers. As weird as any of those people may be, they can't hold a candle to otaku. (Especially Japanese otaku). There's some pretty weird and/or crazy stuff to be found in anime and among it's fans. I mean, Moe? Sexy figures? Tits that make Power Girl look flat chested? Body Pillows? Hentai? Tentacle rape? Rampant pedophilia? Yeah...It sucks for those of us that aren't nuts but I can't really fault the average non-fan for looking at anime as a whole and thinking: WTF is wrong with those people? |
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