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August 02, 2007

Ugly Truth of an Otaku?

Posted in: Thoughts

Lupus, over at THAT Animeblog, did another great post on the anime community, exposing the ugly side of an anime fan. There’s plenty of truth in that article, especially when it comes to the community.

Since most anime are aimed for kids/teens, it is only foreseeable that a majority of the anime community would be kids and among them there exist those who proudly calls themselves “otaku’s”. While it’s meaning outside of Japan isn’t as bad, Otaku generally refers to someone having some sort of crazed obsession, usually a loner or anti-social person who locks him or herself up to indulge in his or her hobby.

Lucky Star

Annoying Otaku’s and the reaction you can expect…

And there’s also how non-anime (read: general) community perceive anime fans. Chances are, they would consider anime (or any sort of animation) to be childish and therefore stereotypes the anime community as a bunch of losers. I wrote this article on being childish a while back on how people label and judges others just because they do not see in the same perspective.

I still believe that even though anime is mostly geared towards kids and teens, it doesn’t mean that they should be the only one to enjoy it. Anime, like any other cartoons or live action shows, are still entertainment at the end of the day. The same goes for novels, mangas or any other comics. And entertainment is meant to be enjoyed, either personally or with friends and family. As long as it does no harm, there shouldn’t be a problem.

However, as Lupus said, it still all comes down to perception. What we think is fun as part of the community could easily be looked down upon by the “outsiders”. We can’t change how people would judge the anime community, nor can we completely turn the community around and change it, but we can try to make it a better place for those of us who truly enjoys anime as a form of entertainment and not an obsession.

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