I was arguing with some guy about how the massive output of anime, manga and other otaku related media showed a greater acceptance of those type of hobbyist things in Japan compared to the US. He told me any Otaku are shunned in Japan and if they're found out they would even get fired. While I don't believe it's something you would brag about, I can't imagine people actually losing their job over it and being treated like second-class-citizens. Trains and planes have characters on them and Akihabara is an entire district dedicated to it. How much truth was there to what this guy was saying?
>>33375 There's the myth then the counter-myth that's also has some part of myth, that guy seemed to fall to the second. Otaku means a particularly kind of fan with a really particular culture. Anime and manga culture don't necessarly identify with otaku culture and it's a mass thing ingrained into japanese modern culture. Taking that into consideration, otaku, like nerd, had different moments. After Miyazaki murders there was what probably was the lowest point. But decades after that a prime minister like Taro Aso declared himself otaku and a series like Densha Otoko deeply changed perceptions in the general public. Something similar happened in the USA with the nerd concept except being mostly awful (Big Bang Theory was the Densha Otoko of the west). In the japanese case it was also a political thing since the idea of soft power included showing more pride in all the pop culture and that included otaku culture as well. Most old school otaku like Toshio Okada claimed the culture was dead, but that was probably old man rants. So I suspect all that stuff about otaku being shamed and the word being some sort of insult (in some context is, in some others isn't), while having a part or origin of truth, it's mostly a myth or a bad/dated interpretation.
Westerners have very little understanding of what otaku is. To them, it's mostly a buzzword they can blame some trend they don't like on.
>>33380 Same, or actually worse, happens with moe.
>>33381 It's a related issue. They blame "moe" for the type of anime they want to see not being made (which probably only ever existed in their heads), and blame the otaku for its prevalence.
>>33383 I don't get why someone that's supposed to be interested in another culture or parts of it makes so little effort to understand nothing. Worse of it is how it goes forever. In 50 years there will be people arguing how whatever new buzzword ruined the "elegant" or "manly" anime of the 2060's.
>>33380 I'm not sure if this is better or worse than how they used to use "otaku" as a nickname for anyone who has seen even a bit of anime. Which has now been replaced by "weeb" >>33385 I've had to explain and point out how each season we only get 1-3 Cute and moe Slice of life shows per season out of 30+, but do they listen? Of course not. Then you got those retards who somehow -still- view anime as being nothing but non nonsensical hyper violent gore fests filled with school girls being raped by tentical monsters, most of those idiots haven't seen anything past dragonballz and "robotech" but they act like they know it all.
>>33386 >Then you got those retards who somehow -still- view anime as being nothing but non nonsensical hyper violent gore fests filled with school girls being raped by tentical monsters There's still people like that? It's kind of amazing if you think abut it since that kind of anime was mostly made 30 years ago, those old OVA must have made an enormous impact. It also makes me remember when the official language academy of my country gave a definition of "manga" for the first time, just some years ago; >comic genre of japanese origin, of simple style, with predominance of violent, erotic and fantastic stories.
>>33383 I've seen this image several times, but it only just hit me that he called Omoide Poroporo an "old classic". It would have been three years old at time of writing.
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