I'm not sure how to react to this...but I want to react, it bears a reaction. So uh, bear with me I guess. Rambling ahead:
First off, the whole Densha Otoko thing amuses me. I love Densha Otoko (Well the TV Show), but not because the geek got the girl (okay it's nice) but more because the forum goers are hilarious. I understand it's a "hyper reality" where everything is a cliche and not a fair representation of reality.
Secondly, I don't get the "spectacles" remark. I think glasses make a girl sexy. But I mean girls that are 18+ The loli thing yeah, that's pretty wrong.
Third, I don't understand the allure of maid cafes the same way I don't understand the allure of "Hooters" or strip clubs. My friends took me to a topless bar for my 18th Birthday so I can say I've actually been but I didn't see the point. Hell (and lord this shows how much of a geek I am) Cyclops put it best speaking to an exotic dancer in one issue of Grant Morrision's run:
I mean, don't get me wrong, you look beautiful, it's just that...it's not real is it? It's just your job to create a fantasy...you're not my girlfriend and all we're really sharing is some weird financial transaction which is helping you through college.
I know you probably have jeans and a sweater to change into backstage and a boyfriend back home. I can't fool myself that there's anything more to this.
Which I guess is the point huh? The people who frequent these places can fool themselves, can't they?
As far as otaku being taken advantage of by marketers...well I have Evangelion all on VHS, all on DVD, and the director's cut DVD's. When the platinum editions came out I refused to buy the series again.
Rikkisimons pointed out "that she's suffering the pain many of us feel when our favourite thing has finally reached the exploitation level." and yeah, I've been there. On a forum I used to frequent we invented a name to seperate the "trendy" otakus (the "narutards" if you will) from ourselves who got into the genre back when seeing the Dragonball movies meant finding a shady store with bootleg copies that were fansubed. We created the term "Noobtaku" the definition of which being "an anime fan that gets all their knowledge of anime from Cartoon Network"
I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here. I used to call myself an otaku (I still call myself a fanboy) so I just felt the need to type down a reaction.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-05-14 07:08 am (UTC)HMM...
I'm not sure how to react to this...but I want to react, it bears a reaction. So uh, bear with me I guess. Rambling ahead:
First off, the whole Densha Otoko thing amuses me. I love Densha Otoko (Well the TV Show), but not because the geek got the girl (okay it's nice) but more because the forum goers are hilarious. I understand it's a "hyper reality" where everything is a cliche and not a fair representation of reality.
Secondly, I don't get the "spectacles" remark. I think glasses make a girl sexy. But I mean girls that are 18+ The loli thing yeah, that's pretty wrong.
Third, I don't understand the allure of maid cafes the same way I don't understand the allure of "Hooters" or strip clubs. My friends took me to a topless bar for my 18th Birthday so I can say I've actually been but I didn't see the point. Hell (and lord this shows how much of a geek I am) Cyclops put it best speaking to an exotic dancer in one issue of Grant Morrision's run:
I mean, don't get me wrong, you look beautiful, it's just that...it's not real is it? It's just your job to create a fantasy...you're not my girlfriend and all we're really sharing is some weird financial transaction which is helping you through college.
I know you probably have jeans and a sweater to change into backstage and a boyfriend back home. I can't fool myself that there's anything more to this.
Which I guess is the point huh? The people who frequent these places can fool themselves, can't they?
As far as otaku being taken advantage of by marketers...well I have Evangelion all on VHS, all on DVD, and the director's cut DVD's. When the platinum editions came out I refused to buy the series again.
Rikkisimons pointed out "that she's suffering the pain many of us feel when our favourite thing has finally reached the exploitation level." and yeah, I've been there. On a forum I used to frequent we invented a name to seperate the "trendy" otakus (the "narutards" if you will) from ourselves who got into the genre back when seeing the Dragonball movies meant finding a shady store with bootleg copies that were fansubed. We created the term "Noobtaku" the definition of which being "an anime fan that gets all their knowledge of anime from Cartoon Network"
I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here. I used to call myself an otaku (I still call myself a fanboy) so I just felt the need to type down a reaction.
Sorry for the ramblings.