Self-introduction: Hamza Faraz Karamat and Yang Fan are graduate students enrolled at Kyoto

University with a keen interest in perceptions surrounding the idea of Otaku. This project is the
result of a course line that aims to cover the idea of Popular Culture in and the transculturality
involved in the development and recursive nature of particular phenomena associated with
Japan, including the idea of the Otaku and how its meaning has come to change with the
increasing dissemination of contemporary Japanese media artifacts in Greater China and
Southeast Asia.

Hamza Faraz Karamat is a graduate student at the School of Letters, majoring in Transcultural
Studies with a focus on Visual Media and Material Culture. His research particularly deals with
contemporary Japanese Cinema from the turn of the twenty-first century, and anti-authoritarian
Pakistani films from the late twentieth century. While the community of self-described Otakus in
Pakistan is relatively small compared to countries such as China and India, Karamat grew to
develop an interest in the emergence of the Anime, Comics, and Games (ACG) subculture,
particularly with the introduction of streaming services in the 2010s. Since arriving in Japan for
his graduate studies, Karamat began questioning the variation in perception and consumption of
Japanese ACG products in Japan as opposed to his country of origin.

Yang Fan is a graduate student at the School of Human and Environmental Studies with a focus
on Intercultural communication and understanding. She is focusing on studying people’s
perceptions and the interpretations of untranslatable cultural concepts in various languages,
especially Japanese and Chinese. She likes watching Anime, reading Manga, and idenifies as
an Otaku of ACG culture. This also the reason why she chose the topic of this project. During
the whole project, she met and talked with some non-Japanese Otaku, their opinion inspired her
a lot, helping her understand the diversity within the Otaku community.

Research question: In this project, which analyzes the perception of Otakus, both introspectively
and through prior depictions of the type of content consumed by the participants therein, we aim
to uncover the development of personal narratives within a community that identifies with this
complex and contentious term. In their book, ‘Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical
Perspectives and New Horizons’, Galbraith, Kam, and Kamm discuss the controversial nature of
the term Otaku itself, citing its simple origins as a second-person pronoun for an unfamiliar
family unit. While we acknowledge the loaded nature of terms like Otaku and the flexible means
by which they have been employed, for the sake of grounding this discussion, the project has
based its understanding of the term on Takahiro Ueda’s definition, which takes a more neutral
approach in referring to Otaku as an extension of subculture fandoms. This project focused on
the realm of Anime, Comics, and Games, owing to its frequency in our interviews as a core
interest for participants.

The project aims to contextualize the use of interviews and the content therein by juxtaposing it
with a select filmography that deals with Otaku culture in either implicit or explicit manners. The
chosen filmography, which consists of Otaku No Video (1991), Perfect Blue (1997), and Neon
Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997), were all produced and, to varying degrees
are the product of what Patrick W. Galbraith and Bjorn-Ole Kamm refer to as the ‘moral panic’
that followed the media coverage of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki. All three films present
varying images of the vices of ‘Otaku Culture’, as it was understood in the 1990s. The character
of Me-Mania in Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue (1997) is perhaps the most transparent example of
the ‘moral panic’ put to screen in all three films, with Craig Norris, in his article ‘Perfect Blue and
the Negative Representation of Fans’ describing Kon’s approach to depicting Otaku in a similar
light to that of Azuma Hiroki and other scholars of the early 2000s, that take a critical but
indeterminate approach to the notion of Otaku.

This study takes the skeptical notions posited by later scholars on the supposed phenomenon of
Otaku, such as Galbraith, Kam, and Kamm, in viewing Otaku as a Recursive Identification
formed both introspectively within particular fandoms and externally via media depiction and
popular understanding of the term. In doing so, these two phenomena inform and develop in
relation to one another. It also entertains Norris’ notion that there is an internalized distinction
experienced by fandoms related to Japanese media, both in media discourse as well as within
themselves, as opposed to being sorted with similar fandoms the world over. For this reason,
the term Otaku here is closely related to the idea of ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games). The
main questions being addressed are:

● How do Otaku reconcile with their self-identification?

● How does this contrast with media depictions of Otaku in the 1990s?
● Based on the participant’s experience, is Otaku gaining a broader sense of acceptance?

Through the interviews, we intended to gauge the change in perspective that has occurred since
the negative perception of Otaku began to circulate in the 1990s as well as how self-identified
Otaku accomadate the increased mainstreaming of the term itself. Additionally, the specificity of
the sample being used aims to address a particular sort of Otaku rarely addressed in literature
from the 1990s and early 2000s, as will be discussed in the successive section.

Method:
When research focuses on revealing the behavior and perception of a group of people
concerning a complicated or ambiguous phenomenon rather than involving the explicit testing of
hypotheses, a small sample-based qualitative approach called Interpretative Phenomenological
Analysis (IPA) is desirable. IPA is a novel qualitative analysis exploring how participants make
sense of their personal and social world (Smith & Osborn, 2007). The main theoretical
underpinnings of IPA are phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography (Smith & Osborn,
2007). The approach is phenomenological in that it is concerned with an individual’s perception
or account of an object or event (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012), hermeneutical in that it includes
a two-stage interpretation process in which the participants are trying to make sense of their
world. The researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their
world (Smith & Osborn, 2007). IPA is also said to be fundamentally idiographic in that it is
committed to the detailed analysis of an individual phenomenon under investigation (Tuffour,
2017). IPA studies contain elements of both types of interpretation, making the analysis richer
and more comprehensive (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2012). Consequently, IPA is satisfactory for
cultural studies. Therefore, we applied IPA in this project to study people’s perceptions of Otaku
culture.

The mainstream workflow of IPA has been summarized into 3 stages (Smith & Osborn, 2011):
● using the semi-structured interviews to collect data
● transcribing the recording
● do thematic analysis on the transcription.

Based on the instructions of IPA studies, we applied the same procedure in this project.
● Semi-structured interview:
In the first stage, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with three non-
Japanese students one by one at Kyoto University.

Participant 1: A Chinese male, 27, studying in Japan for the past two years.
Participant 2: A Thai male, 24, studying in Japan for the past two months.
Participant 3: A Chinese female, studying in Japan for the past five years.

We chose non-Japanese samples because previous studies mainly focused on

Japanese participants' perceptions of Otaku. There is a lack of responses from non-
Japanese participants on Otaku, ergo non-Japanese participants were selected for our
study. Also, as mentioned in the previous section, ACG is a term used in some
subcultures of Greater China and Southeast Asia. We limited the scope to participants
from these regions for greater specificity. Before the interviews, we made sufficient
preparations to ensure ethical conduct. In particular, we identified the interview structure
and questions. We divided the interviews into 3 parts, the first consists of basic
questions identifying the participants. The second part is about people’s general
perception of Otaku culture. And the third part revolves on three keywords: escapism,
obsession, and infantilism and gauges the idea of long-term developmental problems.
These keywords come from the analysis of three otaku-related movies: End of
Evangelion (1997), Perfect Blue (1997), and Otaku no Video (1991). Examples of our
interview questions include:

Basic question: Nationality/ Gender/ Age / Career / Do you consider yourself an otaku?
Perception question: How do you understand the concept of Otaku? / Do you think
“Otaku” has a more positive or negative meaning or a neutral meaning?
Film-related question: Are you aware of any instances of Otaku depiction in Japanese
entertainment media?

● Recording and Transcribing

With the participants' approval, the whole interviews were recorded with a smartphone,
and the quality of the recordings was guaranteed. Then we transcribed the audio files
into text with the help of Otter.ai. All of the audio files are double-checked to confirm
semantic accuracy. The transcriptions are at the semantic level, meaning that they
include not only the statements made by interviewers and interviewees but also all of the
 spoken words such as false starts, significant pauses, laughs, and other features in
conversation.
● Thematic analysis
After finishing the transcriptions, we conducted a thematic analysis utilizing the software
MAXQDA. The thematic analysis consists of looking for themes that emerged in
transcriptions, coding the themes by doing free text analysis, connecting themes in
clusters, and defining the superordinate concepts. The identifiers are added to each
instance to aid the organization of the analysis and facilitate finding the source.

Outcome:
Among the key notions was a recurring pattern within the subject’s self-identification, in that they
always associated the term with the idea of Anime, Comics, and Games. There was a specific
distinction when it came to films, television, and streaming media wherein the participants
specifically referred to productions associated with Japan. Within the realm of video games,
however, there appeared to be far more leniency and variety, with subjects citing games such
as Counter-Strike: GO alongside Gal-Games and Visual Novels.

Subjects unanimously associated the genesis of their association with Otaku with their high
school days, where they tended to cite interactions with ‘Otaku friends’ as a gateway into
fandom and subsequent self-identification in-kind – both online forums and real-life meet-ups
such as conventions were referenced as spaces of engagement and exchange. Additionally,
there appeared to be instances where the subjects, specifically the two male interviewees,
referred to a perceived hierarchy within what they described as Otaku. Participant 1 referred to
this phenomenon in ‘tiers’, highlighting how ‘Higher Otaku’ tend to exercise a degree of authority
within fandoms and how they tend to stand out most visibly. Participant 2 concurred with this
notion in a separate instance, citing survivor bias at comic conventions and anime conferences,
where he argued that the visibility of more dedicated or ‘extreme Otaku’ was the primary reason
for any popular, negative perceptions of Otaku in the media. What remained absent from the
discussion was the perceived ‘moral panic’ described by Galbraith, Kam, and Kamm –
specifically about the events surrounding Tsutomu Miyazaki. Instead, rather than citing negative
perceptions as a consequence of criminal activity, subjects cited consistent themes of lethargy,
hygiene, and other superficial stereotypes including ideas discussed by Galbraith concerning
the notion of the failed male. Participant 1 contrasted his experience in China with Japan, citing
how Japanese people maintain a greater degree of association with Otaku and criminal activity
than in his home country of China. This is further corroborated by the fact that the length of stay
in Japan for each interviewee seemed to affect their perception of Otaku culture, with Participant
3 expressing considerably more skeptical views than Participant 1.

These responses indicate a great degree of development and variation from the depictions and
attitudes in the aforementioned films. While in the 1990s, characters such as Me-Mania from
Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue (1997) indicated a pressing danger associated with Otaku and its
perceived obsessive undertones, the participants in question presented a far more tame image
of what constitutes the subculture. The participants did indicate, however, that some of the
negative stereotypes presented on-screen were based on some reality according to their
experiences. Participant 1, for example, when questioned about the metanarrative undertones
of Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion (1997) acknowledged that the director, Hideaki
Anno, was justified in his grievances with Otaku culture. In the film, Anno inserts several emails
and threats he received in response to the Evangelion series’ original ending, as the film
culminates towards its final climax. The participant, expressing his familiarity with the issue,
cited that the behavior of some within the fandom informs the negative notions that continue to
surround Otakus. Participants 2 and 3 concurred with this notion on separate occasions, with
both citing that Kon, Anno and Takeshi Mori’s experience with the community formed the basis
for a somewhat informed depiction. This argument contrasts Kamm’s earlier interview with
Japanese Otakus, who “insisted that they and their activities in no way resemble the negative
portrayals in the media” (Kamm, 2015, Opening the Black Box of 1989: Otaku Discourse, p. 3).
Instead, amongst the non-Japanese Otaku interviewed for our project, we found a considerable
degree of self-awareness about such stereotypes, vindicated through their personal
experiences within such circles. In general, all interviewees cited relatively ambivalent
perceptions of Otaku in their countries of origin as opposed to what they had experienced in
Japan. For this same reason, Participants 1 and 3 were quick to point out their lack of perceived
offense concerning such depictions, citing how they weren’t able to identify with them and had
rarely ever been associated with suc perceptions at home.

It merits mentioning, however, that while accepting some of the negative depictions of Otaku in
the media as somewhat valid for some members of the community, the participants were quick
to point out the hypocrisy of what they described as the dissonance between Otaku and what all
of the participant described as ‘useful/helpful obsessions’, pointing to examples such as sports,
studies and other economically beneficial occupations associated the idea of Riajuu (リア充), a
term which contrast the ‘realness’ of certain past-times with the perceived fictitiousness of activities
associated with Otaku. However, instead of distancing themselves from certain practices perceived as
‘unproductive’, Participants 1 and 3 pointed out how the ACG subculture and their respective Otaku can
productively apply their interests. Drawing from the example given in Takeshi Mori’s Otaku no Video
(1991), Participant 1 referenced a colleague who he described as a Video Game Otaku who
was able to combine his interest in a game environment with his architectural practice to pursue
a career in game design. Participant 3 expressed similar sentiments, citing how anime in
particular aided her in her writing interest. While Mori’s film intended to create a distinction
between the mundane lives of its ‘interviewees’ and the animated section of the film which acted
as an Otaku power fantasy, the participants we interviewed perceived less of a distinction
between ‘useful’ and ‘fictitious’ past-times.

Two decades on from the works of Azuma Hiroki, Murakami Takashi, and Okada Toshio, there
appears to be a considerable shift in perspective bolstered by increasing economic and
ideological benefits associated with the export of ACG material from Japan. While some of the
negative stereotypes associated with Otaku seem to also follow the export of the material itself,
it is interesting to note how variations within these perceptions appear to have emerged in
polities within Japan’s mediasphere and ideosphere of influence. Japan’s initiatives to engage
its neighbors and the global market through measures such as Cool Japan, and public shows of
support as with Taro Aso’s Akihabara speech celebrating the value of Otaku, seem to indicate a
strong economic motive pushing the idea of Otaku into the mainstream. The increasing
internationalization of the Otaku experience seems to be altering once-held negative
perceptions into more nuanced ones that acknowledge the impact of media coverage in Japan
in the 1990s while forging a new means of identification independent of such perceptions from
the past. The development of new ideas surrounding the term from the very economies that
Japan seeked to exercise soft-power in, now appear to be steering the narrative around the
term and the values associated with it, both through economic and democratic means.

Resources:

Ueda, Takahiro. “Otaku Culture and Its Discontents” A Record of Talk Delivered at “The Colloquium
in Visual and Cultural Studies” University of Rochester, New York, United States of America,
October 17, 2007.

Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam and Björn-Ole Kamm. “Debating Otaku in Contemporary
Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons”, May 21, 2015: 21-34

Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam and Björn-Ole Kamm. “Debating Otaku in Contemporary
Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons”, May 21, 2015: 1-19

Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam and Björn-Ole Kamm. “Debating Otaku in Contemporary
Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons”, May 21, 2015: 51-70

Norris, Craig. “Perfect Blue and the negative representation of fans”Journal of Japanese and Korean
Cinema, no. 3 (November 2012): 69-86. DOI:10.1386/jjkc.4.1.69_1