The Otaku

The Otaku

More and more we, as Americans are seeing other cultures intertwine with our own. With the introduction of TV, satellite and Internet it's easy to find out more about a specific area in the world. Watching and reading about another culture you almost might make you obsessed with it. An Otaku is one such person.

Otaku is a term common with people who make a hobby out of watching Japanese animation or anime for short. Most of these people who watch the anime are regular people that go to work or school and need something to relax with. An Otaku, on the other hand is a person that obsesses over anime. "An otaku is an obsessive fan of any one particular theme, topic, or hobby. Perhaps the most common uses are anime otaku (who sometimes enjoy many days of excessive anime watching with no rest) and manga otaku (Japanese comic books)." (WordIQ par. 3) Anime is like a Drug for them. Otakus just need to watch anime. This However, it doesn't just stop with watching.

One other thing that would define an Otaku is that they have a lot of collectables or even dress up like the characters they watch. "The otaku are an underground (subculture), but they are not opposed to the system per se," observed sociologist and University of Tokyo fellow Volker Grassmuck, who has studied the otaku extensively. "They change, manipulate and subvert ready-made products, but at the same time they are the apotheosis of consumerism and an ideal workforce