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otaku (Page 23)

The four new classes of modern otaku

Which otaku quadrant do you fall into?

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Anime girlfriend kiss-flavored candy: The lonely otaku’s new favorite snack?

Does best girl taste best, too?

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Will the fact that they’re perpetually soft boost or hinder sales?

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When running a full marathon, you want to make sure you’re outfitted with the proper equipment, like supportive, well-cushioned athletic shoes, sunglasses to keep the glare out of your eyes, and, of course, a frilly anime magical girl skirt so you can cosplay as you run.

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New cushions let you achieve the dream of sitting on your anime crush’s face

Do you love you anime crush enough to sit on his face?

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Following their conquest of Japan, the high school idols of hit anime Love Live! have their eyes set on the rest of the world, with an international release for their first theatrical feature. But even that might not be a big enough stage for the animated vocalists. They’re now on their way to taking over the skies as well, since you can now watch Love Live! anime on selected flights on, of all carriers, Qatar Airways.

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Need a date for Christmas Eve? VR headset lets you share cake with an anime voice actress

Last week we took a look at a new brand of instant curry on sale in Japan that includes a DVD of a sexy model who pretends to be your girlfriend as you eat it. Now, who’s ready for some dessert?

In Japan, it’s not a proper Christmas Eve without a romantic date and some cake, so unattached anime fans will be thrilled to know that one of the industry’s most popular voice actresses is available for a dessert date this year. The only catch?

The date takes place in virtual reality.

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The international anime fan community has adopted a number of Japanese loanwords for concepts that originated in Japan and don’t have succinct, ideal vocabulary equivalents in other languages. English-language discussions between foreign fans are peppered with terms like otaku (fans whose enthusiasm for their hobby is so strong it affects their life balance), tsundere (a person whose expressions of emotion towards an object of affection run hot and cold), and moe (a feeling of devotion and protectiveness, often in response to a display of innocence or purity), just to name a few.

Now, though, the shoe’s on the other foot, as one woman in Japan with a soft spot for anime showing deep, emotional bonds between male characters is calling for the popularization of an English loanword to help her avoid being mistaken for a fan of homoerotic anime and fan fiction.

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Otaku speed-dating party lets participants chat online before event, review each other during it

Even as the world of otaku becomes an increasingly co-ed one, many of Japan’s obsessive fans of anime, video games, and other forms of pop culture struggle in finding a romantic partner. That’s where Aeullura, a matchmaking company specializing in konkatsu (marriage-minded dating) events for otaku, comes in.

But conventional speed-dating can be intimidating for even ordinarily outgoing individuals, let alone otaku who might very well spend more of their free time watching fictional characters than interacting with other people. Add in the pressure of a ticking clock, and some might not feel confident in their ability to walk up to an attractive stranger, make a good impression, and then find out more about them.

That’s why Aeullura is flipping that sequence of events for its upcoming otaku matchmaking party by giving the speed daters access to a wealth of information about one another, and even letting them communicate online, before putting them all in the same room together.

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Love anime and driving? Carmaker Subaru now selling official itasha

Different people have different concepts of Japanese automaker Subaru. For motorsports enthusiasts, the first image that comes to mind is the company’s all-wheel drive cars doing sick jumps on rally gravel stages. Technology buffs, meanwhile, may think of their EyeSight automatic braking safety system.

Japanese animation fans, though, may best know Subaru as the major sponsor of animation studio Gainax’s celestial-themed magical girl anime Wish Upon the Pleiades (known in Japanese as Hokago no Pleiades). And while the series’ TV run is over, that doesn’t mean Subaru’s love for the anime has expired, as the car manufacturer has created, and is selling, an official Wish Upon the Pleiades itasha covered with graphics of the show’s cast.

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Sipping a hot cup of tea can be an enjoyable way to relax and put your brain on auto-pilot for a few minutes. Waiting for your tea bag to steep, though, can be downright dull. Sitting there, staring at the bag’s string and tab, you might find yourself wishing for a view, and if your preferred view is a pair of large anime breasts, this Japanese company would be happy to oblige.

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Japanese tech company seeks to measure if 2-D crushes are more attractive than real-life models

It’s no secret that in Japan selling the fantasy of an anime or video game sweetheart is big business. But is everyone with a 2-D crush simply a lonely soul using the fictional character as a substitute for a lack of real-world interaction with the opposite sex, or do some people just prefer having a virtual romantic prospect? One Japanese technology company is aiming to find out, using the power of science.

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The word otaku has a long and complicated history in Japan. Originally, it was strictly a pejorative, a label used to mark those with an unhealthily intense interest in anime and other bits of minutiae-heavy hobbies. But while there are many who still use the word in that scathing sense, “otaku” has slowly built up another image as a badge of pride worn by those with a strong and enduring passion for the specific niches of art or technology that appeal to them.

That means that Japanese society, for arguably the first time, is starting to accept that being an otaku can be either a positive or a negative force in a person’ life. But what’s the difference between a good otaku and a bad otaku? One Japanese educator has an answer.

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4chan creator hands reins over to 2channel’s Hiroyuki Nishimura

Right before the internet entered a new millennia, Hiroyuki Nishimura launched 2channel, an online community website that would eventually change the face of otaku and internet culture in Japan. The simple layout and anonymity later went on to spark the creation of an English language version of the website, called 4chan, which would similarly impact the international online community as 2channel had in Japan.

In a curious turn of events according to a recent announcement by 4chan’s founder and former sole administrator, Nishimura has been named as the owner of the English spinoff community to his original creation.

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Anime figure with straw-holding cleavage is the perfect way to enjoy a nice glass of milk

Even among animation aficionados, it can sometimes be hard to justify spending the equivalent of a hundred dollars or more on an anime character figure. No matter how high the quality of the product is, that’s a lot of cash to shell out for something that’s going to just sit there gathering dust on your shelf, even if it looks pretty doing it.

But perhaps it’ll be easier for shoppers to pull the trigger on this particular figure. True, the subject being a busty and bikini-clad anime heroine isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but what makes this figure special is that it’s designed to let otaku cram a straw between its breasts to suck on as they enjoy a refreshing glass of milk.

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Star-struck American otaku run into Nicolas Cage while shopping for anime in L.A.

When you stroll into an anime specialty shop in the U.S., there are a couple of demographics you expect to see among the customers. Teenagers with brightly dyed hair. Thirty-somethings digging through discounted single-volume VHS and DVD releases for those elusive remaining episodes of Maison Ikkoku or Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. Maybe a handful of Japanese expats.

But if you happen to be shopping for anime goodies in Los Angeles, just a stone’s throw away from the world’s leading film studios, you also might spot a famous Hollywood actor, like these Californian otaku who ran into Nicolas Cage.

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Although he’s one of the most respected figures of all time in the manga industry, Kazuo Koike isn’t typically associated with the otaku subculture. When his most popular creation, Lone Wolf and Cub, was translated into English it attracted as many international fans from among Western comic readers as from those who favored Japanese manga, and in general his works have a gritty, somber tone to them, unlike the brightly colored daydreams and self-insert power fantasies that are often associated with otaku-pandering fare.

There’s also the fact that Koike was born in 1936, and being old enough and of the corresponding gender to fill two-thirds of a “grumpy old man” bingo card, you might expect him to have harsh words for Japan’s legions of hobby-obsessed individuals, like those that often sputter forth from Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki.

But it turns out that not only is Koike accepting of the otaku life, but he thinks that being an otaku from the cradle to the grave makes for a beautiful life.

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Spend enough time teaching a foreign language, and eventually you’ll find yourself in a situation where you have to stop and ask yourself whether your job, which ordinarily involves correcting how your students speak, also includes correcting what they’re saying. For example, I once had a teen pupil declare that “Being good looking is the only thing that’s important.” After a moment of consideration, I decided that trying to fix that shallow philosophy was above my pay grade, so I told her, “OK, nice grammar” and left it at that.

Still, when working with kids, it’s nice to impart a useful life lesson when the opportunity to do so relatively gently presents itself, as it did for one expat in Japan who reminded his young English-learning student of the difference between anime and real life.

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Tokyo’s Nakano to be transformed into cosplay heaven this Halloween for MAG Festa 2015

We’ve got the info on an upcoming event in Nakano, to be held on Saturday October 31; in other words, Halloween. The event will turn the area around Nakano Station, which includes Nakano Broadway, and Nakano Sun Plaza shopping areas, into anime heaven for the day. You’ll be able to get into the spirit of the holiday by dressing up in cosplay, snap some great photos of other people’s intricate cosplay creations, or just be content with watching the various costume parades and shows on offer.

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