“Cause It’s Cool”
In middle school I wasn’t a very interesting person. I had friends and good grades but I never really put myself out there except my personality. Like many people in middle school I was first exposed to anime and eventually manga. The usual stuff, Death Note and Dragonball, which I only read much later, was what everyone watched at the time. I used to watch on pirate sites that were liable to give you a virus or some overclocking on my parents’ cheap old laptop. It was just cool and I had something to talk about at school. That’s all it ever was at the time, interesting but just something to watch. I came to learn that it would have a bigger impact on my life. Eventually I would learn that I could share this same passion with other people.
As I moved into high school a lot of people moved onto watching the latest anime, but after a new computer of my own and my own allowance, my life’s path changed drastically. Starting with random youtube clips of 80s/90s era anime, I had this lust for knowledge that went past the first couple results on Google. This led me to anime forums, where the only people that had any deep knowledge on these series lurked. I had come to learn that manga and anime are part of a subculture, Otaku culture, through an old 2007 web article and some blogs that also thirsted for more.
Otaku culture is basically nerd culture, just like in America, it’s an obsession with anime, manga, or video games. What separates it from being just any other obsession is that Otaku are more than just fans, they’re creators, they’re family. Events like Comiket are some of the largest fan conventions in the world, originally dedicated to hosting fan circles that self publish, video games, anime, and especially manga based on existing properties. This is how many people start in the industry and find their own thing to inspire other creators, it’s a culture that allows itself to grow. One of my favorite lessons on Otaku culture is the word origin itself. It’s quite muddled, but Otaku is derived from Japanese for “you” which uses the same kanji for “home.” It’s an antiquated way for people who aren’t wholly intimate to address each other like equals. This is the family that Otaku culture builds.
Elitism and seclusion are common and being able to “infiltrate” with my limited knowledge really made me attached to learning as much as I can. Why’d I want to follow an internet culture instead of focusing on doing more than average in school, write better essays to get into a good college? Why would I bother to devote most of young teenage life to argue about what’s dated or important to the industry? Because someone somewhere, or a small group of people, sweat in a small studio for crap pay to handcraft some of the greatest pen to screen displays people have seen. People give back to the community that came to welcome them, despite the fact that it wasn’t friendly to them. People the world over are in awe but don’t realize the humble origins as someone’s simple obsession. Now with a high schooler in 2016 realizing he’s a part of it all now. Why did we all do it then? Because it’s cool.
Entering college, I genuinely had no idea what to really study, I chose Psych since it sounded somewhat important. I didn’t really have a direction in life up to that point. It wasn’t until a close friend of mine said that the Japanese elective class I took sounded cool, hearing that phrase “it sounds cool” gave me that same rush from when I was in high school again. It was so obvious, why not switch over to a major that could possibly allow me to truly get close to anime and manga, and finally get the opportunity to give back to the culture that I wanted to be inducted to. I switched over to Global Studies and I felt like I was promoted to an adult, the authority to do something I care about. Was it lucrative, can I make a living wage off of it? Who cares, it was too cool to pass up. It was more than a hobby or passion at this point and I really did have to fill the shoes now, now people are gonna read and trust my words.
It wasn’t until now in my sophomore year in college that I could really learn and study to inform others that yeah, we can be taken seriously, especially in a world that’s acknowledging how cool it really is. I was scared it was just a crack dream, writing about the impacts on globalization and anime was far-fetched and just some childish rant. Finding academic sources on Otaku culture is like coming home to your childhood home, being surrounded by people you’ve grown up with. I can write an academic paper with actual evidence to back it, I wasn’t alone anymore.
These people, complete strangers, live and die to keep the memory of series like Gundam or Macross alive and I was addicted, I wanted to be just like that. They aren’t inspiring me to do well in school or get a scholarship, they’re just people who want to share it with those who understand. In high school, many others understood, you just didn’t know yet. You were able to make their day if you mention some obscure series, it was like being a little kid inducted to some secret club. You could even become friends for life. If you were to move away you’d keep in touch, Otaku culture is digital after all.
I’m hoping changing that perception will lead to a proper recognition of the people who take time out of their day to make sure the Otaku identity is as cool as possible. For my Global Studies class one year, I came across Database Animals, a book in our library that was about Otaku culture and how much of an impact it has on Japan in the modern era. The preface itself was about how Kiroki Azuma, the author, said this was one of the first real academic publishings on Otaku culture, a subject previously not taken seriously. This made a light go off in my head, there’s still so much for people in our modern era, increasingly becoming more global and connected, that need to know how Otaku culture has bled into our lives.
The word “cool” is special because of Otaku culture. It’s what you use when you’re in utter awe and have nothing else to say, despite the fact it’s beyond just cool. People pour their lives into the pursuit of making something they and others deem cool. From Shonen Jump to Animal House magazines, it really feels like I’m now part of something bigger than myself, a place I can properly admit I’m a part of.
In middle school I wasn’t a very interesting person. I had friends and good grades but I never really put myself out there except my personality. Like many people in middle school I was first exposed to anime and eventually manga. The usual stuff, Death Note and Dragonball, which I only read much later, was what everyone watched at the time. I used to watch on pirate sites that were liable to give you a virus or some overclocking on my parents’ cheap old laptop. It was just cool and I had something to talk about at school. That’s all it ever was at the time, interesting but just something to watch. I came to learn that it would have a bigger impact on my life. Eventually I would learn that I could share this same passion with other people.
As I moved into high school a lot of people moved onto watching the latest anime, but after a new computer of my own and my own allowance, my life’s path changed drastically. Starting with random youtube clips of 80s/90s era anime, I had this lust for knowledge that went past the first couple results on Google. This led me to anime forums, where the only people that had any deep knowledge on these series lurked. I had come to learn that manga and anime are part of a subculture, Otaku culture, through an old 2007 web article and some blogs that also thirsted for more.
Otaku culture is basically nerd culture, just like in America, it’s an obsession with anime, manga, or video games. What separates it from being just any other obsession is that Otaku are more than just fans, they’re creators, they’re family. Events like Comiket are some of the largest fan conventions in the world, originally dedicated to hosting fan circles that self publish, video games, anime, and especially manga based on existing properties. This is how many people start in the industry and find their own thing to inspire other creators, it’s a culture that allows itself to grow. One of my favorite lessons on Otaku culture is the word origin itself. It’s quite muddled, but Otaku is derived from Japanese for “you” which uses the same kanji for “home.” It’s an antiquated way for people who aren’t wholly intimate to address each other like equals. This is the family that Otaku culture builds.
Elitism and seclusion are common and being able to “infiltrate” with my limited knowledge really made me attached to learning as much as I can. Why’d I want to follow an internet culture instead of focusing on doing more than average in school, write better essays to get into a good college? Why would I bother to devote most of young teenage life to argue about what’s dated or important to the industry? Because someone somewhere, or a small group of people, sweat in a small studio for crap pay to handcraft some of the greatest pen to screen displays people have seen. People give back to the community that came to welcome them, despite the fact that it wasn’t friendly to them. People the world over are in awe but don’t realize the humble origins as someone’s simple obsession. Now with a high schooler in 2016 realizing he’s a part of it all now. Why did we all do it then? Because it’s cool.
Entering college, I genuinely had no idea what to really study, I chose Psych since it sounded somewhat important. I didn’t really have a direction in life up to that point. It wasn’t until a close friend of mine said that the Japanese elective class I took sounded cool, hearing that phrase “it sounds cool” gave me that same rush from when I was in high school again. It was so obvious, why not switch over to a major that could possibly allow me to truly get close to anime and manga, and finally get the opportunity to give back to the culture that I wanted to be inducted to. I switched over to Global Studies and I felt like I was promoted to an adult, the authority to do something I care about. Was it lucrative, can I make a living wage off of it? Who cares, it was too cool to pass up. It was more than a hobby or passion at this point and I really did have to fill the shoes now, now people are gonna read and trust my words.
It wasn’t until now in my sophomore year in college that I could really learn and study to inform others that yeah, we can be taken seriously, especially in a world that’s acknowledging how cool it really is. I was scared it was just a crack dream, writing about the impacts on globalization and anime was far-fetched and just some childish rant. Finding academic sources on Otaku culture is like coming home to your childhood home, being surrounded by people you’ve grown up with. I can write an academic paper with actual evidence to back it, I wasn’t alone anymore.
These people, complete strangers, live and die to keep the memory of series like Gundam or Macross alive and I was addicted, I wanted to be just like that. They aren’t inspiring me to do well in school or get a scholarship, they’re just people who want to share it with those who understand. In high school, many others understood, you just didn’t know yet. You were able to make their day if you mention some obscure series, it was like being a little kid inducted to some secret club. You could even become friends for life. If you were to move away you’d keep in touch, Otaku culture is digital after all.
I’m hoping changing that perception will lead to a proper recognition of the people who take time out of their day to make sure the Otaku identity is as cool as possible. For my Global Studies class one year, I came across Database Animals, a book in our library that was about Otaku culture and how much of an impact it has on Japan in the modern era. The preface itself was about how Kiroki Azuma, the author, said this was one of the first real academic publishings on Otaku culture, a subject previously not taken seriously. This made a light go off in my head, there’s still so much for people in our modern era, increasingly becoming more global and connected, that need to know how Otaku culture has bled into our lives.
The word “cool” is special because of Otaku culture. It’s what you use when you’re in utter awe and have nothing else to say, despite the fact it’s beyond just cool. People pour their lives into the pursuit of making something they and others deem cool. From Shonen Jump to Animal House magazines, it really feels like I’m now part of something bigger than myself, a place I can properly admit I’m a part of.