“It annoys me to no end when people portray Japan as this boring one-dimensional otaku character that treats his friends like his living personal dolls to fit his fantasies that’s disgusised as ‘matchmaking’, while stalking them and taking pictures of them without their consent (same with Hungary). He can enjoy anime stuff without delving into the extreme, and he has far more to him than this otaku shit.”
Adding to the above submission, I think most fans just do that portrayal because they have no idea what an otaku is and they can’t be bothered to look it up.
An otaku is a very negative thing in Japan. Though it does equate to “geek”, the connotations are far worse. An otaku is basically someone who’s obsessed with something to the point it runs their lives. They’re basement-dwelling that are too engrossed with their obsession. Western people seem to think otaku only appear in anime, but that’s a myth - there are all kinds of otaku. Game otaku, cosplay otaku, idol otaku, military otaku and even trains otaku.
The negativity of otaku stemmed from two cases. The first is the Otaku Murders committed by Tsutomu Miyazaki who was an anime and horror movie otaku. The second was the Kobe Child Murders committed by a boy who was a weapons otaku dubbed “Seito Sakakibara” with his real name never being disclosed.
I won’t give details for both cases because I don’t want someone to get upset or sick, but let’s just say both murders involved young children, and they were not pretty. They were horrible and frightening, and downright sick.
Moving on from that, remember Hayao Miyazaki? Esteemed animator and makes some of the best anime movies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle? He hates otaku. He even assesses that the anime industry is being stunted from its true potential because of their audience which consists of otaku (which I can’t help but agree with). He even assess that because the anime industry is filled with otaku - people who cannot bear to look at other people - the anime itself suffers. However, he hates gun otaku the most - even calling them pistol nuts.
This probably went on longer than I wanted, but the subject of otaku is something that tires me out. Because it tells me that people aren’t assed to bother learning of the connotations or cultural impact of something and just make it some kind of thing to be “proud” of when in reality it might end up upsetting someone as well as ignoring their culture.
P.S: Don’t bother arguing “well, we’re Western otaku! That’ sdifference!” Why don’t you just stop using the word and just say you’re a fan or you like the thing? Otaku is not a Western word, it’s Japanese, and thus it brings with it Japanese connotations. How would you like it if I grabbed a word from your culture, not bother understanding its actually negative connotations, be proud of it, and blatantly ignored you when you try to tell me that that’s not right or cool? Bet you wouldn’t be so happy, would you?
