The Sad Case of Malaysian "Otaku"

Otaku (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games. A female otaku is occasionally referred to as a fujoshi

Wikipedia Otaku Definition

First and foremost, let me clarify one thing. I am not an otaku. I never was an otaku, and I never referred to myself as one. I have never been a hardcore fans of animes/mangas; I just like to watch them, but never to the point of obsessive interest. Even though this blog is mostly about Japanese anime news and such, I just did it for fun. And thus why I think I have the right on commenting about this issue. What issue do you ask? Well it's about the so called Malaysian “Otakus”

This issue first arose when I was talking with Emina's Fazri about the lack of sales for the recent May'n concert tickets. We were lamenting that while there are a lot of Anime fans in Malaysia, not many know of her and her relationship with Macross Frontier. And we were also laughing about the fact that most of these fans are calling themselves otakus, even tho just about the things that they know about animes were, in no particular order, Bleach and/or Naruto.

As quoted above, an otaku is someone who is really obsessed with something. Ask them about their particular line of interest, and they will sure be able to tell and describe to you any facts about it. As such, an AniWota in Japan is regarded as one of the most important core target in terms of merchandising and DVD/Blu-Ray sales, since these are the guys who will fork out whatever and however much is needed to acquire that item. Thus why we are seeing how the direction of anime as a whole itself is changing, as they are trying to cater to the needs of these group. What they want, is what the anime studios will give them.

Certainly they are quite a powerful group, but why are we talking about them in the first place? Well easy. It's for comparison. If you are a so called otaku from Malaysia, try asking yourself, how much do you really know about the anime you watch? More on that later on. Honestly in Malaysia there lies a misconception that if you watch anime, you're automatically an “otaku”. WTF wei, most of you don't even know what the word really mean but you classify yourself as one? Do you know the na

mes of every seiyuu? Do you buy all the DVD/Blu-Ray releases of the series? Oh wait, talking about that, let me clarify that Bootleg DVDs from Hong Kong does not count. Seriously, ask any Nartuo or Bleachfags about the Seiyuu from the series and chances are, only a minority can name them.

Talking about seiyuus, how many of the so called local otakus knows name like Sakamoto Maaya? Fukuyama Jun? The awesome Tomokazu Sugita? Hayashibara Megumi? Or even Norio Wakamoto? I am thankful that we have someone like j1m0ne in Malaysia. Her blog is a good read for any seiyuu fans, and what made me started to learn about the seiyuus behind the a series in the first place. There is, however, just so much that a blog can do, and most of the so called “otakus” out there don't even bother to visit sites like these.

Merchandising is also something that I really feel these so called “otaku” fail at. Miserably. Reading threads like this, this and this, I wonder if they really KNOW what original merchandise really means. I don't think they are THAT stupid to not realise that the HK bootlegs DVD/VCDs are not original. But then again this is Malaysia. How do you show support for that particular series? Sure, by buying bootlegs of it, and proudly show them off…

A real otaku would go and try to buy the original release of that particular series. Ini kalau beli DVD cap ayam, pastu nak mengaku otaku? PTUI! Heck, even the figurines they buy are the Chinese knock off that cost just a fraction. And they are saying they are proud to be fans. Fans that are making the pirates richer by leeching off the hard work of others? Bah!

Seriously, if you think you're a REAL otaku, try compare your level to one awesome non-otaku, Shinn87. If you find yourself not on par on his level, then dream on. Heck, the only person in real life that I can consider a real otaku is a friend of mine. Not only he's knowledgeable in many animes, he also frequents Japanese discussion boards, thus he's usually my source of news.

So what's this article is about actually? Well not much. I just feel like talking about it. Drop us a comment if you feel that we are doing it wrong.