Guillotine

This is a bit of a rant about the word otaku and it’s usage throughout the world. When I began watching anime and reading manga it didn’t take long for me to come across this word, and it didn’t take long after that before I started noticing it’s usage on the internet… Mostly by English speaking Americans. After listening to a podcast I thought about the term a bit, and the people who are using it. In the podcast a Japanese woman was asked if it’s a good idea to refer to oneself as an otaku when visiting Japan… To which she replied that it wasn’t a very good idea and implied that you might get some funny looks.

More after the jump…

It makes sense… For those who think that an otaku is just someone who likes anime and manga… Well… Sorry to burst your bubble, but the term is equivalent to the word “geek” in western countries. Now don’t get me wrong… It’s not as if it’s inappropriate or taboo to arrive in Japan and proclaim yourself an otaku… It’s just that if you are the type of person who would do such a thing then it’s going to be blatantly obvious that you are one without the need of an announcement. Proclaiming yourself as such is just going to make people shake their heads in confusion… Like they couldn’t already tell you are a geek… I think the Naruto T-shirt and Death Note belt buckle already gave away your secret.

Apparently some people go to Japan with the idea that if they tell people that they are otaku they will be instantly invited into some club where people just watch anime with hot chicks in school girl outfits all day. I hate to say it, but geeks in Japan are just like geeks the world over… They don’t get invited to all the cool parties or go home with a different hot chick every night. Sorry, but geeks over there are just like the ones here (myself included). As much as you’d like to hear it there is no country (that I am yet aware of) where being a geek is a status symbol.

When you realize what otaku means you kind of have to understand. Calling yourself that is just calling yourself a geek in another language… Kind of like Celine Dion using a different accent every other week thinking it’s cool. If you are happy with your geek-ness and want to continue calling yourself an otaku then by all means keep it up, but don’t expect that it suddenly makes you cool or any less of a geek by labeling yourself with the Japanese word that means essentially the same thing. If anything I guess it simply proves that one truly is a geek. Right?

So basically all I’m trying to get at here is that I see all these people on Myspace and Youtube proclaiming their otaku-ness thinking that Japanese people will suddenly think they are cool and will want to hang out with them. Actually they are probably just shooting themselves in the foot because in all honestly the Japanese might actually find an American geek more interesting than someone trying to be the type of geek they could find at the local anime shop. Just don’t expect girls in sailor suits to flock to you any more than you’d expect to go into a night club here in the U.S. and have supermodels and celebrities crowd around you after announcing you are a geek.

Now don’t get me wrong… I’m not one of those people that screams you shouldn’t use words unless they are native to your country. It doesn’t bother me a bit that people here want to use the words otaku and kawaii… What concerns me is that people use the words without understanding what they mean, or people that think using a certain word will allow them to hang with the cool kids (especially when the word is normally reserved for the un-cool kids which only proves they haven’t got a clue of the word’s meaning). Just don’t expect a label to change who you are.

My name is Jeff… And I’m a geek… Or otaku, nörd, anorak, friki, or any other term you wish to label me as.