Poll: Can girls be otaku?

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Mikeybb

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Without a doubt, yes.
I've met some who were at least close, if not hiding living the stereotype lifestyle.
 

Drathnoxis

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infohippie said:
Drathnoxis said:
Hentai - means pervert in Japan.
Well... Not exactly. It actually means "variant" or "alternative" and can be applied to people to imply "pervert".
Interestingly, the Japanese have also adopted the term "ecchi", which is simply a Japanese way of saying the English letter "H", but in this case it stands for "Hentai" and carries the connotations of the western use of "hentai" rather than the Japanese use.
That is interesting I never knew ecchi meant 'H'. Then to top it off English adopts the term ecchi to mean only softcore hentai. languages sure are weird.
 

infohippie

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Drathnoxis said:
infohippie said:
Drathnoxis said:
Hentai - means pervert in Japan.
Well... Not exactly. It actually means "variant" or "alternative" and can be applied to people to imply "pervert".
Interestingly, the Japanese have also adopted the term "ecchi", which is simply a Japanese way of saying the English letter "H", but in this case it stands for "Hentai" and carries the connotations of the western use of "hentai" rather than the Japanese use.
That is interesting I never knew ecchi meant 'H'. Then to top it off English adopts the term ecchi to mean only softcore hentai. languages sure are weird.
They are, it can be fascinating to see how a word morphs as it travels from one language to another, and in this case, back and forth a couple more times.
 

Rebel_Raven

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why on earth would you not want them to be an otaku? Safe to say a lot of people here are otaku, so being an otaku is a wonderful common ground that should be cherished instead of remaining a secret shame from the people close to a person. The more people can openly enjoy it, the better, IMO.
 

Imp_Emissary

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Parasitic_Chick said:
First let me state that I do know that the term otaku has several meanings (depending who you ask) but I am strictly inquiring about the gaming-lovin', anime/manga enthusiast, and merch collecting type of otaku.
Now that I got that out of the way I'll continue.

The reason why I ask is that throughout my years of being into JRPGs/anime/manga I have yet to see a girl being referred to as otaku. Being a girl myself I found this quite odd. Of course girls can be into games, Japanese pop-culture, anime etc etc but they don't usually seem to be referred to as otaku (both in real life and fictional). Why is that? Is it only guys that can be otaku? If so, then what are girls? Otakette?

Now either I'm a really oblivious, anti-social, basement hermit with no concept of otakus (which I am and don't) OR something else is going on. Either way I thought I'd ask the escapist community. And yes I know this is a extremely dumb question but in my experience the dumb questions are the most entertaining to answer.

Also I'm super sorry for the poor-ass grammar in this thread but I'm currently coming down from a Red-bull/foreign slasher movie binge and not exactly in the best state of mind.
Oh! :D I know of at least one Anime that does!


Haven't seen it myself, but from what JesuOtaku said and showed in this review it seems pretty good.

As for outside of Anime/fiction?
No idea. :/
 

cleric of the order

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Yeah, sure but why would you want to?
Also why would it matter anyway.
See as I figure it Nerd is the default term for the area otaku covers (AS IT IS NOT A RECENT LOAN WORD). Otaku itself is far more specific and far less accessible to those outside and so often the nerd scape would make divisions along that line.
To date I've only seen people identify as an otaku, perhaps it's my internet alignment but the proper term for most people like this is just, nerd or "fucking weeaboo".
It really is unnecessary to use the loan word itself


Shanicus said:
Western use of Otaku is more... I hate to say the word, but appropriation is best fitting, since it's taking this term that's not something you want to be called but 'cause it's related to anime/nerdy things it's like 'Yes, this is us!'. A looooot of cultural and social context is taken from the word when it's applied in non-japanese settings, to the point where you could probably argue a 'Western' Otaku is someone who happens to read the Manga and watch the anime of a show.
I disagree, loanword seems best fitting for this instance.
More over the term seems like an odd thing to apply to culture, language,etc.
Culture itself is something that tries to proliferate, spread and pass itself on, that sort of thing.
Orginally I believe the term entered the nerd idiolect when a bunch of Weeaboos took some Japanese and for whatever reason saw nothing wrong with calling themselves obsessive.
Then again a lot of weeaboos would actually fit the term "otaku" when you think about it. I'm running of urban dictionary and it sounds a lot like neckbeard, which replaced nerd, geek,etc in general meaning.
From that point onwards it likely spread out into moderate anime nerds, likely transmitted by young teens that spent way to long on anime forums and imageboards.
On a side note otaku is by no means as strong as bad as hikikomori is it?
Perhaps in common use there is a great deal of overlap between the two.
 

Dizchu

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My avatar is from Princess Jellyfish. The anime is pretty much an inversion of the "awkward teenage boy meets a dashing woman" trope that's all too common in anime and manga. Except for one character introduced later in the series, pretty much every female is an otaku.

It's a good series, I highly recommend it. Especially if you're looking for something that doesn't take place in a f***ing school for once.
 

Jandau

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Yes, they can, to the extent that the biggest Anime Weaboo fanatic I know is a girl, and we're talking about complete obsession levels here. She even refers to herself as an Otaku and I see no reason to dispute that. The second biggest anime fan and japanophile I know (who is far less fanatical) is also a girl. So yeah, girls can be Otaku.
 

Eclipse Dragon

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OP: Of course, sure no problem, I've always seen it used as a gender neutral term.

Response to where the thread seems to be going:

Wow words are fascinating. As stated before, Otaku has a negative connotation in Japan.
Hayao Miyazaki complained the anime industry was full of Otaku [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131872-Hayao-Miyazaki-Anime-Suffers-Because-the-Industry-is-Full-of-Otaku] and that is why the quality of anime is suffering.

The term "otaku" has a rather negative connotation in Japan and is used more to classify fans who obsess over something (this need not be anime). Miyazaki's specific concerns are over the lack of attention paid to people in real life. He said people in the industry "don't spend time watching real people" and can be characterized as "humans who can't stand looking at other humans." He then called the industry "full of otaku."
So I read this as he's basically saying these "otaku" are so afraid/disgusted by real humans that they check out from reality and prefer to live completely in their own fantasy worlds. That's pretty damn insulting.

Anyway, this is how I understand some of these words (English usage, I can't speak at all for the Japanese usage).

Anime: Animation specifically from Japan[footnote]though there's debate of whether animation made elsewhere but copies the style of anime (such as Avatar) is still considered anime[/footnote]

Otaku: A big fan of anime, may branch to Japanese video games and other Japanese things in general.

Fujoshi: A big (female) fan of yaoi

Weeaboo: (negative) someone so obsessed with Japan that they literally want to be Japanese.

Geek: (umbrella term) A big fan of something.

Nerd: A very smart person who traditionally wore glasses and knew how to use a computer well, definition is changing, now means basically the same as geek but may still be used toward somebody who knows a lot about tech.

Neckbeard: (Negative) (Male) replaced geek because geeks are cool now, carries other negative connotations, but I can't say specifically what they are.

Basement Dweller (negative) Gender neutral replacement for geek.