1.9. Is an 'otaku' an octopus?
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This article is from the misc anime FAQ, by nikkou with numerous contributions by others.
1.9. Is an 'otaku' an octopus?
Some of us female fans have met some that lead us to think so...
The common Japanese meaning for 'otaku' is that of an obsessed fan, a definite wierdo, but some take pride in being an otaku as one who does the best they can for their interest. (There is a fine line between dedication and insanity. ;) In American fandom, to be termed an 'otaku' is like receiving a badge of honour. I have heard Carl Horn and Gilles Poitras compliment each other on their otaku-ness, but by reflex my eyes start searching out the exits of the room.^_^;; Steve Pearl, American fan-extraordinnaire (and original keeper of the raa.misc faq, indeed of most of the usenet anime/manga faqs) has been called the American 'Otaking' by the Japanese 'Otaking', Toshio Okada.
A Little Note: The Japanese word for octopus is 'tako'.
The prefix 'o' is added to Japanese words to dignify them, the person using them, or the person being addressed. 'Cha' very well means tea, but one says 'o-cha' in polite company, just as one will need to go to the 'o-tearai' after too many cups of 'o-cha'. Thus, an 'o-tako' might well be a dignified fan, no matter how many tentacles it might have. Much restraint might be needed not to dice them up for 'tako-yaki'...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Otaku From: James Sternberg Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 10:36:08 +0900
"Skeleton Man" wrote in message: > How many here call themselves otaku? How man call anime fandom otaku?
It depends. When I am in the US, I have no problem calling myself an otaku (as long as no Japanese people are around) since it seems to just mean an anime fan and seems to be used with some sense of pride. Here in Japan, there is no way that I would claim to be an otaku! "Thems is fight'n words".
James
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: CNN's definition of Otaku From: Invid Fan Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 13:36:20 -0400
Bruce Grubb wrote:
> Paul Case wrote: > >http://asia.cnn.com/2001/BUSINESS/asia/07/12/tokyo.otaku/ > > > >And here I thought it was just an anime/manga obsession. I didn't know > >there was a techno twist to it. > > FWIU otaku basicly means 'obsession' > <http://www.kissonline.com/kiss_otaku/misc/def.html> and can be > applied to anything. Ie there are sport car, fishing, and > non-anime TV show otaku just as there anime and manga otaku. Of > course one of the more famous otaku groups are the Trekers and > Trekies; want to learn more about Star Trek then you -ever- wanted > to know? Talk to one of these people.
"Otaku no Video" covers fans of anime, models, guns, paintball, porn, computer porn, and assorted other activities :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Scott Schimmel Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 19:09:14 GMT Organization: Between Laughter and Forgetting
Heh. There's always the definition that appears in William Gibson's books (Idoru, specifically): "Obsessive techno-fetishist with social deficit."
More properly, "otaku" just means "obsessive fan" these days. It doesn't necessarily have to do with anime -or- technology (though most otaku are pretty tech-savvy, the better to hunt down new and obscure information on their topic of obsession).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Doug Jacobs Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 22:19:43 -0000 User-Agent: tin/1.4.4-20000803 ("Vet for the Insane") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.2-STABLE (i386))
Otaku just means you're really, really, *REALLY* interested in something to the point of being obsessed with it. It could be anime/manga, it could be computer games, it could vacuum cleaners, sport stars, etc.
It's like geek in the US. Geek usually refers to computers, but you can also be a photography geek, for instance.
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