Anime, manga fuel oddball 'otaku' biz boom (cultural insights on Japan's "ultra-geek" subculture)

Mainichi Daily News ^ | July 14, 2005 | Ryann Connell

[DTogo]

Dozens of grown men from their 30s to 60s crowd around the tatami mat room in Kagetsuen, a Shizuoka Prefecture ryokan inn, and begin playing with their train sets. More than 90 percent of the inn's guests are adults who enjoy playing with toy trains.

These mature train setters have not only kept the inn afloat as others around it have fallen into oblivion, they've helped it grow in a prime example of the otaku business that's now booming throughout Japan, according to AERA (7/18).

"Thanks to trimming down our target market, we could stay in business," Eiji Misu, Kagetsuen's owner, tells AERA.

Some estimates say there's already an 88.8 billion yen market in the Moe Sangyo, literally the Budding Business but moe is the term Japan's millions of otaku have adopted to describe the warm filling they're filled with when they see something that turns them on - like a bespectacled young girl in a maid's outfit, saucer-eyed comic characters or, for the middle-aged men in Shizuoka, toy trains.

[DTogo]

FYI. From playing with toy trains (I don't think they mean the HO variety) to bishounen "beautiful boy" homo-comics by women for women, and now men? A mere peek at Japan's bizarre otaku (ultra-geek) sub-culture.

The Moe Sangyo may be better than kidnapping young girls off the street to keep as a pet, but may just be providing encouragement or a temporary distraction. This stuff is just plain weird, IMHO.

[DTogo]

I enjoy Japanese pop-culture as much as the next Japanophile, but this stuff is just soooooo otaku.

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)

[Cicero]

Some of this is weird. But there is some really good anime. I recommend anything by the great Japanese writer/director Miyazaki, or from the Japanese/Italian combo, Studio Ghibli. These are wonderful for the whole family.

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/sen/

[DTogo]

Yes, Miyazaki's animated films are often-watched in our house, as are other cartoons and such that originated in Japan (Pokemon, etc.). I was referring to the otaku genre of anime/manga described in this article.

[ecurbh]

Ping

[Cicero]

Otaku means something that turns you on, like a pretty girl in a maid's dress? Would "All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku" qualify? Or some aspects of "Neon Genesis Evangelion"?

[SuziQ]

Boy's Love comics and books tell stories of pretty young boys deeply in love

Yeah, but in love with whom?

[JenB]

Each other... I don't do shonen-ai. Neither does Clare, I'm sure.

I got pinged to this thread three times in nine posts. Ah well. Atashi wa otaku desu.

[JenB]

Otaku means, more like, "geek". Only with very few good connotations, though some otaku are trying to claim the word the way American geeks embrace their title.

If you're turned on by "Neon Genesis Evangelion" you probably are a (male) otaku.

[JenB]

Not much of a thread yet but it's not every day you see words like "otaku" on FR.

[adam_az]

Just don't show this one to your kids.... If you have to ask, you don't wanna know.

[adam_az]

"Otaku means something that turns you on, like a pretty girl in a maid's dress?"

I thought it meant "enthusiast?"

[untenured]

As I understand it, an otaku is someone who is excessively expert about or devoted to one particular thing, either a hobby or about some aspect of pop culture. Not only do you love it, but you know every fine detail about it. Star Wars movies, Hello Kitty, etc. It need not be sex-related.

The Economics of the Jihad II - The Demand for Jihad.

[Billthedrill]

It was translated to me as "obsessive" by a guy in Kanda who ought to know. His field was little girls in sailor suits. And bondage.

[struwwelpeter]

[Cicero]

OK. I hadn't heard the term before.

[Cicero]

No, I'm not turned on by "Neon Genesis Evangelion." I just sometimes feel a need to know everything. It was mentioned in a discussion of interesting anime films, I ran across several episodes in a remainder bin at Record Explosion in New York, so I picked it up and filled out the set on half.ebay.com.

[Ciexyz]

Boy's love comics and books

Also known as slash fiction, homoerotic stories of boys in love, written for and read by a female audience (or largely female audience).

[ccmay]

OK. I hadn't heard the term before.

There's a comparable word used in British English: anorak.

-ccm

[TalonDJ]

it basically means an 'obsessed fan' of any particular subject. In America anime fans use the it to describe themselves but very very few of them would be an 'otaku' the way the Japanese define it. In Japan it covers any hobby and activity and describes someone who takes any hobby to a life consuming extreme.