Lofton 1
Lauren Lofton
Professor Kim Knight
Comm 3342
9 May 2012
Otaku In Their Natural Habitat
“Fanboys” are everywhere. Successful media generates fan communities, most of who feel very strongly about their obsessions. The internet has become a hub for fans of various subjects to connect to like minded individuals. Even the smallest fan group can connect through social medium these days. The internet would not be successful without these fan communities to generate and respond to viral media.
First, in order to explain how an otaku uses media, the term must be defined. An otaku is a word that originated in Japan. It originally meant somebody who stays at home. It was adapted to apply to extreme fans of anime, manga, and video games because of their unsociable nature, getting lost in their obsessions and ignoring the outside world. According to Kinsella:
The original meaning of otaku is “your home” and, by association, “you,” “yours,” and “home.” The slang term otaku is a witty reference both to someone who is not accustomed to close friendships and therefore tries to communicate with peers using this distant and overly formal form of address, and to someone who spends most of his or her time alone at home. (310)
This definition rings true for American otaku as well. In America, it has become an insult to the extreme fans meaning they are lost to their obsessions and seemingly unable to function as an average person in society. Otaku’s are usually profiled as young fans that are loud and excitable, only ever wanting to talk about anime, Japan, and the related. Most of these young fans see the term otaku as a badge of honor, displaying how truly dedicated to their fandom they are even though they recognize it as a sort of insult.
Most otaku enjoy anime because of its ‘alternative’ nature. It is mainstream in Japan like cartoons are mainstream in America, but anime in America is still considered sort of exotic and strange to non fans. “Fans enjoy anime partly because it allows them to feel as if they have specialized knowledge ordinary Americans do not” (Newitz). This idea that Americans enjoy anime because it is not from America is amusing because many of the genres and characters found in Hollywood movies and television shows are the basis of the anime characters they love. This phenomena is summed up nicely by Newitz when she states, “otaku in America consume anime as a way of dealing with – in a displaced form – their investment in American popular culture.” Essentially, it allows otaku to reject their heritage while in reality they are appreciating it.
Since the invention of the internet, otaku have become less hermit-like, living their daily lives online and satisfying their social needs through chat rooms and forums. This plugged in universe they live in explains why at conventions, a very social environment, these otaku are generally the ones to speak in memes and pop culture references and do not seem to understand when a social situation becomes uncomfortable. Their unsociable nature has made them a huge target for bullying. Not just in their everyday lives but also in their online lives. Even when they try to get away from it by drowning themselves in the digital universe, cyberbullying has become a huge problem. Sites such as 4chan.org, a social anonymous fan forum, and deviantart.com, a place that was meant for artists to connect, are teaming with trolls and bullies. This cyberbullying phenomenon has made otaku havens, where they are trying to get away from the bullying, unsafe.
In recent years there has been a shift in conventions. They have gotten bigger and are appealing to more than anime. In 2005, it was reported that at Anime Los Angeles (ALA) had 616 attendees, but in 2012 it had more than 3,000 attendees (Ohanesian). In seven years it has quintupled in size. This is most likely due to old fans still attending for nostalgia sake and new fans being old enough to attend. There has also been a surge in American fandom leaking into the anime scene making anime conventions less focused on anime and more open to other fandom. Where Japanese titles such as Naruto, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist were the main fan focus, anime convention goers are now more focused on American made media such as Adventure Time, My Little Pony, and Homestuck. This is partly due to the ease of access to such titles considering they are mainstream in America and also due to the fact that there has not been an anime that has made a large impact on American viewers a many years (Ohanesian).
The existence of otaku can not only be blamed on the person himself but also on the way the media is presented. The narratives exist in many different formats such as manga, television, OVA, movies and games. (Newitz) Because of this access to multiple platforms the content has a better chance of a larger fandom. For example, Pokémon is one of the largest media franchises. It started out as a video game that turned into a card game that led to an anime series with multiple movies which led to a manga series and now has multiple spin off series. There are even conventions dedicated to Pokémon in general. Because of its cross platform nature, many people of different interests can enjoy the same content or one person can enjoy the same content in multiple ways.
“An otaku is someone who is highly dedicated to something and uses information from anywhere and everywhere to further his or her understanding of that thing for fun and maybe even profit” (Eng). This definition from Lawrence Eng, an otaku himself, is very accurate. Otaku do not care where they get their information from, they just want it. There are millions of websites dedicated providing the newest updates on their favorite obsessions. They venture into going even as far as learning Japanese so they can receive their information even faster than their American peers (Mescallado). It is a strange culture where hobby turns into lifestyle. Many people have found themselves and their future in being an anime fan. The following are a few examples:
Lucas, having an internet presence as Twinfools, is a transgender female to male who discovered himself through cosplay. Although he is Canadian, he attends American conventions regularly and has a large fan following in the West Coast. Through cosplay he was able to release his masculine energy through dressing up as a boy. He created a cosplay group titled Fighting Dreamers Pro with six friends in 2007 and has since gained followers in multiple countries and has over 80,000 followers on his groups YouTube channel. He frequently updates his channel with skits and convention videos and back when he was first starting out he was frequently made fun of on 4chan. He is not new to internet bullying which increased when he announced he was transitioning. He has since opened his YouTube and Tumblr page to questions and advice for troubled youth who most likely found him through fandom. He is also a part of a movie about cosplayers titled My Other Me. In the instance of Lucas, he found himself through cosplay and being an otaku and turned his success in the otaku community into a social narrative.
Another successful case of being an otaku is a woman who goes by Adella online. She has become one of the most well known cosplayers in America. Now 27 years old, she was an otaku at a young age and started cosplaying in 2000. Since then she was made over 30 costumes and even found her career path. She is currently a fashion design student in California. From her hobby she created a career and is now profiting off of it.
So what is the natural habitat of otaku? It is the internet. This is where they are born and bred. It is where they take solace when the outside world just does not understand. It is where they can watch anime and read manga that has yet to be serialized in America, and can connect with other fans of the same fandom. Not to say that there would not be otaku without the internet, but it has definitely made an impact on the amount of them. If a person could only get content from Japan through traditional means, it would not be spread so expansively and thus limiting the amount of people that could share it.
Works Cited
Eng, Lawrence. "The Politics of Otaku." Cornell Japanese Animation Society. Cornell
University, 1 Sept. 2001. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://www.cjas.org/~leng/otaku-p.htm>.
Kinsella, Sharon. "Amateur Manga Subculture and the Otaku Panic." Journal of Japanese Studies
24.2 (1998): 289-316. Sharon Kinsella Publications. Journal of Japanese Studies. Web.
24 Apr. 2012.
Mescallado, Ray. "Otaku Nation." Science Fiction Studies 27.1 (2000). Depauw University.
Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
Newitz, Annalee. "Anime Otaku: Japanese Animation Fans Outside Japan." Bad Subjects 13
(1994). Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://bad.eserver.org/issues/1994/13/newitz.html>.
Ohanesian, Liz. "Animé Los Angeles 2012: The Changing Face of the Anime Convention
Community." Editorial. LAWeekly 9 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://http://blogs.laweekly.com/arts/2012/01/anime_los_angeles_2012.php?page=2>.