Japan, at least throughout a good portion of it's history, was one of many countries that used a strict caste society, where people that were out of the loop, like ronin [wanderers] or otaku [obsessive] were considered bad to be around.
Even after World War II and the opening of outside influences, these stigmas stuck. People who got kicked from college to college, or wandering from job to job, are still called ronin as a play on the term, and people who obsess are called otaku.
In America we didn't have that caste system to begin with, and as we grew as a nation we became almost synonymous with 'Individualism'. To be different was the norm. To be rebellious made you desireable.
Being an otaku, an outcast, is a twisted and mutated form of this individualism. Being an otaku means that you watch different things than the usual nighttime dramas or western cartoons. It meant 'being' a part of a culture that, to many people, was alien and strange.
Tl
r, we like otakus because otakus are different.
I don't cosplay either, and I think Animaniacs beats the pants off DragonBall Z. I will chill with some Evangelion, though.
On another note, one of the earlier threads I was commenting on was closed. I wanted to see the poster's reaction to my comment. Though it was for the best, the people who were on the thread killed it with insults.
