*NOTE* All my links today will be from Sankaku Complex. For those of you who don't want to go to the site, which occasionally (to somewhat frequently) features content of erotic nature, I will tell you briefly what each article says. *END NOTE*
Just so we are clear: dictionary.com states that the definition of 'Otaku' is "an avid collector or enthusiast, esp. one who is obsessed anime, video games, or computer and rarely leaves home."
We here at The Collateral Otaku (I will personally refer to it now as TCO) consider ourselves otaku. We are not crazy. We just really like our stuff.
The japanese consider Otaku to be a derogatory term in some ways. With things going on like this, it's kinda hard not to agree with them. The article talks about an otaku who went to an anime convention and stole the partially drunk-out-of water bottle of the seiyuu (voice actor) Chihara Minori, who currently voices Nagato Yuki in The Melancholy of Haruhi suzumiya in japan. Then, he posted pictures of himself doing this deed all over his blog. Fans and other otaku were crazed over it, congradulating him or cursing him.
If you think that otaku is bad, there are obviously worse.
This article talks about the Seiyuu that voices the japanese version of Haruhi herself, who is also conveniently a model, who went to malaysia for filming. Crazed otaku, once knowledgeable of the situation by pictures she posted on her blog, planned all over message boards to find her; search parties were created, google earth was used, analysis of the photos was intensive. The intents on what they were going to do with her when she would be found varied from person to person; some ranging from something simple like an autograph to something much, much crazier. By the time their searches were about ready, it was then noted that she had already returned to Japan.
Those are just some examples. There are obviously a lot, lot more. But this gets the picture across, I think.
I personally don't want to ever be that crazy. I love my video games, anime, and manga, but I know where to draw the line. I hope people like me are the majority.
~Koubo
It really does scare me that there are people out there who would do something so crazy. There's nobody in the world so amazing that people need to go to such lengths to meet them. And I do mean NOBODY. I really think that if these "otaku" really cared about the people they obsess over, they'd leave them alone. How must it feel to be one of these voice actors and not even be able to leave your home without being mobbed by psycho boys trying to touch your hand (or other things)? It probably drives them crazy. I know it would for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little rusty on my MegaTokyo history, but wasn't one of the female characters a voice actress who beat up a fanboy for touching her? I honestly can't remember, but that's what I think happened.
Anyway, I think the world is in a sad state when someone isn't entitled to their privacy and their own life.
Yeah, that's how it is with pretty much any kind of massive fandom for anything out there, really. People just need to realize that these mega stars aren't some kind of higher being or whatever, that they're just regular everyday people like you and me. In fact that's what I always look forward to when I get excited about certain guests at conventions I go to, just to get the opportunity to hang with them like the normal, everyday people that they are. That's really what that sort of thing is supposed to be for in the first place. It's just unfortunate that idiots like these exist out there who abuse that opportunity for things they shouldn't be using it for is all. There's definitely a line that needs to be drawn somewhere when it comes down to this sort of thing, that's for sure.
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