What is your opinion on "Otaku"?

[Inamorata]

I've looked up "Otaku" on Wiki, ect.. what I had found was pretty
disturbing.. and I also found other meanings. I'm just confused as to
why people still call anime or a collection of it "Otaku".
(Someone who likes Otaku)
What I found:
Otaku is a Japanese slang word which means someone who is crazy about something, especially anime and manga. Originally, otaku was a word to speak to someone from another family with respect.
In Japan, otaku is generally considered a rude word. Calling someone an otaku in Japan would be a very bad insult. However, in America, otaku is often used to refer to fans of anime and manga. In America, calling someone an otaku is not necessarily rude. In Australia the term "otkau" is seen not only as not rude but in a lot of anime fans cases as a thing to be very proud of being called. The term "otaku" being used as very knowledgeable geek, obsessed with anime, extreme fan of anime and manga.

(History of the term Otaku)
Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family .


(More History.. only disturbing)
[edit] Nakamori's publication

The term entered general use in Japan around 1989, and may have been popularized by Nakamori's publication in that year of The Generation of M – We and Mr.Miyazaki (Mの世代－ぼくらとミヤザキ君, M no Sedai – Bokura to Miyazaki-kun?). It applied the term to the (then) recently caught serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki (宮崎 勤), who turned out to be a recluse obsessed with pornographic anime and manga and who lived out his rape fantasies on young girls, thus attaching a huge taboo to a formerly innocuous term.

[edit] As pathological-techno-fetishist-with-social-deficit

The term was popularized in the English speaking world in William Gibson's 1996 novel Idoru, which has several references to otaku. In particular, the term was defined as 'pathological-techno-fetishist-with-social-deficit'. In an April 2001 edition of The Observer, William Gibson explained his view of the term:

The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age's embodiment of the connoisseur, more concerned with the accumulation of data than of objects, seems a natural crossover figure in today's interface of British and Japanese cultures. I see it in the eyes of the Portobello dealers, and in the eyes of the Japanese collectors: a perfectly calm train-spotter frenzy, murderous and sublime. Understanding otaku -hood, I think, is one of the keys to understanding the culture of the web. There is something profoundly post-national about it, extra-geographic. We are all curators, in the post-modern world, whether we want to be or not.[2]

[edit] From the May 2006 issue of EX Taishuu magazine

Another potential etymology for the term comes from the May 2006 issue of EX Taishuu magazine, which claims that use of the term started among the fanbase of the 1982 – 1983 TV series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, as the main character of the show had a habit of addressing others as "otaku", which fans started to emulate.


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So what is everyone's opinion on the term "Otaku"?

[Amray]

Well actually, despite what it says on Wikipedia, Japanese people actually do refer to eachother as Otaku's when they are speaking to a huge fan of Anime and Manga and they do not take it in a rude tone.

Basically in this day and age in most countries it is refered to as a big fan of Anime and/or Manga, including Japan and many other countries. Ever see Lucky Star? Konata refers to herself as an Otaku, as does Kagami call her one too and she is proud of it. I know they are fictional but still it is an Anime made to reflect the life of modern day Japanese students. They had a kind of festival in real life at the shrine set where Kagami and Tsukasa worked in the Anime and it said that "Many Otaku's came to the event". So the word cannot be as bad as it says, especially when Otaku's refer to themselves as being Otaku's along with the people around them.

[Mujika]

Well said.=) I was about to go look for it on the web to clear things for myself. So Nihon's take it as a rude word (i see. ) I better watch out for that tabo0' word when I go to Japan someday.

[Psychicmind]

There is too much controversy over the word, so I avoid using the word. I don't want to accidentally offend anyone.

[Faceless111]

It's just another euphemism for the word "geek". Americans will much rather be called otaku's than geeks for the simple reason that they are weak-hearted.

[Amray]

Well said.=) I was about to go look for it on the web to clear things for myself.

Yep! ^_^.. Also...

(Look at this word>>)Originally, otaku was a word to speak to someone from another family with respect.

(More (And this one>>) History.. only disturbing)

Those other meanings are more or less in the past for this generation of students. It's 2008 now!!! XD

And this...;

Otaku is a Japanese slang word which means someone who is crazy about something, especially anime and manga.

...is basically what the word "Otaku" means nowadays. Most slang words and phrases are used these days in most countries now, this is probably just one of them since the 21st century. Which is why I wanted to outline that sentence last.

That's what i think anyway, I may be wrong ofcourse but that seems most realistic given the circumstances..

[Dxon]

This is a question asked all the time on Anime Forums. And it's answered so many times.
Look at the answer in amray's bigger post and you see it.
No real opinion on it anymore. It's just like that.
Now is the only question: Are you an otaku?
Your answer will probably be: Yes.
Or: No. But I do like Anime.
Why no and still on an anime forum? Read amray's post. Otaku are people who love anime. And not like.

[Amray]

"The history behind how anime fans became associated with the word "otaku" is a little bit unclear. Apparently, it was an early 80s phenomenon--note that Otaku no Video is "historically" situated between 1982 and 1985."

There was another statement saying how Japanese Anime fans have been calling eachother "Otaku" for a long period of time now, before 1992.

http://www.cjas.org/~leng/otaku-p.htm

There is an interesting article there about it. A lot of information on how the word was brought to the US and such and how it was introduced to Japanese anime fans way before then.

[Dogmat]

I have no problem with the word Otaku. I proudly consider myself one. To me the word just means a big fan of Japanese anime & manga.

[daft]

My opinion is... so what? Otaku or no otaku, I still love anime.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

Otaku is Japanese slang which roughly means "Nerd". But in Japan, it has the connotation of referring to colossal super-mega nerds: doll-collecting, parent's-basement-living creepy scum of the first magnitude. Most non-Japanese find it easier to ignore this connotation and spout it off while only being vaguely aware of it's meaning.

[Aki_Saku]

I've never heard the word 'otaku' used as 'someone who likes otaku.'
Otaku is someone who is obsessed with something, usually manga or anime. It's not necessarily something to be proud of, but a lot of people are (including me). It literally means "nerd" or "geek."

[~*Red*~]

I'm okay with being called an "otaku". It doesn't bother me much.

[Wio]

Words simply don't have much impact anymore like they once had. It's really due to younger generations having difference approaches on "respect".
Otaku has become heinous and been watered down over time.

[Kojack]

I do not like being called an otaku because I understand it as MP2000 said above. I'm not an otaku, I just watch Japanese TV shows.

[Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki]

Otaku is Japanese slang which roughly means "Nerd". But in Japan, it has the connotation of referring to colossal super-mega nerds: doll-collecting, parent's-basement-living creepy scum of the first magnitude. Most non-Japanese find it easier to ignore this connotation and spout it off while only being vaguely aware of it's meaning.

I couldn't put it in any better words.

If I were in Japan, I'd never call myself an otaku or someone else an otaku. While in America, yes, I do refer to myself as an otaku. In my opinion, the two words simply have different meaning in different countries. In America, we don't really use it as an insult, but more of a way to say "mega-fan". Besides, I might get jumped or even murdered in Japan for calling myself an otaku o_o. Those "otaku murderers" are crazy D:!

[Gjallarhorn]

I don't like the word. I'd never use it to describe myself.

The only people I've ever seen use it are kids who think they know a lot about anime, but are actually jump humping the most popular series of the last 5 years.

[Souji Seta]

I have Japanese friend (we were classmates before, he ain't 100%, he's half Filipino so he lives here but he sometimes go to Japan to visit his relatives in his father's side). I once called him an "anime addict" and he said, "I prefer the term, otaku. There, I hope that helps a bit.

Hey, I'm no Japanophile okay? Our school just happens to be open to international students. I even have African and Iranian classmates.

[Eikoseisui]

I never refer to myself as an "otaku" because I take it the way MP2000 described it.

[Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki]

The only people I've ever seen use it are kids who think they know a lot about anime, but are actually jump humping the most popular series of the last 5 years.

True true. Most of those "anime fans" call themselves otaku, having no idea of the negative connotation behind it. -Sigh- It's just another reason that I somewhat feel ashamed to be an anime fan.

[Acnologia]

I agree with Xero. I would find it insulting if one called me an "Otaku" I don't mind people calling themselves it, but it makes me wonder if they know what it means.

[Haoie]

Otakus don't get mad.

They get stabby.

[Datenshi]

True true. Most of those "anime fans" call themselves otaku, having no idea of the negative connotation behind it.

I think the reason the word Otaku caught on so well in other cultures (notably the United States) is that some countries are traditionally more concerned with diversity and identity and are more eager to label themselves as a minority group (see; Star Trek Fans) as opposed to Japan, which tends to be more concerned with conformity and group identity.

[Archaic Devices]

I didn't know Otaku was a rude word in Japanese, o.o Anyway. My brother calls me an otaku all the time and I don't care. It's not a word to overreact about. I mean I wouldn't be jumping in joy if people call me an otaku all the time but I wouldn't punch them for it.

[Amray]

True true. Most of those "anime fans" call themselves otaku, having no idea of the negative connotation behind it. -Sigh- It's just another reason that I somewhat feel ashamed to be an anime fan.

That is just because they choose not to look at the negative meanings of the word. Just like me. Almost everything has bad points to it, it is just up to the person themselves how they look at it. For example I look at death in quite a positive light because I believe in the afterlife, therefore I believe that I will see the deseased person in which I loved again some day.

You shouldn't be put off Anime just because of a mere word. Words have different meanings in different places, just be proud of what you are and what you are interested in.