So how do people actually become otaku? What would drive someone to become a Pocky-scarfing, Asahi-swilling Narutard more interested in Tifa Lockheart and Rei Ayanami than any real girl?
Well, for most otaku, it probably starts with video games. Super Mario, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, all are good “gateway games” for an otaku. It’s especially easy for RPG fans to get interested in otaku culture, as most RPGs are straight out of Japan and involve a lot of anime artwork.
Anime is the segway to every other part of otaku culture. If otaku culture were drug abuse, anime would be marijuana. Once someone becomes curious about anime, they seemingly become opened up to an entire world of strange and wondrous pieces of Japanese pop culture. If said person already went through a few Japanese video games, this may pique an interest in all other parts of Japanese culture.
Compounding this whole thing is the age at which most people probably become otaku. By the time kids have racked up a few Japanese games and anime, they’re probably already in their teens, at which point they’ve thoroughly explored much of American culture already, and are just angsty enough to determine that quite a bit of American culture just sucks. Japanese culture on the otherhand is something new and different to them, and thus an otaku is born.
The most obvious shiny new toy for an otaku is manga. Having now watched an anime or two, the new otaku is now eager to check out the books that inspired the shows.
Next up are the cons. A place for anime and manga nerds to hang out and meet others like them? What new anime nerd wouldn’t jump at the opportunity. And thus, the eager young otaku goes off to one of many conventions to include anime and manga. If we are to use my earlier drug abuse analogy, then one would liken these cons to a crackhouse. Here the otaku finds cosplay, Jrock, Jpop, pocky, and many more new Japanese things to obsess over.
Cosplay is, without a doubt, a huge part of the cons. To many non-otaku, it seems strange that you would dress up as some anime character for a convention. To those who go to cons, however, it might seem strange that you wouldn’t. As with all cultures, there’s pressure to dress “normally,” and it’s a strange feeling to be the only one around NOT dressed in samurai robes, catears, or battle-robot gear.
Jrock and Jpop are also surprisingly easy to connect to cons and anime culture. Chances are an otaku has already heard Japanese music over and over again in video game after anime after movie. Thus, they become accustomed to it quite easily.
But what about pocky? Why does every anime nerd you know love it? Well that’s easy to explain as well. You only see pocky at EVERY con and in tons of manga magazine ads. As for sushi and Asahi, it’s about the same. They’re in anime, manga, cons… anywhere an otaku might look.
And what about the internet? Well damn, now otaku don’t even need cons to be flooded with ads for Jrock, pocky, other anime, video games, and all the rest. All you need to do is pop over to some anime or manga site, or even some nerdy American site, as they link to the nerdy Japanese sites too.
The funny thing about otaku is how they never really consider themselves to BE an otaku. My friend who wouldn’t loan me his manga unless I kept it in an airtight plastic bag when I transported it? My friend who never listens to anything other than Utada Hikaru and Ayumi Hamasaki? My friend who just borrowed Gankutsuou because she’s done with FLCL and she needs something to do until Death Note comes on? None of them think of themselves as otaku. It’s like even they are going off the stereotype of the fat, pimply kid who adjusts his glasses as he watches one of his 5000 torrented anime on his computer (when he isn’t eating more pocky or collecting anime figurines of course).
