Otaku:Different Meanings In Different Cultures

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Hi Every­one.

I came across a very inter­est­ing arti­cle that I felt falls into my posts con­cern­ing the dif­fer­ences between Cul­tures in the US and Japan.

When you hear the term ” Otaku ” just what does it mean for you?

Do you asso­ciate it with some­one who is ” Nerdy ” and into things like ” Online Video games ” or ” Comics ” or pos­si­bly ” Anime ” and ” Anime Figures ? ”

Or could it mean all of these things to you?

Is this also a ” Neg­a­tive Con­no­ta­tion ” as far as you are con­cerned, or is this a per­fectly accept­able term that you would use toward some­one you knew that had the same kind of inter­ests in these areas as you do?

A lot of ques­tions to be sure.…I pose this ques­tion because of the arti­cle I read, and this par­tic­u­lar arti­cle focused on the ” Evo­lu­tion Of The Otaku Cul­ture In Taiwan “.

Unfor­tu­nately, this was not posted on a blog, where I might be able to acknowl­edge the writer and add my thoughts on the sub­ject, but of course I will attempt to do so here…

Appar­ently, the term ” Otaku ” is a mod­ern Japan­ese term that has neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tions attached to it.…

” Orig­i­nally, it refers to those peo­ple who overly falls into the vir­tual world such as comics, anime, and games, and even lost their con­nec­tion to the real world. ”

This term is now used as a way to make fun of oth­ers and the real mean­ing is actu­ally twisted. Today, some peo­ple who do not go out very often are also referred to geeks, nerds or the “otaku”.

Now in Japan ( and there is no cul­tural divide on this part ) as in the US, an Otaku is some­one who is con­sid­ered to be overly obsessed with a game or a par­tic­u­lar anime…well that can describe many an American…I won­der how many folks who were so obsessed with Obama, would have been con­sid­ered ” Obama Otakus ?”

In Japan, a per­son who spends his or her days in front of a com­puter, and has no other social inter­ac­tions with oth­ers are con­sid­ered to also be  Otaku…okay, so con­sid­er­ing the amount of time that I spend in front of com­put­ers, I am almost assuredly a ” Com­puter Otaku ” and I have no prob­lem with the term either.

” This kind of “otaku” can com­mu­ni­cate with oth­ers nor­mally over the Inter­net derived medi­ums such as MSN Mes­sen­gers, Yahoo Mes­sen­gers, chat rooms, BBS, and many oth­ers, but, fail to do so in real life communications. ”

Appar­ently the term ” Otaku ” in Tai­wan is being overused ( or pos­si­bly mis­used ) as in the ref­er­ence below..

” In today’s infor­ma­tion econ­omy, it is usual that peo­ple exchange opin­ions and share infor­ma­tion online with some­one whom they have never met in per­son through online medi­ums. How­ever, because of the overly wide use of the word “otaku”, the real mean­ing has been twisted. ”

Fur­ther­more, there is an appar­ent stigma attached to being an otaku in Tai­wan, as tra­di­tional par­ents ( our baby boomer equiv­a­lents ) have a strong dis­like toward the otaku…

” The baby boomers think that rely­ing on vir­tual com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools too much could be harm­ful to real lives, such as schools, works, and social lives. Besides, many of the Tai­wanese par­ents are pre­scribed that the young “otaku” feel highly “not secured” and lack of sense of accom­plish­ment in the real lives, so that kids stay in vir­tual worlds longer and longer to find the sense of belonging. ”

Okay, so your prob­a­bly ask­ing where does the Evo­lu­tion part of this come in…that’s coming.…in the sec­ond part of this post.