Forum - View topicINTEREST: ToraCon Otaku Marriage Consultation Uses Male Members' Stats to Attract Women
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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Would those stats even work as a marketing ploy? I don't know how appealing the fact that their average male member is in their mid thirties and has modestly above average income.
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manapear
Posts: 1525 |
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I honestly think part of it comes down to Toranoana's problems with the female audience. The main site can become too exclusive to female otaku, let alone fujoshi. And then the sister site, which is called princess side, is so heavily geared to BL. So even though the name implies a general, female audience, they're only recognizing one niche of female otaku. And in general, unless you're looking for BL, it's hard to find the R-18 material that's het for/by ladies. I order plenty of it, but I pretty much have to go through the artists' social media links right to their pages/products.
The site really isn't that great at aiming itself at women (beyond fujoshi, and even though, relatively specific niches), and if the website doesn't know how to be more female-friendly as a whole, how do they expect to even have a successful dating/marriage service? ^u^;;; Toranoana also isn't the only site guilty of making R-18 works just "het, for guys or BL (of the same old series)," but for as big as they are and with all of the artists and licensed content they have, you'd think they would try harder. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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According to the CIA World Factbook, per capita income is roughly $38k, so $54k isn't so bad, really. I was watching a video on Youtube where Japanese women were saying they just needed a guy to make about $40k to be husband material, so I think it's probably at least a relatively notable statistic. As far as age, all I know is people have been getting married later and later there, so 35 is probably not too far off the median. |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3767 |
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I didn't think the income level was bad. I just didn't know if it was enough to make than appealing as marriage partners. If what you heard is true, then it might just help. Age wise, I found the average age at first marriage in Japan is about 30 for men and 29 for women (page 19) as compared to 29 and 27 in the US. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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It's been said that the longer a couple waits for marriage, the greater of a chance of it lasting long. With these men (perhaps in their mid-30s to mid-40s, mostly) having quite a stable income, I think most are all set to find their one true love.
On a side note, I did hear that the average age of first marriage in the U.S. is starting to rise a bit... |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13550 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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If there av. annual income is $54,000, that monthly income in incorrect. Also, unless this ToraCon has a connection to the late April Rochester, NY con of the same name, we got possible trademark confusion.
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ice_tea
Posts: 74 |
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Reading a bit of manga or watching anime as a hobbie is not the problem. The problem is, the majority of male "otaku" can be obsessive, which is unattractive even to female otaku. We all know that female and male otaku don't share the same interests. They don't actually have anything in common. Even female otaku probably don't want to find a partner among male otaku. So I don't think they can attract most female otaku for dating.
Conclusion: female and male otaku probably will find their best partners outside the otaku fandom. They should have something else attractive apart from their otaku hobbies. Their otaku hobbies alone won't make them successful in finding someone to date. They need to have something else more important. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I agree on some of this. Personally, none of my girlfriends have been otaku and I prefer it that way, as long as they are open-minded enough to sit down and watch a film with me now and then. But saying that male and female otaku have nothing in common and don't share the same interests is a little bit presumptive and I don't think true at all. I have many female otaku friends(mostly on the internet, to be fair), who are very much into the exact same shows as me, like the same aspects of fandom, and aren't really different from their male counterpart at all. Not every female otaku is a fujoshi, and many have zero interest in BL. And even those who do still tend to like stuff outside of that niche.
That's their monthly income spent on hobbies. Not their entire monthly income. |
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ice_tea
Posts: 74 |
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@relyat08: Not all female-oriented stuff is BL. Today the otome market is huge in Japan (though ignored in the West, as most of it is not animated and/or translated). I am sure a lot of non-fujoshi female otaku are into that kind of stuff, which I think the majority of men will have zero interest in. Yes, men and women can like some of the same anime shows. But I still think most of women's interests are vastly different from men's. I don't think an average male otaku in Japan will look forward to eagerly every season for the anime shows with an all-bishounen cast. Women and men generally become otaku for very different reasons and obsessions, at least in Japan. I am not talking about the West.
Women are into otome stuff for the same reason why they like romance novels. I am sure most of them will be disappointed at the quality of most otaku men, who are too far away from their ideal men. Perhaps only women who have no interest in the ideal males in otome products are likely to give male otaku a chance to date. That's why I don't think in most cases female and male otaku are good matches. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Yeah, I know. But I still think you are pigeonholing female fandom a bit too much. Maybe every female otaku automatically has to be into female-targeted stuff exclusively... but I don't know, I hear most Shonen stuff has a fairly sizable female fandom, which, hopefully would crossover with some male otaku as well. And the same can be said for magical girl stuff. You're right in general, I'm sure. There isn't going to be a ton of crossover with a lot of people, but I think(hope) fandom isn't quite that static and close-minded. |
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ice_tea
Posts: 74 |
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I don't mean every female anime and game fan has to be into female-targeted stuff exclusively. Of course I know there are a lot of shounen/magical girl/girl idol titles popular among the female fandom. There are a lot of non-otaku females who watch One Piece and the like as casual fans in Japan, just because those titles are too well-known. Casual anime watchers usually only know about the most popular titles and not anything else. Most of them don't even have any idea about the "otaku" fandom (otome stuff, voice actors, dating/porn games, etc). As you probably already know, a lot of female otaku are into the shounen stuff mainly because they are into the hot male characters, or want to ship the male characters. That's the reason they can become obsessive, otherwise they will just remain a casual anime watcher outside the otaku fandom. Though that doesn't mean they can't have anything else to talk about with the male otaku, in most cases, the male otaku's image and personality are usually too far awary from their 2D "ideal" men. So I think women who are not into the 2D ideal males are more likely to accept the realistic otaku males as partners. Being closed-minded and not having much in common are not the same thing. You don't have much in common with a male otaku and thus don't want to date him. It doesn't mean you are closed-minded to his interests. Accepting their interests doesn't mean one will be interested in that person as a potential partner. Those women may accept and understand male otaku's interests while not finding them attractive enough as dates. |
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13550 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I would have written "we all know that not all female and male otaku don't share all of the same interests. They don't have everything". On the interests part, should they may marry and want to have kids, they would have to find some sort of compromise in their views. For example, there could be difficulty if 1 is an extremely liberal Jew (religion) and the other is an extremely conservative Catholic. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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It is very unlikely that they'd meet at a Japanese matchmaking event . 
"Don't have anything in common"--not being into the exact same content does not mean you don't have anything in common with other fans of a similar genre. Sports fans, for example, have a lot in common even if they don't follow the same team, or even the same sport--keeping track of players and their stats, watching games, paying attention to how strong teams are and their likelihood to make the playoffs, playing fantasy versions of their preferred sport online, etc. Football fans, basketball fans and baseball fans may all prefer different games in different seasons, but their fan behavior has a lot in common and they can relate to each other. So to, fiction fans--of American live action genre fiction, video games, American comic books, Japanese comic books, French comic books, American animation, Japanese animation--we like different things, but we have a hell of a lot in common in the way we follow our preferred genre and express our love for it. San Diego Comic Con realized this around 20 years ago when they started expanding their coverage from mostly American comic books to general pop culture coverage, and their attendance numbers exploded, and New York Comic Con followed suit. I've been going to NYCC for years. I don't recognize all the cosplay, but I know all the fans there have a hell of a lot in common even if their particular interests skew more general audience or more niche than my own. Fan obsession as a hobby goes beyond boundaries than "what's your favorite X (show, movie, video game, comic book, Korean webtoon, novel, online roleplaying game, etc)?" |
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ice_tea
Posts: 74 |
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Japanese otaku are not the same as sports fans. Being an otaku in Japan is not completely like in the West. Having the same fan behaviour doesn't guarantee that a female will find a male attractive as a partner. A lot of people watch anime and play games. But in most cases those who project their "ideal" image of the other sex will be likely to become an otaku. I believe females outside the otaku fandom, or those who don't know much about the males' obsession with 2D waifus and voice actresses are more likely to accept them as potential partners, as they probably view the interest as an ordinary interest like sports.
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Saying geeks (from any country, and of any genre) and sports fans are dissimilar in the degree of their obsession and expressions of it is underestimating sports fans. We don't think of them as the same because being a sports fan is so much more socially acceptable than being interested in "geeky things," but in the greater psychology of it, they are very similar behaviors.
As for following certain seiyuu & idols, I know some obsessive female K-pop fans that could compete with Japanese male seiyuu/idol otaku measure for measure. Obsessive behavior based on the stuff people like and get attached to isn't as unique or as unusual as people like to think. |
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