Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Is It Socially Unacceptable To Be An Otaku In Japan?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
prime_pm
 Posts: 2336 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
|
|||||
|
Lawyers do not regale their judge of the latest trends about Batman and the Justice League, and restaurant chefs don't serve their customers luxurious cuisines named after My Little Pony characters. Keep your hobbies at home and/or the internet, or apparently Twitter, or at least regulate them to a conversation aside rather than the main topic of discussion.
And always remember: the world is bigger than YOU. |
||||||
|
||||||
mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
|
|||||
Lyrics from an album I listened to a lot in my misspent youth, the song appears to have been written to a shut-in. It's never been easy being a nerd / geek / otaku, not in the West or especially the East, not in the past for certain nor likely in the future. Mark Gosdin |
||||||
|
||||||
svines85
 Posts: 42 |
|
|||||
|
Oh, very interesting, a great article, thanks a lot
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
princess passa passa
|
|
|||||
Oh my goodness, this! And trust me it's not just in Akihabara but other anime stores in Japan. After being in a couple and seeing dirty old men take up manga with half naked preteens on the cover, I actually make it a point not to be seen in anime/manga stores anymore. I thought I wouldn't feel that way but the image of being an adult and into anime carries such pervy connotations that I down play how much into anime I am. It also doesn't help that the people that I've met who are seriously into anime here are just plain weird... |
||||||
jr240483
 Posts: 4378 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
|
|||||
not necessarily. while its a recipe for social stigmata in japan, in the US especially in anime friendly cities like NY , NJ and CA is another story. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
|
|||||
|
Japanese society is characterized as "rigid" and "homogeneous" - it's not very amenable to "change" and "different." The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
They don't care much what ya do out of sight as long as what ya portray in view of others is what's considered socially acceptable. That's also the honne and tatamae aspect. As been explained in the article, honne is one's true self, and tatemae is the façade one shows in public. (Japanese people face a lot of criticism for the use of Honne and Tatemae. Some people view it as being two-faced or hypocritical, but in Japan it is something that is used daily and is not viewed in a negative way. Actually it is considered proper social etiquette to be able to use Honne and Tatemae to be polite and thus keep the harmony of the situation and avoid conflict.) Also remember that Japan is a shame-based society (as opposed to a guilt-based society such as in Christian nations) - something is considered "bad" if society deems it shameful. Basically, the good or bad of things is externally determined by how society feels about it (shame), not how one internally feels about it (which is how guilt-based society works). Thus, if society deems something to be shameful, regardless how ya feel about it, that's something not to be shown in view of others. |
||||||
|
||||||
Vee-Tee
 Posts: 93 |
|
|||||
|
You know, I've been into anime for well over 15 years now and when I finally went to Japan... I just couldn't go into one of the shops in Akihabara.
|
||||||
|
||||||
Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
|
|||||
|
I remember when i visit Akihabara the first time. I was with my wife and we get the full visit with friends. Anime/manga shops, game centers, AKB48 live show and even maid cafe.
Its almost another dimension inside Tokyo were otaku can be himself without culture pressure. Like is said in the article in some manga shops we can buy everything manga/anime related, and i mean everything. But, at least the manga shops i visited have separate spaces between most manga and ero-manga and doujinshi. So is pretty safe even if you are the kind of person that are uncomfortable with x-rated stuff. BTY for female otaku the place to visit is Animate in Ikebukuro. Let me say that is a fujoshi paradise. I had to drag my wife from there or i would spend a whole day and would not be enough to visit the whole place. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Mhora
|
|
|||||
|
Seen how basic most of the questions are each week on AnswerMan(and many of its commenta), anime certainly doesn't learn fans anything about real life in Japan.
|
||||||
EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
|
|||||
|
It's also the need to find a frustrated ANSWER to a social problem that can't be answered (certainly not easily), by finding the one trend that most annoys you and saying it "caused" the problem.
For example, the way parents wanted to ban Mortal Kombat for clearly "causing" the Columbine shooting--Or more to the point, the way 50's adults were convinced that comic books singlehandedly caused juvenile delinquency, as it was becoming an unstoppable problem, and they couldn't think of anything else that was causing it. (Like, maybe, a generation developing a greater need for independence, and growing discontent with the conservative values of the Eisenhower era?....Nah, it's gotta be those Batman comics.) For Japan, they have a big whopper of a social problem they can't answer: Back in the 80's, they were convinced they were going to take over the economic world, and now, one bubble-recession later, they can't even get their own economy back on its feet again. And they don't know why--For forty years since the war, and during it, they were told "Work hard and sacrifice if you want to achieve your goals, and if you don't, it's YOUR fault!" And now it seems to be the entire country's fault, and there's no one to point to and berate. So they just push harder, thinking it was their own fault they weren't pushing others hard enough. The current generation doesn't see the need to jump on the cram-school track to a corporate future anymore, since it doesn't seem to be working, and many of the younger kids now want more creative expression to follow their own paths. Or, if they can't handle the pecking-order bullying to "work harder"--and pick on those that "don't"--they crumble and retreat into hikkikomori status. And ah, frustrated Japanese say: NOW we have our scapegoat villain. Why, it's those people I read about on the news, who won't work! And then they have their little secret subculture cult where they laugh at the world behind its back and rebelliously brag about not working! If they worked, we'd be making more money again, and they'd learn responsibility, too! They might even get out into the sunshine they're so afraid of a bit more! Look at the depictions of anime or game otaku in pop culture--There's no either/or: In the current mainstream Japanese mind, IF you watch anime, you watch Pretty Cure magical-girls or Love Live idols (when was the last time you saw a Gundam/mech otaku in anime?) because you're afraid of "3D girls", and can't let your childhood go. IF you own a game console or desktop computer (as fewer do in Japan), you are an Internet addict who chooses to devote his full-time life to MMORPG's and snacks, and brags about his "freedom from the 9-5 rat race" to all his Twitter friends. IF you are a manga fan, you have turned your already cramped bedroom into a museum "shrine" of manga volumes and action figures, mostly magical-girls. And if you're not, then you're one of those responsible working folk making a better country, which means you're now allowed to laugh, abuse, bully and stereotype the media image of those who don't--or who happen to share the same hobbies as those who don't--to your heart's content. (Rather like the dead-or-alive concept of the "Wolf's-head" outlaw in medieval society, that anyone could shoot on sight.) Remember when we thought Welcome to the NHK was some "mindbending" story about paranoia, and not simply social propaganda that if you give a hikkikomori a desktop computer, he'll max out the storage with Internet porn in two hours flat, and then go out to the schoolyard with a camera to get new photos by himself? In Japan, substitute "Anime" and "Pedophile" for the 50's "Comic books" and "Juvenile delinquent", and then just repeat the same national movement to try and dig up some important Psychological or Social excuse to sell mainstream society on the need to ban it and make it go away for good. And then things will all be better again. 
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
otagirl
Posts: 111 |
|
|||||
|
A pedophile murderer in the 80's , Miyazaki Tsutomu forever ingrained in Japanese society the association of his crimes wih "otaku".
It doesnt help that a crazed otaku knifed a bunch of people in Akiba at some point too. Add to the fact the more recent knife attacks on AKB48 girls and other idols, increase in unemployment related hikkikomori, its no wonder they are shunned by society. They are like terrorists to the Japanese. Its akin to the negative reputations muslims have in the West. |
||||||
|
||||||
Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
|
|||||
|
They may shun indigenous otaku, but they welcome gaijin otaku with open arms. Especially ones with bulging wallets and highend golden credit cards.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
|
|||||
This. The true 'source' of otaku is UNKNOWN. its first derogatory use was from an editorial writer who went to make fun of 'self-proclaimed' Otaku. Akio Nakamori went in to assassinate the character of fans who he thought were below him, until his editor shut him down. In essence, Otaku coopted a term for their own uses and means something different to them, and no one in the mainstream gave a care until Miyazaki showed up and shocked the general public - even then plenty of people I speak to are fairly okay with the term now - a problem solved by the amount of fame and money the country received that it otherwise wouldn't have. So the first mention of Otaku in any magazine was Nakamori's usage, and even he notes the term predates his attempt to shame them - of which there's not an actual record to show what was really the source. I like to lean on the formal 'your' usage, because I can totally see someone handing doujinshi off to a friend and treat it like a revered ceremony. It is the funnier image. "Hey, basement dweller.' I guess works. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
|
|||||
Not unless by geek you mean millenials who watch mainstream geek material like superhero movies and Game of Thrones and brag about their Funko Pop collection on Reddit/Facebook. They're fine. The kind who browse /co/ or Paheal discussing which Loud House sister is the hottest? Not so much... Japan has an edge on that just by virtue of some of the shops I've seen in Akihabara and official merchandise of that stuff existing.
The blatant images posted around Japan and districts like Akibahara sort of say otherwise, unless there's ISIS recruitment centers in America Im unaware of. That stigma against otaku is overblown on the net. It may be limited to a subculture, but people dont cross the street to avoid you. At least in my experience  Worst I ever got was some funny looks, but that was probabl more of me being a gaijjn
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group