Full, original post can be found here. The below is about 50% of it.
In the book Japanamerica, the lives and habits of some genuine otaku are documented, almost like a tribute to Otaku no Video. Now the word “otaku” gets used in a wide variety of ways in the States. To some extremes, I’ve heard corporate marketing people mention it in interviews with press, saying it interchangeably as the in word for “fans” with us anime/manga people. It felt like he’s gotten the 1-sentence low-down on it and decided to use the word as if it gives him some cred (see: stupid Sakura-con commercial! Sushi! J-rock! Otaku! Etc.) To that end, Japanamerica also documented the term and its definition over time, of the transformation from its normal verbiage in Japanese to its first, sci-fi, roots. The continuing transformation of the term to today’s uses by the Japanese, is briefly documented in the book. And…it’s all just to point out the delicious irony on how Americans totally watered down the term, despite how some Japanese folks referred to the old school geeks here, who may fill the halls of a SCA meeting or a Leonard Nimoy autograph line, as the first otaku.
But is it really so different? I think some of us (Americans) use the term that way still, and it fits. I find myself using the term “Akiba-kei” or the branched-out/derogatory versions of otaku (fujoshi, kimo-ota, etc) in the place of how some calls plain-vanilla “otaku” more and more, but that’s probably because there grows a necessity to distinguish, and those words became available and acceptable in recent years.
Honestly, I have no claim to any otaku fame compared to those who calls themselves that in Japan and East Asia. They are just that much closer to the source, to the scene, to the culture, that unless take, you are no match. The full plunge here means you go live and breathe Japan for a while! And by doing so you might just well earn the right to call yourself otaku in the eyes of the world, even to the Japanese. A few transplants were interviewed in the book too, and you can tell they are likely to take the term otaku like I do.
Which, if you’d ask me, the word otaku is more like "The Scarlet Letter" than a "Metal of Honor." And I think the problem between these varying definitions of the word otaku arises from that impression–it’s not something to be wore with pride, to some! But alas, this is as “Japanamerican” as it gets–they take our culture, we take it back, and so on, and so forth. The end result is probably not anything we should be worrying about.
However, this leaves people like me in a bind–we’re too “otaku” to
call ourselves otaku, but we’re not at all like normal folks, or even
like the people who would call themselves otaku! Ah well. Who cares?
