CrimsonRyu17 (post: 1348645) wrote:Blkmage, I get what you mean but over here in the US, "Otaku" is usually associated with some creepy perv who collects anime girl figurines, only eats ramen and pocky, and lives in his mom's basement. Or a Narutard.
Would I be an "Otaku" in Japan? Probably, considering I know who Leiji Matsumoto is and watch his works, keep up with the latest anime coming up and their ratings, and build gundam model kits and such. Though if anything, I'd probably be more of a Meka Otaku or Kaiju Otaku.
Am I an "Otaku" as the west defines it? No and I never want to be.
CrimsonRyu17 (post: 1348645) wrote:Blkmage, I get what you mean but over here in the US, "Otaku" is usually associated with some creepy perv who collects anime girl figurines, only eats ramen and pocky, and lives in his mom's basement.
MasterDias (post: 1348652) wrote:Don't you have it backwards? I thought it was generally conceived as a more positive (or at least, a neutral) term in the United States. I doubt OtakuUSA would have named their magazine off of something people would take as negative.
blkmage (post: 1348628) wrote:And since there's so much knee-jerk reaction to the term, here is where I turn around and play devil's advocate.
It doesn't seem like many of you want to be considered otaku. That's alright, since the question is whether you consider yourself one. But, are you sure that you wouldn't get called one if you were in Japan?
I read a fairly interesting blog post a few weeks ago about a guy who was in Japan for some length of time. In it, he mentions how manga and anime aren't exactly considered to be a pair like we do. Over there, manga is far more ubiquitous and mainstream than anime is. His empirical evidence was that while a lot of the people he talked with were familiar with various manga series, they were surprised at his knowledge of what shows were airing at the time.
Yes, otaku has negative connotations, but those don't define what that word means. It's kind of like saying someone plays WoW. The definition of a WoW player is someone who plays WoW, not how they play it. But, playing WoW has negative connotations. I played WoW and was even into hardcore raiding (three nights a week for four hours + time for grinding and farming for mats for consumables), but I still managed to do school, go to work, hang out with friends, and quit without feeling like I went off a drug.
If you're reading Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto, you might not quite fall into the proper definition of an otaku. If you play doujin games or build model kits, you might be closer to being an otaku than you might have thought. If you just watch FMA each week, you might not fall into the definition either. If you're watching shows because of the director, studio, or cast, you might qualify. If you can hold your own in Gundam shiritori, well...
See, I talk with a bunch of anime bloggers who are fairly articulate in their analysis of anime and manga. We're talking lengthy essays about tragedy in Key works, episodic analysis for Darker than BLACK, or comparisons of dialogue between a mecha show and a supernatural comedy. These people would likely be called otaku (because of their depth of knowledge about these things), but they've got jobs or go to school and spend time with family and friends.
One last thing: otaku isn't a monolithic group. Some people really like mecha. Some people really like moe. Some people really like Touhou.
One final analogy: gamer.
Yamamaya (post: 1348660) wrote:Crimson, the word otaku really isn't mainstream enough in America for people to recognize it. They'll either look at you and say, "What's that?" Or they'll say, "Isn't that some kind of murderer in Japan?"
Yamamaya (post: 1348670) wrote:My point was most people aren't going to associate it with anything because they don't know what that word means.
Yamamaya (post: 1348673) wrote:You're the one who brought up the connotation that comes from calling yourself an otaku to other people.(and most people don't go up to people and say, "Hi I'm an otaku!"
Scarecrow (post: 1348681) wrote:
I watch anime cause I like the art style. If the art style doesn't interest me, I probably wont watch it (although story matter's too... but I don't care how amazing the story is, if the art is garbage or uninspired, forget it).
CrimsonRyu17 (post: 1348675) wrote:Ooookay, I srsly have no idea how you got that from my posts. Did you even read them?
To sum up what I said, "Am I an "Otaku" as the west defines it? No and I never want to be." MasterDias says, "Don't you have it backwards? I thought it was generally conceived as a more positive (or at least, a neutral) term in the United States." I respond with, "It's usually considered positive amongst other Otaku, yeah."
Are you suggesting that all anime fans consider themselves Otaku? Because there are plenty of sane people who still like anime and don't want to be considered Otaku because it's associated with creepyness and obsession over cartoon girls. These are the other people I'm talking about, not some random people in the mall. Otaku is a derogatory label over here in the US and it's usually only considered positive to other Otaku, hence OtakuUSA being geared towards OTHER Otaku. Not the general public.
Yamamaya (post: 1348717) wrote:There are plenty of girls who are also Otakus. In fact, yaoi is often geared towards them.
Yamamaya (post: 1348717) wrote:Then the only people who consider the term derogatory are either people who don't understand anime at all/other anime fans/some random person on the internet who happens to know what the term means.
Yamamaya (post: 1348717) wrote:But I fear I am getting OT and entering an argument so I'll stop posting about this manner.
The only people who don't consider the term derogatory are Otakus. That should say something.
MasterDias (post: 1348733) wrote:I think one or both of you are getting some wires crossed here.
If you define "Otakus" as "anime fans," than the argument doesn't necessarily make sense, as no one (in the United States) other than anime fans would actually know the term or what it means...so they couldn't actually consider it derogatory.
I believe this is what Yamamaya was arguing.
MasterDias (post: 1348733) wrote:If you define "Otakus" as "anime fans," than the argument doesn't necessarily make sense, as no one (in the United States) other than anime fans would actually know the term or what it means...so they couldn't actually consider it derogatory.
I believe this is what Yamamaya was arguing.
Urban Dictionary wrote:Otaku is the honorific word of Taku (home).
Otaku is extremely negative in meaning as it is used to refer to someone who stays at home all the time and doesn't have a life (no social life, no love life, etc)
Usually an otaku person has nothing better to do with their life so they pass the time by watching anime, playing videogames, surfing the internet (otaku is also used to refer to a nerd/hacker/programmer).
In the Western culture, people confuse otaku to be something positive like "Guru". If you think about it, it's not really good to be called a guru if it means you are a total loser who can't socialize with other people except through the Internet.
Nate (post: 1348714) wrote:"Things only have value if they're attractive!"
CrimsonRyu17 (post: 1348737) wrote:But over here, it's an obsessived creepy anime fan. It's like those annoying people who use "Kawaii!" and "Sugoi!" in America in front of people that have no idea what those words mean just to show how much of a fan they are. If Yamamaya thinks this, then he doesn't know what "Otaku" means here.
I thought I made all this clear, and the people before me did too.
MasterDias (post: 1348741) wrote:This is actually more in line of what I've always understood (darn, I can't avoid saying it...) a negative term like "weeaboo" to mean...
MasterDias (post: 1348741) wrote:Perhaps we browse different areas of the internet, but I've never noticed quite the negative western opinion of the word "Otaku" as you indicate.
MasterDias (post: 1348741) wrote: I've always understood that while the Japanese generally take it to be derogatory, Americans (perhaps mistakenly) take it somewhat more positively...
And Fish's Urban Dictionary post sort of supports this...
Scarecrow wrote:And what's wrong with that? Just like storytelling, visuals and style are art too.
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