Thoughts on the Anime Blogosphere and the ‘Otaku’ Elimination Game

Author: NovaJinx

War ain’t what it used to be.

Yeah yeah, I was gonna post about Durarara!! but that’ll be up for later. Right now I’m interested in something that was posted in the comments section of a post on the ‘Otaku’ Elimination Game. I’ve had a lot of thoughts surrounding it ever since it began but I’ve been holding myself from expressing them too much. Now I think it’s about time to let it loose.

OEG claims that the English anime fandom, more precisely blogs, has had an effect on Akihabara. This is very interesting and I decided to sort things out for myself by trying to write about it. You see, as someone utterly Japanese impaired I find it difficult to even think of English fandom having any kind of direct interaction with the Japanese fandom. This is because you can almost never observe it on the usual channels an active anime watcher hangs around at. To my knowledge I’ve only spoken with two Japanese persons on IRC within the last five years that I have spent in the scene. I can’t really blame any possible Japs for being secretive about their nationality though, it must feel like being an Asian girl in a generic Finnish anime convention. But the point is, I can’t see much direct interaction between the international and Japanese sides of anime fandom. Do Japanese anime fans read English anime blogs? No damn clue, although Awstats reports that Japan is the 4th most common nationality accessing my site, right after Finland, United States and Russia (…wtf, Russia?). So in short, Japanese anime fans are invisible to the bulk of the international fandom. Even if they were taking notes from how we do things, there’s no way we could ever know about it.

So I have concluded that the English fandom cannot have caused any real change in the attitudes of the people of Akihabara via direct interaction, or if it has there is no way for me to even know about it. Thus I must look at the indirect effects – in this case, business and financial effects. Japanese fans themselves might have ignored the international fandom but this hardly applies to the industry itself. The growing international interest in Japanese animation is something any businessman would immediately plan to exploit. But Japanese anime industry seems to be rather inexperienced with dealing with foreigners. This is where I believe Danny Choo and Singapore come in. I remember Tsubasa writing about Singapore being an unfortunate gray zone but that’s also what makes it a good bridge between the Japanese and Western businesses. Danny Choo leads the industry hand-in-hand into the scary world of global markets. Or at least that’s how I have come to understand it.

While Japanese companies go out, Danny Choo goes in. Not necessarily the man himself but the attitudes towards anime fandom that surround him and define his very image. Commercialism and consumerism now defined as the hallmark of a modern day otaku. I assume that this is the entire root of what has provoked such response as the ‘Otaku’ Elimination Game. Make otaku look cool, make it mainstream and acceptable, and make tons of cash. Sounds like a plan to me.

But I lack understanding on DC and the English anime blogosphere. There was a time when I thought I knew all I’d ever need about it but that seems to be the past now. OEG has made me realize that I know pretty much nothing at all. All I do know is that 2007 was a crazy year of anime blogging. A whole ton of blogs appeared, including mine, with Singaporeans pretty much spearheading the whole thing. Seriously, within days of my first contact with anime blogging I had already noticed how big Singapore was in the anime blogosphere. I never really came to think of it though, until now. But maybe 2007 was even crazier than I thought. That’s apparently when Danny Choo started making it big, during the latter half of the Haruhi boom and the rise KyoAnism. So was it in 2007 when things were set in motion? Hardly 3 years ago. Things must have been progressing fast.

So basically what all boils down to is that Danny Choo and much of the Singaporean bloggers have contributed to the consumerism that is now thought of as the defining factor of an otaku – at least according to OEG. That when you own X number of figurines and buy N number each month, you’re an otaku. Moreover, otaku has been made into something cool and desirable instead of repulsive and freaky. But you can’t blame it all on DC and Singaporeans. Genshiken and anime generally evolving into Lucky Star-type otaku in-joke fests have had a huge effect on the Western audience. Although this probably wasn’t their purpose and what happened outside Japan regarding these shows was merely a side effect nobody had really even thought of.

I’ve seen a similar thing happen with the Finnish airsoft scene. At one point it stopped being an immature underground nerd’s hobby and turned into serious, competitive sport. Suddenly such things as being a complete fucktard towards other players, doing everything just to get to win even if it ruins everyone else’s game, godmoding, forced chronometer checks on guns because players are not trusted and banning players from gaming areas became commonplace. People judge other players by how expensive equipment they have. If you don’t have at least an uniform with a genuine camo pattern, you’re nothing but trash. The more shit you buy and collect, the more dedicated and skilled airsofter you are. Airsoft as the gentlemen’s hobby has all but disappeared, as lamentable as it is.

Thus I entirely understand the motivation behind the OEG because I’ve seen somewhat similar evolution pretty much wiping out a beloved hobby of mine as I know it. Do I support the OEG’s “mission”? Not really, although I do not oppose it either. I am not an otaku and thus just a bystander who’s enjoying the show because it has brought something refreshing into the ’sphere. Looking forward to my own elimination.

Tags: blogging, rants, singapore, tl;dr