Otaku in Japan and America - Term Paper Example

: Otaku in Japan and America Introduction Otaku is a term which is associated with a person which is obsessed with magna, anime and video games which affects their social skills and health and it affects different parts of the world. Otaku in Japan carries many negative connotations but there are many champions of otaku culture. Toshio Okada who is popularly known as Otaking is one of the biggest otaku culture in Japan. He is the founder of Gainax, an anime studio who creates many magna in Japan. Okada has written many books on otaku culture and has delivered lectures on this subject at Tokyo University. Otaku no Video, which is Gainax anime portrayed the otaku as a self-mocking and humorous way but also with a dose of pride. Though in many times, the portrayal of otaku has been eccentric like the frightening image of a child killing sociopath, they are actually harmless. Otaku has made it a point no to allow it to be stereotyped. Poku style of Takashi Murakami has achieved much acclamation both in Japan and abroad. Poku is a combination of Pop and otaku. To remove the above negative attitudes within the general public, they have made efforts to educate the public about the otaku culture. They have ached international recognition and have also achieved acceptance domestically. The international spread of magna and anime has resulted in spread of otaku culture which has also in some cases infused with the local culture to give rise to otaku-ism. These groups want to make otaku culture known all over the world. Otaku culture has been growing rapidly in United States. Anime shows emerged in United States in late 1970s during the same time when anime shows became popular in Japan. Since then anime has been popular in otaku culture and United States and Japan. The American Version of Otaku no Video which was released in 1991 played a very influential role in introducing the concept of otaku to the American anime fans. As the Japanese society is getting bigger and better the level of stress is increasing within the people and they are getting more confused. This makes people want to escape from reality and enter into unrealistic world full of magma and video games. This slowly eliminates the boundaries between the unrealistic world and real world. This report will takes a look at the rise of Otaku culture in Japan and America and its significance on the society. Body -Japanese Society and Stress in People Japan is known as for its economic success but their society remains a mystery to many outside its borders. In today’s world everyone is leading a high stress life. In Japan such extreme levels of stress is known as death form overwork syndrome. They have high suicide rate within their society. There is high rate of bullying among children which reflects the stress faced by the children. Previously human society used to be much more open with concerns for all. In case of high stress situation, they used to extend support to everyone. But regrettably those networks which helped and supported them are gone. Thus many people are faced with stress and have nowhere to go. They don’t have access to helping communities or friendships where they can easily open up and share their worries and problems. -How is Otakus life? What do they do? The word Otaku means your house in English. Otaku lives within the media world where they look Internet as a society. Otaku was easily accessible by a simple search in the Internet and slowly become part of popular mainstream media which changed over time to include animated Japanese films. These anime or films offer diverse range of themes like murder mysteries, sports and space travel. They were designed for a wide range of ages with some anime films being made for adults while other targeting children and adolescent. Though it seems that taking interest in video games and anime is meaningless but it provides solace for individuals who are stressed and wants to enter into virtual world. Takashi Murakami is a renowned Japanese artist who has contributed success to this culture (Azuma 81). He compiled many books and has used various mediums to present the culture like inflatable balloons and paintings. Through his work he has been able to change the art is viewed in Japan. He feared that general interest of Japanese people in arts was waning down and hence he used his anime style to infuse it with his art. Through his art work he has been able to blur the boundary between low art and high art and made such art quickly gained popularity within them. There are many otaku who has an unforgettable anime which leaves an impression on him (Galbraith 121). -Animation in Japan Japan is famous for video games, comic books, manga and Japanese pop or rock music. The interesting point is that anime is linked with other forms of Japanese language and culture. In Japan it is difficult to separate out the interest in anime which people have. The anime fan community in Japan works in such a way that fans and newcomers are encouraged to learn and investigate. The fans are generally supportive and welcoming of each other. This increases the curiosity and intellect an average person will have in anime (Brenner 195). Thus one does not remain a new comer into this community for very long. Japanese animation acts as an enabler in providing and encouraging people to discover and explore the Japanese culture (Fagan and Jody 91). -Who are animators and comic artists There are people like Toshi Okada who leaves such kind of life. He has opened up four websites under his name and named them International University of Otaku. He has contributed immensely to the otaku society at the international level. His main aim is to establish otaku as a new style, signature and special effects for comic artists. The lifestyle of Okatu is a result of interaction of adolescent psychology and modern media environment. Their life begins with adolescence and they have no otaku childhood. This is because otaku needs secondary sexual features because it emerges with puberty (Hidemine 1). -Social life of Otaku Okatu have almost no social life. They basically spend most of their time watching anime and reading anime. They barely go outside to meet people and they also don’t have any fan waiting outside their house. They have a lot of merchandise of anime collection which they go thorough at their houses. They wake up late and mostly lie around for few hours and spend most of their time on computer and play video games, read magma, get dressed for cosplay. They wear costumes and accessories to look like a specific character of a manga or video games (Washida 27). -How did they meet? Otaku persons meet each other in Anime or Manga conventions. The persons meet with the characters after watching or reading the manga or playing video games. -How deep is the relationship? Individuals who belong to Otaku demonstrate non-conformity within them. Hence they have a tendency of going against the grain. They don’t allow mainstream experience to dominate their way of living. Though group conformity is a virtue within Japanese culture Otaku offers resistance to obedient group thinking expectations among the older expectations. Also there is certain level of closeness between manga and anime people with respect to a particular story. For some people they love a particular character so much that they remain in their memories. For many of them, they have created a connection with the character they love and start believing that the characters were created just for them. They start to connect with the character and feel that they have found someone who understands them and take decisions in life which they would love to take. -Otaku fever spreading overseas Otaku is a silent revolution which is growing globally. The popular trends like karaoke, sushi to anime and Manga is becoming a significant global interest and the demand is increasing and it is crossing borders and finding new expression in other countries. Otaku culture in Japan is associated with latest exports of Japan. With rise of technology, Otaku is spreading across people through Internet. Due to presence of virtual social network the popularity of Japanese Otaku is being accepted universally by young people. Research has shown that Manga, Japanese computer games and anime has reached immense popularity not only in America but also in other parts of the world. Street displays and Comic shops have gained huge tourist attraction and events like Anime and Magna conventions which brings thousands of people from all over the world. -USA Otaku culture (Word for Otaku in English?) American fans have made the term otaku as part of their jargon which frequently develops the fan communities within the society. Fans who are knowledgeable and possessive about their object of interest call them otaku and views themselves as one of the character one elites portrayed in Otaku no Video. They identify themselves as otaku because English language doesn’t have term to better describe it. There were many debates about otaku within the American community. One group points that otaku has a dark history behind it because of the Miyazaki incident. Thus it is a negative word and thus American fans should not use the termor else they will be considered as social incompetents who have no lives of their own and are serial killers (Suárez-Orozco and Desirée 221). Other fans claim that the use of the term is not derogatory in nature and it means what most fans mean which is anime fan. There were many who claim that it is socially inept to accept the mainstream negative definitions of otaku. Thus they ignore the superficial negative stereotypes but at the same time they want an acceptable definition than fan. The name otaku has crossed many video game community but with many community. But at the same time Japanese perception of otaku should also be unchallenged and respected. There are many instances where the term otaku is used instead of fan, but signifying more elite or generic fans. Art world is another area where the otaku has gained much attention in America and Japan. Takashi Murukami wanted to produce and popularize the modern art by using mass media culture and producing many sub cultural representations for the modern world of Japan. Murukami has achieved good recognition through the use of many gallery exhibitions done over many years. His art was displayed in many galleries like Walker Art Centre in Minnesota, Museum of Contemporary Art in California and Henry art Gallery in Washington. Such artworks exhibited hints of parody, appropriation and subversion. In America otaku was seen as a special kind of trans-geographic post-industrial cyber citizen. There were articles in newspaper like CNN where Otaku was described as Japan’s gadget geeks which will dictate the future. Otaku was seen as a culture which is continuously seeking new functionality by using new devices. They are considered as bell weather for each sector. They are known as the first buyers and are recognized as the driving force for product development. Otaku made its appearance in many unlikely venues like New York Times Magazine article about the fashion world of Japan. Fashion otaku has gained respect within the fashion world. Otaku was referred to young Japanese men who were fixated on magna. The word otaku is now also used describe someone who has huge interest in fashion or computers. In fashion world in America otaku is referred as a new breed of customers who are obsessive about their hobbies and which can be capitalized by those who control the production process. The image of otaku as heavy spenders is far from them being portrayed as potential killers. Otaku has become respectable in the main stream American society, but fashion otaku is considered as a customer following trend instead of being a consumer force driving trend. There are only a few samples of young individual’s trends in Japan. The majority of the kids in Japan are not doing much and thus they are sitting idle. Previously Otaku sued to be on the dark side of Japan but nowadays otaku is looking healthier than that of non-otakus in Japan. This is because it is always better to have some energy instead of having none. Nowadays instead of being regarded as an offensive word and scary obsessive individuals, otaku is now considered as a healthy citizen in their culture. But they are still a far way from being included within the main stream. Otaku in America ranges from hard-core fanatics to casual enthusiastic. Stu Levy who is the founder of Tokyo Pop is a major publisher of manga Unite States and it serves as host. But slowly it was seen that Otaku in America slowly list its way with passage of time. The popularity of Japanese martial arts and sushi bars which was previously in fashion is now becoming irrelevant. It predates fan culture. Eating contests and Weekly challenges are now irrelevant. In America the Kato subculture was mainly dominated by white and Asian males. The fan base in recent years has grown more diverse because the contestants to the title of Greatest Otaku are from varying backgrounds. They are enthusiastic collectors of books, autographs, toys, DVDs and other things. Many of them are cosplay participants and are avid gamers. The popularity of Otaku in America has increased in recent years but the phenomenon has been created by mostly kids under the radar of their parents. The fan base of Okatu in Americans is mostly younger viewers rather than the adults. -Otaku is an Offensive term. Is it a problem having more Otaku? Otaku is a dirty word in Japan. It was first bought into light by a man named Nakamori Akio. Though the word Otaku can be equated to English word geek, but when defined in Japan it defines an individual who has obsessive interest and thus can apply to a variety of topics like collectibles, manga, anime and cosplay. Individuals outside of Japan use the term to indicate folks who enjoy consuming, watching and being creative in drawing arts. Actually it is individuals outside of Japan who use the term otaku. In Japan the term indicates a person who enjoys the anime culture. But in Japan people are less willing to being referred to as an otaku since they care more about what other people will think about them. The market of Otaku is mostly by female otaku and they have more sending power. There is essentially no difference in using the term, but the difference in the Japanese and American usage of the word is critical to any fan. The negative side of the word refers to the excessive interest which reaches obsessive levels. Otaku word was known in the American culture when they saw that the Japanese men prefer to get marry to collectible pillows which have the images of favorite anime characters of them. This led American to believe that the Japanese men don’t have the ability to relate with real world people (Lunning 314). Thus when they are referred as otaku they are essentially judged for their behaviors which show that they don’t have the ability to relate to reality. The negative perception of the term is because of the way people are taking the individual levels of consumptive pleasure beyond the acceptable levels and this upsets the social functioning. In America individuals who let hobbies come in their way of taking on responsibilities for their families and at work are referred to as otaku. -What might be a way to change Otaku's life to non-Otaku life? The difference between an otaku and non-otaku is whether they can get a release form the anime character. Hence he should be made to understand the realities of the world and make them know that they must escape from the anime world and face the world reality. The stress factor should be reduced among the youth so that they don’t escape into the world of manga to create a dream world for themselves. Conclusion Otaku are a class of people who have created a world for themselves in between real world and unrealistic world. Nowadays the culture of Otaku is widely accepted by youth who have a specific set of attitudes and are engaged in specific activities. Americans have accepted Otaku subcultures and they have resulted in spread of Otaku culture globally. Otaku subcultures as it has been conceptualized in Japan should be able to exist anywhere in the world. Rise of internet have a high impact on the growth of manga and anime fandom which have increased their popularity. With global stress level increasing more number of youth is looking towards this culture to escape from reality. Works Cited Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku: Japan's Database Animals.Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2009. Print. Brenner, Robin. Understanding Manga and Anime. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. Print. Bryan D. Fagan and Jody, C. Fagan. Comic Book Collections for Libraries. London: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print. Galbraith, Patrick. Otaku Spaces. Beijing: Chin Music Press, 2012. Print. Hidemine, Takahashi. Making Otaku Pop Culture a Global Phenomenon, 15 Sept. 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2011. Lunning, Frency. Fanthropologies. U of Minnesota Press, 2010. Print. Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Desirée Qin-Hilliard. Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium. University of California Press, 2004. Print. Washida, Yuichi. Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies. Idea Group Inc. 2007. Print. Read More