Is "Otaku" what everyone thinks it is?

Cocaine dog

Joined August 2013

Topic Starter

Cocaine dog 2014-10-25T13:00:27+00:00

I heard from someone that the word itself had nothing to do with Anime etc, it's just basicly ment as "Hobby" or being obssesed with something( in general ).
Is this true? Or is it actually a word for anime culture or w/e

deadbeat

osu! Alumni

9,218 posts

Joined June 2009

deadbeat 2014-10-25T13:14:13+00:00

gonna move this to Otaku Culture. I believe there is a thread about this, but i couldn't see it. most likely just went right past it x.x
anyway, for the most part, no. there is a western version of this for someone who likes anime and stuff like that, but the japan meaning is something completely different if i'm correct. someone like Navizel or mogs will be able to explain better i think

also i don't want to see flaming or anything in here. let's keep this serious(amusing i don't lock this and move to a thread that may or may not exist)

KinkiN

2,626 posts

Joined March 2012

KinkiN 2014-10-25T13:57:15+00:00

deadbeat wrote:
gonna move this to Otaku Culture. I believe there is a thread about this, but i couldn't see it. most likely just went right past it x.x
anyway, for the most part, no. there is a western version of this for someone who likes anime and stuff like that, but the japan meaning is something completely different if i'm correct. someone like Navizel or mogs will be able to explain better i think

also i don't want to see flaming or anything in here. let's keep this serious(amusing i don't lock this and move to a thread that may or may not exist)

yes you are correct i believe.

according to wikipedia, iirc (I'm not going to open it lol too much work) Otaku is a term of nerd in Japanese. In Japan, nerd is basically common with anime-manga-games and stuff. to call it " being obsessed with something " is also partially true, because Japan had Train Otakus and stuff

Furasaki

53 posts

Joined June 2014

Furasaki 2014-11-04T14:33:46+00:00

Otaku in japanese means obsessed or nerd. In western culture it probably means anime fan

Gumpy

2,418 posts

Joined June 2014

Gumpy 2014-11-04T18:45:45+00:00

xKageOkamix wrote:
Otaku in japanese means obsessed or nerd.

So a good thing basically.

The Winner Man

0 posts

Joined November 2012

The Winner Man 2014-11-05T04:37:01+00:00

If you think that has a good connotation then sure. For me otaku means that anime/manga plays some kind of role in your life like a hobby or something. You don't have to be entirely obsessed with it but just enough that you actively follow it. I'm pretty sure the word itself doesn't have to mean anime/manga though it's just generally used for it.