Word Usage of Otaku

The Definition of Otaku: Otaku takes influences from various cultures including Japan, America, China, and Korea. In Japanese slang the word Otaku stands for a person who specializes in a hobby. Many times Otaku also stands for someone who has an obsessive interest or stays indoors often without socializing. Many do not admit to being Otaku in Japan, because the term Otaku seems to hold negative connotations.

​The Term: ​The term Otaku comes from the word “taku” which means inside the house or house. The word Otaku started in Japan. In Japanese, it means obsessed or liking something to excess. However, internationally, Otaku is known as someone who is highly interested in Japanese Traditional Culture, and Anime/Manga. The term Otaku became popularized from Akio Nakamori in 1983 from Otaku no Kenkyu, however the character Lynn Minmay from Macross TV series first brought the word up in 1982.​

In English, the term is more of a loanword with no negative connotations. Even though it has its previous meanings in Japanese language, the definition is different for some outside Japan.

​The Use: The word Otaku is used when describing someone who passionately enjoys Japanese culture, language, and food, anime, manga, models, video editing, drawing, and/or Japanese history.Otaku gained popularity from the Japanese animation, manga, maid cafe, and idol scene in Akihabara Japan in the early 1990s. The culture developed internationally with the Japanese culture enthusiasts, Anime Manga Otaku, Japanese and Korean Language majors, Animation Music Video editors, and Karaoke communities during the 2000s.

A name of something with more than one origin - a term to have pride or to cause shame. As many other cultures formed from interests it comes from - geek, nerd, dork, and now isn't really the definition of any of those as it has paved its own history based on how it has been used. Word usage is from how it is said in person to how it is written and how its used in those ways and can be different depending on the language its being used in as well as the area and by what group of people.

Word usage is the way a word, phrase, or concept is used in a language or language variety. Lexicographers gather samples of written instances where a word is used and analyze them to determine patterns of regional or social usage as well as meaning. A word, for example the English word "Otaku" (a western culture formed around Japan animation style and cultural trends of Japan in Animation), may be only a rare regional usage, or a word may be used worldwide by standard English speakers and have one or several evolving definitions. Word usage may also involve grammar.

Unlike many lone Japanese word counterparts, the western way of using Otaku doesn't originate from Japan. Some have claimed that the word always followed the Japanese definition of the word although there is little evidence to support these claims. It is much more likely that western usage of Otaku had developed through the terms Japanese Animation, Graphic Novel Fan, and traveling to Japan from those who would use the word in the 1970s and 1980s.

Though the word continued to be used to describe the Japan definition in certain language purist circles, it didn't find its way into the cultural lexicon until the 1990s, where it gained popularity among the casual market of Westerners during the big anime boom. Its status as a reference to being apart of a cultured group would qualify it as a term exclusively of Japanese Language, and one that was used as a superior definition to throw the terms older definition under the rug by claiming Japan Language origins.

Otaku has been a choice word for literature, poetry, media, politicians, and Japanologists for many years. While the term Otaku in reference to its western origin culture influenced from Animanga and Japan Otaku the term is generally mostly used by writers and are accepted by many, but not all listeners. While in some circles the usages may make the speaker sound uneducated or illiterate, in other circles the more standard or older usage may make the speaker sound possibly pretentious, so definitions as they evolve are often disputed and are complicated from even a single word like "otaku" and causes English usage controversies.

How the word Otaku is used is ultimately up to the person using it and as it gains popularity and is able to be recognized the way it is used the most will often be the most accepted. 

Reclaiming of the Term Otaku

The word “Otaku” follows word trends and definitions of its use as any other word found in an academic dictionary where oftentimes slang words become actual recognized words and just like many versions of books, updates of the computer, or patches in a game has its renewed view of a word. So while an otaku can be easily sneered at, picked on, or seem cringe worthy, the word itself can change into the actual badge of honor some will perceive it to be. Which has become more common these days with word changes and with such adjustments a definition may not be projected that way in the past and may have different ways of expression in the future. 

Not all agreed on it, the word Otaku has seen some backlash against those who didn’t like the term to begin with or the people it was associated with and didn’t like the change. You can see as to why as it had been used in such a way for so long people got used to it: “you can’t just wear cosplay and be a otaku”, “you need to have seen all of One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Naruto”, “just because its used differently doesn't mean otaku isn’t a nerd!”. While the words niche status had changed to something more well known so did the standards of becoming one and it became more accessible to more people without getting overly invested in it.

The movement to reclaim the word started in Japan with Otaku no Video. In Japan, the term “Otaku” was coined by Nakamori Akio in 1983 in the magazine Manga Burikko while other terms were being used like “Yappies- Young Anime People” or “Anime Maniacs”. Media had used the term to describe a famous serial killer Tsutomo Miyazaki in 1989 where the word had murderous connatations added to it by those not in the animanga community and was met with resistance by Studio Gainax through Toshio Okada with the release of the title Otaku no Video with the terms “Otaking” and reclaiming “Otaku” through its Katakana spelling. This would transition over to the west as the famous title had been translated and sold on VHS (Video Home System) Tapes that were the way people used to watch their shows in the 1990s.

In the West, the word Otaku was associated with Geek culture for its underground appeal of niche interests and as the word “Geek” was beginning to be reclaimed as a badge of honor so did other similar groups begin to shortly follow. People who were proud to call themselves “Otaku” or more recently “Weeb” it is difficult to say what the word means to a person who knows what it means in academia as they catch up to old trends, or to bullies who project the term to pigeonhole a person into what they assume they are. The reason being is that it has become overused, misused, and the amount of meaning it has is based on the personal decision of the person who is saying the word, which makes it easy to be subjectively used situationally and change the meaning based on the context of its usage.

Otaku Cool is a perception of society and is based on a desire for “coolness”, which in case is someone else's validation of cool or a consumer's view of cool, but in the end the only cool that matters is if the person who identifies as otaku thinks it's cool? Being interested in otaku culture was never about being cool, but it does help, however it won’t break the thing that caused an otaku to claim an identity and have their own definition of it to themselves. With Otaku being more accepted there was backlash to that as well with people getting upset at Japanese kanji on shirts, angry at Japanese language majors, uninterested in more popular series, and would be offended at things from Japan.

The Internet era allowed monocultural conformity to splinter and have a larger portion move towards niche nonconformity for various options in small groups who had like minded interests. Social networks would grow in the nich interest like “otaku” and would beagle to fit-in with their own selected people for a role that would slowly develop with the community itself. By getting together with other people more easily online the opportunity to communicate with one another outside of conventions grew exponentially with people having: positive sense of identity, shared interests, and stories being told as well as preserved. The word itself would have a chance and otaku took that chance to reclaim it amongst themselves in the 1990s.

However as many positives have come the negatives came with: meme culture, troll culture, and online bullying that began to take place with a much larger responsibility being on the shoulders of people who managed groups. Once otaku were unashamed for professing their otaku-ness to other people and felt no social restrictions or expectations placed on them for adopting otaku things the development of: food, fashion, fandoms, and other content creation began to flourish. Things that are labeled as taboo or not to be done that were associated with otaku the word would be reclaimed based on its usage within the smaller groups that would no longer waste their time: arguing that they were or weren’t identified as otaku, defending their own definitions of the word otaku, or justify their reasoning and how it fits into monocultural ideas of pop culture or national societal expectations.

What Does Otaku Mean to You?

I was sitting at a table with a Israeli friend who was really into research and books who had been self educating himself through Animerica Magazine which a person had commented on while passing by. The lady said “Isn’t that the magazine that Japanese Fans read, an Otaku?” and his response was that the publication was for fans of Anime and Manga that would happen to feature many Japanese references that make people more interested in the culture. Although I knew what he said was more accurate than the lady, it was not without its missing parts of the western meaning of what entails the definition of an Otaku as well what it could mean to someone who was from Japan.

Social Stigma of Otaku Identity: In the 90’s, I had already known that a term people identified with was “Otaku” and avoided referring to myself as one or others as Otaku to avoid social denouncing, however others in the United States as not being prideful of the freedom of choice or being scared from social labelling and stereotypes. Such terminology was something to identify with because of the “Otaku Clicks” or groups that would form to talk about shows seen on Saturday Morning TV shows like Dragon Ball Z (Akira Toriyama) and Sailor Moon (Naoko Takeuchi) or if they were lucky obtain Rumiko Takahashi translated Graphic Novels of Ranma ½. It was surprising to a friend I talked to from Japan that there was a sort of identity in the West already tied to the word “Otaku”.

Unaware of Nuance of the term “Otaku”: I had learned from my email pen pal who lived in Saitama Prefecture of Japan that enjoyed the shows Gunsmith Cats and Kiki’s Delivery service that someone who had enjoyed Anime and Manga is just a normal person. She said there is no affiliation or any sort of stigma attached or identity to connect a person to the hobby of aesthetic look, product purchases, sense of identity, or interest in Japan Culture, but simply reading entertaining content. She would tell me that people who like Anime and Manga are not “Otaku”, because the term means enthusiast of something and has no definition of a person unless it is attached to another word like “Tetsudo” for Rail, so a train enthusiast would be called “Tetsudo Otaku” in Japan. So, the word in Japan would likely be similar to the English word “Nerd”.

Borrowing from Foreign Languages: In Japan, there were many types of Otaku, like Military Otaku or Manga Otaku and the most notable Anime Otaku, which was only the tip of the iceberg of types. I wasn’t fully aware that geographically the term “Otaku” was before talking to people from Japan in the 90s, because I believed the definition of otaku was an identity as described in the West to be interested in Anime and Manga as well as Japan. In Japan there was a term called Japanese-Made English (Wasei-eigo), which means there were Japanese-Language expressions based on English words, which meanings differ from the Language in which they were derived from as a sort of slang.

Western Otaku and Japan Otaku: This had begun in the West with English-Japanese Terms that were English-Language expressions based on Japanese words, like the naming of Otaku types and Otaku Culture and Otaku-Type Subcultures. In Japan an Anime Otaku is an Anime Enthusiast who sometimes partakes in activities of Otaku Culture, however In the West an Anime Otaku is just called an Otaku who partakes in an interest in Manga and Games as well as Japanese Culture. The borrowed word of Otaku in Japanese was different, so, this made it more clear on why some Japanese would say “Western Otaku” to properly define the difference from a “Japan Otaku” as with the word otaku meaning something different from where its derived they were very different in the 90’s. This means that the debate could be “Translation” versus “Expression” and could be arguing two different points and be two separately different conversations that are not the same.

Otaku in the General Public of Japan Society: As I had gotten older there had been others like Japanese Politicians and other visitors who came from Japan who would describe otaku not only as a lone word for enthusiast in Japan, but also enthusiast culture that was in Japan “Otaku culture”. In the 90’s it was thought as something disgraceful and irresponsible to be so interested in staying in doors and having hobbies that brought joy of artwork and media consumption, even though it was not much different than other media on television broadcast services. The word was also used by news media to cover stories and the idea of Otaku begun to take shape as a particular show had shown the growth of an obsessive enthusiast who was similar to the negative “Japan Stereotype” that grew into socializing and becoming a part of Japan society. This show was called “Densha Otoko” which made people think about the lifestyle of enthusiasts and showed the human-side of their character without strict judgement of their hobbies.

Identity Etiquette or Starting a Argument: Interpretations of the term “Otaku” when people vocalize they are otaku can be seen as agreeing to a stereotype and the person must act as defined according to the person who is interpreting it as a stereotype as to ignore mannerisms, be culturally insensitive by lack of awareness, and projected self-centric judgement. It can come out as a “Loaded Term” if considerations are not taken of what the definition means the person who is identifying with it or if the other side is completely unaware of its personal meaning to the individual they are communicating with. This means that depending on how someone approaches the word “Otaku” in their mind and when they orally communicate those feelings it can mean something specific to their interpretation and if it is the stereotype it can be leading the conversation into an argument of how the word is viewed by each individual interpreting it.

Multilayered Terminology of Otaku: That brings to attention how others view the word “Otaku” based on their personal experience, based on their exposure of sources, and the political correctness of society and its view. It means it’s a question of what “Otaku” means in other countries as well, especially since it is used globally. Stereotypes in itself are very imprecise and are used when the multiple definitions of the word are overlooked and not treated appropriately as a Multi-layerd word, because depending on the context of which it is being used it can illustrate a different form and thus meaning. All Otaku (of enthusiasts) are Otaku of somesort, and yet all Otaku may not be deemed Otaku depending on the context have it be identity, culture, or definition.

What is the Definition of Otaku Identity

Looking around the internet and seeing pictures and ideas of what people define as Otaku primarily involves the authentic interest in a particular hobby to be known as an enthusiast and in the west it changes to Animanga & Japan. This ensures that the person can name the series or place they have taken interest with and make it safe to assume that others who identify to have a liking for similar interests can accept the same understanding from Otaku Culture and random Japanese Language terminology. The concept and practice of watching multiple series and balancing interest amongst them is fundamental to the socializing aspect of the “Otaku Community” and the other “Fandoms” that give people something to discuss, judge, and share as an interest.

Being involved in the Community: Being a contributing person is more than stalking a fandom community, it is also the recognition of being a presence in the community by vocalizing ideas and discussing creations of the original creators of the respective creative group or studio. Like in Sunrise Studios: Masahiko Minami, Hiroshi Ōsaka and Toshihiro Kawamoto, were freaking amazing staff members who had a vision for the animanga industry and set standards to their studio for a collective vision that would be followed by others in the next generation of animated works. Such can be seen in works like Cowboy bebop in which Masahiko Minami’s contributions as producer of planning and executing the story through frames and then animations to its digitization.

Community Belonging: Upon entering a community there is a feeling of Otaku-ness which can be almost instantly felt with the sense of belonging to the Otaku Culture of movies, television shows, music, comics, plot driven characters, unique otaku terms, and references for Otaku being used left and right. Expressions are picked by influencers or groups and are used as in house use or for jokes that can possibly catch on with enough groups to be a part of the mainstream cultural language. For example “Senpai” was often used in Anime in the 90s and is now widely recognized as apart of one of the many existing Otaku Terminologies. The sense of belonging had to be at some of its strongest when Anime and Manga in the west was relatively new and before the animanga phenomenon had swept the nations, because everything seemed secret and rare, since items were so hard to import or translate from Japan.

Fragmented by Fandom Communities by Series: Nowadays, Otaku culture is fragmented into its separated “Fandom” groups, since the west has a humongous range to choose from in genre, subgenre, soundtracks, alternate-worlds, tutorials, and content in general that is quickly made available to the viewers out there. At first people who just get into Anime and Manga will be quickly buying stickers, models, shows, and other sorts of collectibles, which is from the consumerist culture that is fueled by things that are: limited edition in product runs, rarity of an item by chance, and pure collectible amounts of who has the most of anything. But things are starting to change as the demand for quality has started to go up.

Exposure to Japanese Things: Later on though if the person involved sees that it is a addiction to purchase things and understand that it could be excess purchases they may come to be more selective of the things they want, so that their living area doesn’t become a warehouse, and more of a place of display and to make use of the room be actually livable.This is because the values are starting to feed into the idea of being an Otaku is becoming more Japanese in a sense, the constant exposure of slice-of-life or small things that characters do and act start to effect the audience. 

The Spread of Understanding Japanese Ideas: The things that they are exposed to start to actually allow them to think more about how it is a Japanese idea and understand cultural similarities as well as differences. It is good that it also helps people understand about the spirit of an era that honors the past while being in the present to develop, have them be Japanese or not. There always seems to be something in the back of people's minds that lets them understand the media they consume and knowing that the value system is definitely a part of it that is taught seemingly without being aware of it. Then they go off into their community and talk about it, so the thing that keeps consistent is that creators who use their backgrounds of being in Japan have a tendency to put a little bit of Japan in their work, even if it's unintentional, it sort of just slips and gets people more into Japan. People then have that particular thing in common in the Otaku community and keep on talking about it, because it's consistent no matter what series they are into.

Otaku Generations

Otaku Generations are used by groups, writers, leaders, researchers, and movements to track and discuss particular societal groups in the interest of animanga of certain release times. Its groups of animanga time periods that make a social cohort of people roughly around the same time as those releases and offer insight by grouping experiences, characteristics, and habits. This does create gaps of understanding and possible feuds between those who were not there at the time of certain title releases and that makes a need to bridge the gap.

Bridging the gap comes from having generational labels to be used as a way of understanding and not being used to project a definition on to a individual, define a individual, or to generalize many individuals into an argument. The Otaku are more similar than people may have initially thought and have specific differences with certain sorts of values, friend groups, security, fandom fulfillment, work style, etc. A argument always happens with debating on when a generation begins and when one ends. It has mostly been shown as: Memes, Singled out discussions, and Unofficial Sourcing.

Unofficial namers of generations have written as a way to refer to a group of generally but not always a roughly fifteen year cycle based on age-label cycles of the west as a sort of demographic target. It is a generalized demographic naming that is not super accurate and is vague at best and best used as a way to refer to a generation of animanga fans rather than define the generation to divide the lines by labels. Otaku generation labels do have their limitations as it may generalize a group it is not accurate enough to be used to replace individualism as each person is different.

Generational labels can be a way to identify a select group of people and accept them or the opposite with rejecting them. As the opinions of people from different generations of anime have emerged there has been common situations of generational animosity within social media exchanges with negative connotations being used as insults. A certain generation only knows “The Big Three”, A certain generation was there during the “Golden era of Anime” and then a certain generation “Escapes through Isekai”.

While Otaku Generations have been used for finding similarities between groups of anime fans of a certain age it is worth asking if such generational groupings do as much bad as it does good. They can be used as a powerful tool of communication, connection, and understanding with certain shared cultural things of that time period of released animanga titles. It can also quicken the pace of understanding one another's point of view, language and context of discussion, and shared sense of nostalgia.