Would like to change his avatar
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2005
- Messages
- 5,677
kyo28 said:
Hey! Why was it when I brought up that angle before you disagreed by saying "The Japanese probably pretend like they don't care [about adult foreigners liking the stuff], but probably really make fun of you behind your back," but now you're agreeing with it? Dude, WTF!?! :laugh:
I think people just too easily toss that word otaku around. (I shouldn't have deleted my other message, I'm just recycling what it said now). Otaku has a very succinct meaning and connotation -- I'm always reminded of the line from Psycho "A hobby's supposed to pass the time, not fill it," when thinking of otaku in their true forms. Otaku are the ones who lose their head in their love with a (enter certain form of entertainment here).
It's like Trekkies. Obviously people can watch, enjoy, be fans of Star Trek without losing touch. You can treat yourself to a few items of merchandising, because that's what it's there for. It's the ones who remodel their house to look like the entire starship interior, learn alien languages, buy the "alien" cookbooks eating on nothing but it, know every ship and planet statistic, referring to each other as "commander" and whatnot that means you...might...be...a Trekkie. It's a blind, incorrect assumption that people make that if you watch Star Trek, you're like those guys. So everyone who does indeed watch Star Trek does it out of shame because of those "rotten apples" tanking the perceived image of Trek viewers.
I think with tokusatsu, for example, when you begin to know every monster of the week name, mecha stat, anything you could ever possibly know all while doing multiple henshin poses and team attacks while your out getting the mail, then you might be an otaku. I think, as far as Japanese entertainment is concerned, that those outside of Japan can never really be a true toku or anime otaku because all of that information is never really available or understandable to most.
But you can watch and enjoy anime or tokusatsu, buy a couple things of merchandise, but people are so easy with throwing around "otaku" that you'd be labeled that just based on that. So, try as you might to not call yourself an otaku, the word really means nothing to most people other than someone of a certain age who enjoys those shows and has bought a piece of merchandising -- this isn't just toys, but DVD, CDs or magazines -- you're still an otaku to them. Again, I go back to my comics in America comparison. Comics are seen as kids and nerd stuff, so when one exits a comic shop, people have branded you with all of the negative connotations they apply to the stereotype. It's a terrible judgment, an awful assumption made by people, but, that's what they think.
I'm just repeating myself here, but I still find it slightly humorous that people have such a thing against others who like tokusatsu or anime (and aren't otaku), but they themselves have something curious that they have a fixation on, be it a movie star or drama series. There's numerous women of an older age who act like a childish teenybopper over someone like "Kimutaku" and any and every bad album and photobook he poops out, but Heaven forbid an adult male say he enjoy something like Kamen Rider Agito without being hauled off to be flogged. :laugh: Hypocrite central, but it won't change.
