The OTAKU

No discussion of manga and anime is complete without including the otaku. The word Otaku did not exist as such during the Edo period but it is an important aspect of the present day public’s attitude toward manga and anime. Present day manga and anime fans, generally considered to be of low status, are referred to as otaku.

Initially, otaku was just a linguistic form of reference to another person, just like referring to someone as 'you'. Otaku was derived from the honorific word Taku, which means ‘venerable house’. The culture of manga fans decided to appropriate a different meaning to otaku by using the word as a regular way to address one another.

Over time the word has changed meaning. Otaku may refer to a hard core aficionado of manga, to a manic obsessive individual, to a computer nerd, to a hacker, or to a social outcast. Akio Nakamori, a Japanese writer, described the anime-manga otaku as a very emotionally immature and socially inept male (Frederik Schodt, “Dreamland Japan. Writings on Modern Manga”, Berkeley, California, Stone Bridge Press, 1996, 44). The word has changed in meaning for a number of reasons, including events and the passage of time.

The most horrific event that has given meaning to otaku is the 1989 incident of a very disturbed twenty-seven year old male, a mass murderer by the name of Tsutomu Miyazaki. Tsutomu was discovered after killing four toddler age females whom he videotaped because of his obsession with female pedophilic manga (called lolicon). He was a fanatical manga and anime fan obsessed with child pornography (Schodt, Dreamland Japan, 45). He became the embodiment of an otaku, giving the term an extremely derogatory connotation.

Over time the word was overused in its descriptive popularity, so it has lost some of its extreme negative meaning. When imported into the United States it lost its worst connotations and now otaku is more widely accepted as a lighter reference to a hardcore anime or manga fan (Schodt, Dreamland, 45-48) The word otaku represents a very heterogeneous evolving culture focused on the consumption of anime and manga in a variety of different forms.