Defining the Otaku + Bonus Nyoro Comic at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Defining the Otaku + Bonus Nyoro Comic

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Popularity: 28% [?] Published by tj_han December 13th, 2007 in Research

According to Assoc Professor Ian Condry from the Japanese Cultural Studies department of MIT, the definition of an otaku, in his book, Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization is "Youth who retreat from the Shinjinrui-style of codelike interpersonal relationships. Instead, they inhabit distinctive ‘worlds’ conveyed by media (anime, scifi etc). They are defined as fanatics who are extremely conversant within their own field of interest but who tend to be asocial loners, ‘unbalanced specialists’, with extreme manias."

Shinjinrui (the new human) is basically the generation of people who were born to babyboomers, who grew up in the time of rapid economic growth. They are the "people who link their classy, codelike consumer practices with their interpersonal relationships". In other words, these are the people who hanker after the branded goods and other luxuries as they believe this makes them more successful in life.

As you can see, what makes an otaku an otaku is not because he likes anime or tentacle porn, but because he favours a self-created fantasy world facilitated by the media he consumes. Real life seems like a hassle, or a process through which this fantasy world is sustained economically. Otakuism is a mindset. In that sense, nationality or choice of "media facilitator" does not matter. You can be a hardcore rapper but still qualify as an otaku under this definition.

Japanese social scientist Miyadai Shinji wrote that "It has become an era where one didn’t feel an inferiority complex for not going out nor feel superior for going out…. Everything is lined up side by side, like dispersed ‘islands in space’ (shima-uchuu). Among these separate islands in space there is no sense of hierarachy and moreover, they are mutually opaque to outsiders." And in the 21st century, with the rise of the Internet, this phenomenon has become far more widespread, with people able to disregard geographical isolation and barriers to come together as one island, 24 hours a day.

What is interesting about these islands is summed up by Miyadai in five points.

"Otaku within their own tribe are marked by the same jargon, the same active space, the same knowledge and same media." We watch the same shows, consume similar products (figures, DVDs etc) and have the same answer as to how many fire dragons Recca has (EIGHT).

"They are not warm to one another beyond acknowledging the others as ‘otaku’". There is some truth in this, but as Miyadai wrote this in 1990, before the Internet popped up, he would not yet realise there exists the means for people on the same island to communicate anonymously. Perhaps when we all talk online as otaku, on forums and IRC, we are not really making true friends but connecting with the otaku persona that all of us have within ourselves, in varying degrees of strength.

"As seen from one otaku tribe’s perspective, otaku from other tribes make no impression, or are considered weirdos, or another race altogether." Recall what you think of FYG, who are not particularly different from the standard Akiba tribe. You think they are weird and nasty and totally do not care about their culture. It works the same way for them as well, who think you Akiba nerds are retarded.

"The various islands in space are not hierarchically organised and have no feelings of superiority." This no longer holds true in today’s world, where the Internet has driven all the various splintered sub-cultures into the spotlight. Previously in 1990, it would make sense to think that, because there is a lack of knowledge of the existence of other islands. But now, the web has led to the increased exposure of many previously-niche sub-cultures such as the Akiba one, and one always ranks other tribes in terms of superiority, with mainstream popculture being the benchmark. An example is how people who listen to indie songs always think they are superior to those who enjoy the likes of Avril Lavigne and these mainstreamers will feel superior to those who favour the KOTOKOs and AICE5s.

As stated, there is no nationalistic requirement to be an otaku. You don’t have to be Japanese. You don’t have to know Japanese. You just need to place a lot of emphasis on your own fantastic media world and you would be an otaku automatically. Someone who works from 8 am to 8 pm, comes home, plays with his kids and then goes to bed is not an otaku. Someone who works from 8 am to 8 pm, all the while thinking about his Wow Level 60 Hunter, comes home, plays with his Hunter and never goes to bed, is an otaku.

I was away from home for a week prior to writing this article. The first 4 days were spent in a strange way - I had to stay in this house, practically alone, which had nothing related to anime. But I was allowed to bring stuff from home with me. I brought my laptop, portable hard disk, anime DVDs, PSP, manga and all the relevant chargers. See, these are the equipment through which my otakuistic media world is sustained. In the four days, I barely had any contact with people and would barely speak more than a sentence a day. The entire 4 days were spent watching anime, playing Brave Story on the PSP and reading the latest volumes of School Rumble and NHK.

Now contrast this with what happened in the other 3 days. I went to a sports camp organised by my faculty, which was full of non-otaku people, who were very much anchored in the real world of "school". In the 3 days, there was no generation of personal media sphere, I did not bring a laptop nor a PSP or even an mp3 player. There was totally no retreat into the closed cultural island and I was forced to communicate all the time about topics of irrelevance to my island, such as lame artistes like Jaychou. For the camp, we spent time on a deserted tropical island with nothing but jungles, monkeys and lots of ants.

The fact that I enjoyed the four days of solitude more speaks volumes about my own otaku levels but is also an indicator that I am becoming too dependent on this one island of culture. It is thus imperative for me to start diversifying my interests and placing more importance on inter-personal relationships with people other than those from my island.

In other words, YES ANIME SUCKKKKKKKS AND IS EVILLL.

Popularity: 28% [?]

19 Responses to “Defining the Otaku + Bonus Nyoro Comic”

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1 Kurogane 125 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

Funny, and true I guess.

I won’t say I totally avoid interpersonal relationships, and in fact I do enjoy them from time to time, but I value my time alone a lot as well.

Yeah, I’m pretty much an “unbalanced” specialist… so when people start talking about mainstream things, I don’t get half the things they say. Although… I do wonder why my peers place so much emphasis on the latest artiste scandals than other pressing issues in real life, like the political instability and climate change.
2 Son Gohan 2 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 4:17 pm

Nyoro~n Comic without “Nyoro~n” = FAIL
3 tj_han 1442 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

Lol, the Nyoron is stupid in the first place. It’s not even a punchline. Likewise, this comic strip isn’t even funny.
4 Zyl 24 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 5:06 pm

Youth who retreat from the Shinjinrui-style of codelike interpersonal relationships. Instead, they inhabit distinctive ‘worlds’ conveyed by media (anime, scifi etc). They are defined as fanatics who are extremely conversant within their own field of interest but who tend to be asocial loners, ‘unbalanced specialists’, with extreme manias.”

Wow, that sounds like most academics and grad students I know!
5 kokanaden 336 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 6:46 pm

What, you disappeared for 4 fucking days just to type this?
6 Crest 99 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

This definition and article although may seem polemic but what it insinuates is quite shocking if one is to pay thought to it. From what I can perceive, the article seemed to be limited only to the Japanese cultural context.The Japanese society by itself, is an unique one compared to the myraid variety of rather stock societies unified and bound together by similar aspects such as say.. Confucianism/Buddhism in the Chinese communities in East Asia.

One supposition of the article that I noticed is that, otaku and shinjinrui are mutually exclusive. In all matters of life, exceptions are bound to occur or in this case anomalies. However the point that I wish to raise is that, do the worlds that otakus (by article’s definition) internalise themselves in, are the barriers an impermeable one? Rejecting all possible alien input?

The article opines that otakus are solitary creatures and content in their own imaginary worlds, however tj_han further added that such an idea has been rendered obsolete by the internet at least in its entirety. Nevertheless, he suggested that due to the anonymous aspect of the internet, we are merely interfacing with aspects of ourselves in the communities that we are in. I will like to offer a different point of view to that, the internet despite anonymous, has allowed the interaction of different entities to the level where we are forced to face it if we are to even briefly conduct any social interaction.

One way to describe this, is in the real world, we are constrained by physical limitations. There can only be so many people we can converse to in a room at a time, on the internet the number explodes and we are often forced to entertain much more people. Another way of describing it is to liken it the entire internet as an endless ocean and our own internal worlds are like boxes with holes in it. We can only mark out a certain niche as our own, yet that niche will be shared with others and we be taking in other aspects of it despite those that we dont appreciate. Such as like how some people hate yaoi fangirls but otherwise they would think the akiba otakus likewise.

On to the point that I am trying to raise, societal mechanics has changed so much that traditional concepts are rendered obsolete. The slant of the article is that otakus are bad, that much I strongly agree if the definition of it is the classical one. However, in a world where homogeny is rapidly eroded where individualism is trumpeted as the ideal to believe in, it’s not very fair to believe in archetypal definitions on face value.

tj_han’s personal experience helps to illustrate a point of an aspect of otakus, that the extension of their interests/media into their real life and affecting their life. That alone shouldn’t apply to anime otakus but yes anime is evil. However it’s more of obsession and the self in play rather then to blame solely the medium.
7 biltwick 5 comments Dec 13th, 2007 at 11:51 pm

I agree there Crest, and the term ‘otaku’ refers to any type of devoted fan, in English-speaking nations we’d use the term ‘geek’ instead, so we’d have Star Trek/Star Wars otaku, fishing otaku, engineering otaku. And I see the rise of the internet as a fundamentally good thing. The mistake that a lot of observers, including those of ‘high culture’ make is that they think of the internet as a vast library (and Wikipedia could be an example here), whereas it’s more of a decentralized brain. Therefore it’s continuously in motion, and the more basic drives end up expressed first (hence all the pron)-see Marshall McLuhan’s work for more.

William Gibson (cyberpunk writer, his ‘do androids dream of electric sheep?’ became ‘Blade Runner’) defined an an otaku as a ‘passionate observer’, which is very accurate in my opinion; the increasing decentralization that the world is moving towards places each of us on equal footing. The only danger I’d see is the proliferation of common content across everywhere-we see it now in the spread of brands over nations (McDonalds, televangelists, etc.). The anime/gaming culture has the potential to change the world because each of us has only one life here, writing, reading or participating in fiction allows us to live more than one lifetime. Or put another way, we can add more simulations to the world-which in all honesty is pretty bad from a software viewpoint: no pause, rewind, reset or save points!

The world is moving from a ‘read-only’ culture to a ‘read-write’ culture, but we’re still vulnerable mentally to living by our inertia/latching onto trends out of popularity alone. But as long as you enjoy what you’re doing without harming other consciousnesses to do so, I have no problem with that.
8 TheBigN 14 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 12:56 am

“It is thus imperative for me to start diversifying my interests and placing more importance on inter-personal relationships with people other than those from my island.”

You could start by watching different genres of anime, so you could get in touch with fans of different anime. But I guess you could say you’re already interacting with others via this blog. :V
9 Nekonron 12 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 12:58 am

I could stay isolated for days as long as I have access to a good PC (preferably my own) and a good Internet connection. But I cannot live without interaction (hence the need for an Internet connection). But at the same time, I hate being couped up for long and once I go out, I would stay out for long unless something else requires me to be back home.

Then again, I still can’t live without any connection to the Internet, which is usually filled in by my phone whenever I’m out. So I guess I’m an otaku for the Internet? lol
10 Anonymous 6 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 1:46 am

Nice Article.
11 Zeroblade 163 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 2:03 am

Now you made me feel bad about myself
12 Silencers 61 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 3:26 am

Anime spawns individualists and isolationists? Or am I misunderstanding things here?

At any rate, I really enjoyed taking a step back and reflect upon the things I do in this self-contained culture of otaku-ism, as you so fondly call it. Riuva never ceases to fascinate me with this sort of shit.
13 tj_han 1442 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 3:32 am

Silencers: No, anime does not spawn individualists. It is the inability of the consumers to strike a balance. Like how guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Cliche yes but truth. I also enjoy writing Riuva because I’m fascinated with this sort of shit.
14 hitoshura 37 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 8:23 am

I like your point about WOW, too many people generalise otaku as a japanese term thus pointing it only at animes, figures and mangas, i have a few aquintances who thinks wowing is so much cooler and un-nerd-like than watching anime, so yeah.

On the other hand, anime might be evil and all, but you don’t really need to go beyond communication with some industry people if you are talking about interpersonal relationships. For one, if any of those “chiobu’s” out there know you enjoy these “evil” stuff, they won’t even look at you in the eye, XD. So communication beyond working life is totally not applicable for hardcore otakus.

But while not trying to escape reality, we are losers to hide ourselves on our own island and build our own media, but honestly… I don’t see how a punky, gold dyed hair skinny 16 y/o fag who just got kicked out of school would compare to us in any way possible. But hell, when you think about it, the world really has got it’s image of youths wrong.
15 Silencers 61 comments Dec 14th, 2007 at 5:36 pm

hitoshura: otaku ‘is’ a japanese word, after all. It’s only natural for anime, manga and figurines to fall under the stereotype. WOW and other MMOs [Everquest, anyone?] go under the geek/nerd category, if I’m not mistaken.

‘World has its image of youth wrong, and youth has its image of the world wrong’. Didn’t I hear this kind of sentiment in early Linkin Park songs? :p
16 ZeusIrae 3 comments Dec 16th, 2007 at 4:26 am

“William Gibson (cyberpunk writer, his ‘do androids dream of electric sheep?’ became ‘Blade Runner’)”

burn in hell!! you mongrel…it’s Dick!Phillipe K.Dick you hear….The glorious author of Ubik.Aaaargh, I want to kill you then kill myself…gnag,*******
17 ZeusIrae 3 comments Dec 16th, 2007 at 4:27 am

“William Gibson (cyberpunk writer, his ‘do androids dream of electric sheep?’ became ‘Blade Runner’)”

burn in hell!! you mongrel…it’s Dick!Phillipe K.Dick you hear….The glorious author of Ubik.Aaaargh, I want to kill you then kill myself.
18 ghostlightning 23 comments Jun 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

everything in moderation… culture is great!

it’s all deculture to me, as i’d like to say.

i consume a lot of anime and manga. i own quite a few collectibles. my wife participates in this hobby as well.

we’re both professionals (i’m a manager at a corporation, and she’s a corporate attorney) and we have lots of friends.

what i’m saying is, read and watch other things too. here in the philippines we watched a musical (in the vernacular) which we all thought would make an awesome anime. we attend classical music concerts (our appreciation for music increased tenfold after watching the nodame cantabile dorama). i saw metallica as a teenager when they were awesome. stories and culture has lots of media that can be appreciated. it will move you.

and then you’ll discover other people who is as geeky as you in the medium they pursue. friendships! awesomeness! culture!

hierarchy thinking creates losers. awesomeness attracts awesomeness. by all means share your interests but also accept what others offer - you might discover treasures you would otherwise be ignorant of.

1 WTF? Have I been an Otaku for Almost Half My Life? at Furu Anime Panikku Pingback on Dec 15th, 2007 at 2:19 am

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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