Monday, May 08, 2006

TV in Japan: Otaku From USA



TV in Japan: Otaku From USA

Update And a rather different take from (I assume) the tour organiser...

Back of my head getting more exposure per click...

This one's too good to miss - a nature programme style look at American anime fans on a utopian tour of the nerdier side of Tokyo. And it's pretty good natured in tone, which isn't surprising as the people featured come across as a bunch of happy-go-lucky folks, who happen to enjoy Japanese cartoons, having a good laugh while indulging a bit in their own geekiness. Nothing wrong with that. The only issue I guess is in referring to them as "American Otaku," which may be a term of endearment over there, but certainly isn't here, and with good reason.

Otaku are a pretty sad bunch who don't so much enjoy their genre as rot in it. They are not fun people, just sad little men (gender specific) whose mums dress them funny, and stay locked safely in their respective rooms from the inside with their VCRs and laserdiscs watching cartoons and reading comics because it's so much less threatening than real people and the world outside. And they smell, because the wonders of personal hygiene and the various benefits it brings humanity have not been specifically introduced to them by some magic time travelling duck with blue hair and really huge eyes yet. When you see pathetic middle-aged men thumbing through porn on the shelves of convenience stores right in front of passing children, it's not because it's socially acceptable to do that (a common misapprehension), but because they are otaku and have no idea of the concept of social niceties. Otaku are to be avoided.

This is not to say there aren't terms of endearment for fans of the various geeky genre this land is so famous for - "Akibakei" (Akihabara style) comes to mind, and is probably about as close to the American meaning of otaku as you can get without being beaten round the head with a 15 tonne hammer. Obviously this isn't the first time a word has been butchered on its way from one language to another - even the word anime itself has narrowed itself right down from a very general word in Japanese meaning "animated cartoon" to a very specific style of cartoon that leaves people questioning whether the works of master animator Hayao Miyazaki are indeed, strictly speaking, of the anime genre.

Another rather miffed take on what it is and isn't to be an otaku from that bastion of truth and hard, cold facts, Waiwai.

I digress. A rather amusing video I thought, and if it wasn't crippled I'd knock out a subtitled version tonight so self-professed otaku the world over could be warned. Guess it'll have to wait. Update Bit of a rush job so the timing's a little off, but a subtitled version is now up.
Posted by Coal at 11:34 AM

10 comments:

  1. I might be able to get you a good copy of the video. You got an FTP location, or some other way to share large files?

    -Rick.
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  2. i do find it interesting that in the introductory segment, the announcer refers to "otaku bunka". she seems to say it like it's something japanese people are proud of...but i agree, i just don't think that's the case.

    and "akiba-kei" seems to me to be as much a look and manner as anything else, which pretty much means the term can't apply to anybody who doesn't look and act japanese, IMHO. so we're back to square one, with "otaku bunka".

    that said, it IS grown, socially disconnected men (mostly) who patronize maid cafes, etc. and the cafes DO make a killing...so i suppose they are simply providing a service to a legitimate subculture, and perhaps it is something worth being proud of? i honestly can't put my finger on it.
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  3. You'll notice onscreen "otaku" is always put in inverted commas. That seems to be a tipoff right there - when they say American "otaku" and "otaku" bunka they're sort of being ironic, that this group of foreigners would call themselves this by choice. It could be argued this is the only reason it made the news at all.

    Akibakei is a bit more than just a look and manner, but in some cases it's these things too, and people certainly wear it as a badge of pride. It's in that way I think it's much closer in nuance to what Americans would refer to as otaku, though admittedly it's not describing the exact same phenomena (and how could it?!). A lot of computer geeks and audiophiles also refer to themselves as Akibakei. That being said, I certainly wouldn't limit Akibakei to being Japanese only, though people may be surprised that you know the word - nothing new there.
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  4. I'm leaving my laptop uploading the video to your FTP. Let me know if the file works for you.

    -Rick.
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  5. fair enough, the quotes around the word "otaku" are a fairly good indication that there's a large dose of irony involved. the phrase "nihon no otaku bunka" still makes me chuckle, though!

    you make an excellent point that there are two types of "akiba-kei":

    1) the "anime crowd" (to an extent, i think just about everyone in japan reads manga and watches anime, but there are those who take it to "the next level")/cosplayers/maid lovers/special edition bottle-cap collectors/action figure junkies/(pick your poison, there are many), and

    2) the technophiles.

    basically, the two things akihabara is known for. while there is (probably a lot of) overlap between the two, that isn't necessarily the case IMHO.

    i guess that's the only reason i suggested that "akiba-kei" is more of a look/manner than anything, simply because the reasons behind, and manifestations of, peoples' "akiba-kei"-ness are so varied.

    in any case, thanks for the fun blog post, i've definitely enjoyed reading & thinking about the issues you raise. perhaps i shall comment more in the future :P

    -(the superhero known as parentheses man)
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  6. Fantastic translation, congratulations! (Hey! Did you forget to credit yourself again?)

    -Rick.
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  7. Cheers! I snuck the credit in at the top of the screen right at the beginning. I figure most people are looking at the bottom of the screen, but it's there if you look for it. :D
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  8. Never mind, I just read 「神酒 Coal」 at the top...

    -Rick.
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  9. Wow. That was embarrassing. I wasn't able to watch the entire thing.
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  10. I cant watch the whole thing...
    it's embarrassing...
    Thanks god i never do such things in Tokyo.
    Good article.

    Jhon
    ReplyDelete

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