The Otaku

The Otaku

More and more we, as Americans are seeing other cultures intertwine with our own. With the introduction of TV, satellite and Internet it's easy to find out more about a specific area in the world. Watching and reading about another culture you almost might make you obsessed with it. An Otaku is one such person.

Otaku is a term common with people who make a hobby out of watching Japanese animation or anime for short. Most of these people who watch the anime are regular people that go to work or school and need something to relax with. An Otaku, on the other hand is a person that obsesses over anime. "An otaku is an obsessive fan of any one particular theme, topic, or hobby. Perhaps the most common uses are anime otaku (who sometimes enjoy many days of excessive anime watching with no rest) and manga otaku (Japanese comic books)." (WordIQ par. 3) Anime is like a Drug for them. Otakus just need to watch anime. This However, it doesn't just stop with watching.

One other thing that would define an Otaku is that they have a lot of collectables or even dress up like the characters they watch. "The otaku are an underground (subculture), but they are not opposed to the system per se," observed sociologist and University of Tokyo fellow Volker Grassmuck, who has studied the otaku extensively. "They change, manipulate and subvert ready-made products, but at the same time they are the apotheosis of consumerism and an ideal workforce for contemporary capitalism." (Cyberpunk Project par. 29) They literally buy everything that has to do with the anime or at least try to make it. It's amazing to talk to one of these individuals and find out how much time was spent working on their costume or how much money the spent getting a figurine imported from Japan. It's almost good to have these types of people in a culture to spend the money even if they don't have it.

Most people would find these behaviors ridiculous, but this is how an Otaku lives. Each day is just to watch another episode of the favorite anime. Working extra hours to have enough money to buy a replica of a robot from the anime. To them this is perfectly normal.

Works Cited

"Definition of Otaku." WordIQ.com. WordIQ no date

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