Seeing as how the word “otaku” is part of this column's title, I suppose I ought to understand what it actually means, right?
Up until, I just figured it just meant “anime/manga fan.” I didn’t realize it had pejorative connotations until I was doing some research for the Beginner’s Guide to Eva I just put together. See, I knew that Hideaki Anno created EVA to reflect his own battles with depression. What I didn’t know was that Anno supposedly wanted it to reflect his disenchantment with the Otaku sub-culture, as well, which he saw as a form of autism. He intended Shinji's “choosing life” to address the issue in an edifying way.
Alright... so there’s definitely more to the term.
I figure the closet equivalent in America is probably “fanboy,” which has similarly-negative associations (and lord knows I've seen plenty of fanboys whose behavior verged on totally detached.) A lot of people have been trying to reclaim that term, lately, along with “geek.” How many t-shirts and blogs and websites have you seen that proudly proclaim geekiness? I don’t get it, myself. More power to people who do, but I don’t identify myself as either. Fan? Sure. Enthusiastic? Definitely. But I don’t think geek's really a label you can “take back.” Taking it a step farther, I think it's use, even if used proudly, is actually a barrier to the “mainstream acceptance” that fanbases always covet so much.
But let’s get back on topic. Is otaku a bad word or just a harmless name? Does it describe anime/manga fandom at large, or only the extreme, embarrassing fringes? I'm sure fans have probably have had discussions about otaku running similar to what I've said about fanboys, here.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. HYBRID BASTARDS! is available here and UNIMAGINABLE is available here for pre-order on Amazon.com.
WARNING: RANT TIME.
Fangirls are the Twilight-sucking brats who blow their parents' money on manga and pre-made goth-loli dresses to wear at conventions so they don't feel ashamed of being too lazy to make a real costume. They show up to every inane 'yaoi is awesomes!' panel to screech and hoot at pictures of Edward Elric blowing the entire male cast of Death Note. If you're in high school, these girls may very well be your first exposure to anime; I therefore blame them almost entirely for the recent drop-off in anime interest in the youngest American generation. If Japanese otaku are anything like these empty-headed tarts, I understand the word's pejorative meaning perfectly.
Little Kuriboh was right: Fangirls ruin everything.
RANT TIME OVER.
Like I said, I haven't had as much exposure to fanboys. Are they just as bad?
As far as I can tell, the usage of it is particularly a self-identifier and rarely used as a pejorative term since the only people who might use it are the kinds of people who like anime and manga who would understand its meaning. In Japan it is actually used pejoratively, almost more so than the terms "nerd" or "geek" are here.
It's like the word "hentai" in several ways. Anime and manga fans in the English speaking countries would associate the word with porn done in the anime or manga styling, while most people who saw it would just call it cartoon porn. The word hentai itself is just Japanese for pervert, but, like otaku, has been adapted to refer to something specific in the English world amongst those who know about such things.
@FekketCantenel: The worst of fanboys are pretty much a majority of the fanboyism you see on the internet. There aren't too many, but the love their memes. For example, if one such person were a pundit for a news network who reported on the stock exchange, people would literally undercut their own companies so we wouldn't have to hear them scream...well you know what.
Geek, in my eye, merely means an individual that is emotionally invested in a hobby or product more than is socially acceptable. That's how we get terms like 'band geek' or 'geeking out'.
The thing is, our society has become obsessed with being detached to trivial things like entertainment. You can't be a fan of something WITHOUT being a geek anymore (of course since 'fan is short for fanatic, that's kind of an odd shift in connotation).
I don't think otaku is getting there but I don't consider it to be an insult. The only person who would know what otaku means is likely an otaku themselves.
On a sidenote, that picture on the main page is pretty scary. Why does he have no pupils? He looks like some sort of demonic pedophile.
I believe the use of the word has more to do with context.
@FekketCantenel: Oh dear, I met plenty of those girls during my teens. They are HORRIBLE.
Being into Gainax recently you should really get your hand on Otaku no Video, the fictionnal otaku interview are hilarious.
But I still think that the term Geek can be taken back, not like Fanboy.
Second, it's pretty terrible to wish 'serious injury' on another person, especially just because they're in a bad movie (I've heard that Pattinson is decent in other films, though Kirstin Stewart is indeed terrible in everything else I've seen her in). If you let a bad movie make you mad enough to wish ill on the actors, you might be just as bad as the fangirls.
In my experience, being a geek/nerd is a lot like being an Evangelical Christian: Be too loud and pushy and you'll scare people off. Bring it up gently and get people interested, and you'll spread the word a lot better. Again, that's most of what I blame for the current decline in young American interest: Over-eager fangirls proselytizing yaoi and screeching.
I agree, Otaku and Geek work well together. Mainly because you can use them very similarly as a title:
Anime Geek. Anime Otaku. Gun Geek. Gun Otaku. Etc.
Basically someone who REALLY likes something. Fan/Fanatic/Nerd also work similarly but like all translations aren't perfect. Then again who wants perfect? :)
In the end though Otaku and Geek both bring up different images to different folks. Geek I think has come a long way to "reclaiming" itself to mean something better than your original image. Will it with everyone? Heck no! But those who want to use it can and will. Thinkgeek.com is proof of that. :)
Why bring up Matt Damon? That was random. Anyway, he's sure as heck a better actor than we are.
"I'm also guessing you never been into anime or any fantasy type stuff." Half my posts on this site involve plot dissection of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you went to my site, you'd see that I've written four (very long) fantasy(-ish) novels. I comment on this site about all kinds of anime. I therefore have no idea where you got this weird assumption. You also assume (at the end of your post) that I don't know what an 'opinion' is; I invite you to re-read my rant on anime fangirls earlier in this thread. Oh, hey, look! My opinions are 'informed', whereas yours are 'baseless'!
Quit acting like Twilight 'omg ruined vampires forever omgz'. If anything, you can blame that on Anne Rice's later novels (which I tried to read). But more than that, 1) mythology evolves, 2) I'm sure we'll see a comeback in 'classic' vampires soon, 3) you haven't seen the movies/read the books (whereas I gave the first book a chance and have seen both movies), and 4) it's a mythology, get over it, or you're just as bad as the '**** ed up people who seriously thought they were vampires'.
Also: When you use 'retarded' to mean 'stupid', you look like an illiterate dope.
To sum, by getting mad at fangirls, we're partly just as bad. If I'm insulted that I worked for hours on a cosplay and am still compared to someone who bought theirs at the store, I'm putting value into a total abstract. The same goes for caring whether 'vampires have been ruined'. I'm not saying 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone' (throwing stones is too fun), but be self-aware about it.
Time to bring this thread back to the topic.
It occurs to me that there are stages to this 'otaku/nerd/geek/Trekkie' business:
Am I missing any shades of grey?
I've always attributed the word fanboy to someone who likes something no how bad it may be. Somebody who's so crazy they don't care what the critics say about it.
That's just how i see it.
I work on a philosophy that all fiction has a few basic primary purposes, and one of those is to make the viewer feel something, whether revulsion or joy or deep sadness or revelation. Therefore, while finding objective flaws in a work is all fun and interesting, maybe it's not nice to rip on the people who nonetheless enjoy it.
That said: If you enjoy it and then take it a step farther and demand that everyone else like it ("Yaoi is awesome and anyone who says otherwise is a homophobe!" Seriously, I've been told this many times.), maybe that's where we can objectively draw the line between 'enjoying a work' and 'being an annoying fangirl/fanboy'.
I feel like we're getting closer to really defining this.