Otaku: A History of Japan | Documentary

What is an 'otaku'? Otaku is a fuzzy word with which a lot of anime fans identify with. But few of us know the weight and history that this word carries in Japan, so let's explain its origin from counter-culture to global phenomenon.

Special thanks to:

Edition: Valentin Noceti

Thumbnail: @SirParis

Visual Material:
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00:00 intro
01:45 1975–1982 The Origins
8:22 1983–1988 Akio Nakamori
16:20 1989 Tsutomu Miyazaki, The Otaku Killer
22:58 1990-1995 The Public Eye
28:11 1996–2005 Identity reimagination: Akihabara, Densha Otoko, and Cool Japan
45:08 2006–2007 ‘The Holy Land of Otaku’
52:30 2008 - 2010 The End of the ‘Otaku Paradise’
57:07 2011 – Present Normal
01:00:08 Epilogue or punchline

[ErmiAnimeENG]

Some people made corrections, so I'll compile them in this comment.

1-While the perception en 1983 was that Manga Burikko was read mostly by men, or at least that's what is said in the book "Debating Otaku". But according to a survey in 1984 40% of it's readers were woman. Still that survey was done after Nakamori's articles.

Also a note someone made on this:
The source is an article Ootsuka Eiji wrote for a magazine called 'Gentlemen' (『諸君!』1998年7月号). Ootsuka later compiled his articles in his book 'Spiritual History of Otaku' ( 『「おたく」の精神史 一九八〇年代論』 Chapter 1 Part 6).

I translated the Gentlemen's article, which is mostly the same as the Spiritual History one. In the original article, Ootsuka Eiji, wrote 40% (4割程度), but in Spiritual History, he changed it to 50% (半分程度)


2- Nakamori was not an anime fan, he was into Idols and people still considered him an "otaku"

3- There's an article released in the mid 80s signaling the people at the comiket as dangerous but I don't think this narrative was too prevalent before Miyazaki.


4- Tsutomu Miyazaki did not have a copy of Manga Burikko, the original quote of the book says

"As one important reason for his media engagement, Ōtsuka points to the magazines he saw in pictures of Miyazaki’s room, which included back issues of the lolicon magazine that he edited"

It does not specify which magazine.

[Taruby]

This is one of the better videos on the subject I've seen, so I hope you get more views.

As someone who has been translating primary source articles and books on the people involved during this time period (because existing books and articles in English have so much insufficient or erroneous information), I'll mention the following.

>>"He decided to call them the gloomy tribe and closes with this.
Nakamori Akio didn't decide to call them the gloomy tribe. The purpose of his article is that already existing terms like maniac and gloomy tribe (ネクラ族) were insufficient in describing the exact sort of people Nakamori witnessed. Nakamori was calling these people Otaku before he wrote his Otaku research columns (he talks about this on his Twitter account, and such posts have been archived on Togetter).

Since you skipped over him, the man who is considered to be the first 'Otaku' is a guy called Hirukogami Ken. He was a popular figure at Comiket with his self-deprecating proto-Otaku cosplay; he's the first one to do a literary fanzine that parodied an Osamu Tezuka character in an erotic situation, and helped Azuma Hideo and Oki Yukao with their similar ero-manga fanzine that forever changed the subculture landscape of Japan. Azuma Hideo is considered to be the god of Otaku, but Azuma always considered himself to specifically be an SF maniac, not an Otaku like his assistant Oki Yukao, or a self-proclaimed degenerate like Hirukogami Ken.

>>"majority of its readers were male"
In a survey in 1984, it's estimated 40% of its readers were female (most of whom were in high school). Manga Burikko is considered Japan's 2nd Lolicon/Bishoujo magazine, but the truth is that Ootsuka Eiji liked shoujo manga and a genre called New Wave, which was represented by the contributions of Fujiwara Kamui. Though most English books focus on Ootsuka Eiji, I was able to translate an interview with Ogata Katsuhiro, who was jointly responsible for Manga Burikko along with Ootsuka Eiji and another guy, and Ogata's connections through his work for Fusion Product (Rapport) led to him inviting all sorts of people, including the mangaka who later became Ootsuka Eiji's wife and Nakamori Akio who worked under Satoshi Endou at Tokyo Otona Club.

I actually have all of the letters published to the reader column, and there really wasn't that much of a backlash (the longest of these is transcribed on Manga Burikko's website). Some of them thought 'Otaku Research' was interesting and agreed with Nakamori Akio, but Ootsuka didn't like the columns since he felt a magazine shouldn't insult its readers (he had arguments with Ogata Katsuhiro over letting Nakamori continue his columns).

>>"Nakamori made a separation between the front of the anime fandom, which should be people like him"
Ehh, Nakamori Akio is an idol critic, he wasn't part of an anime fandom. Liking anime past high school is weird.

>>" they were never treated as a threat or as dangerous people or at least not until the appearance of Tsutomu Miyazaki"
People were bashing Otaku before Miyazaki; the funniest one was written by Aoyama Masaaki titled "Reexamining 'Otaku' with Maximum Disgust" months before Miyazaki's arrest. Before Miyazaki Tsutomu's arrest, one of the suspects the mass media harassed was the proto-Otaku Hirukogami Ken mentioned earlier. Before the mass media learned about the word Otaku, they used 'maniac', 'gloomy tribe', and 'lolicon' to describe the sorts of people they bashed in their columns.

The only adult manga Miyazaki had in his bedroom was ''若奥様のナマ下着'. It was featured prominently in newspaper photos rearranged with other manga magazines because the mass media couldn't find anything else scandalous enough to make for a good photo of a criminal's bedroom.

Manga Burikko discontinued way before Miyazaki Tsutomu, so it was not in his bedroom. All of the manga magazines featured were ones available at the time the mass media and police were entering and leaving the bedroom. The ones often included in photos was an issue of Animedia, OUT, Lemon People (Japan's first Lolicon/Bishoujo manga magazine), Flamingo, Mammoth Club, Penguin Club, Lemon Club, and Potpourri Club.

Thank you for avoiding any mention of Lolicon Anime in his bedroom; there's no list of any such titles in his bedroom, yet English writers keep repeating this. The most I could find was a newspaper article claiming to have access to the videos Miyazaki rented, and supposedly he rented Dream Hunter Rem.

Being that my focus has been mainly 1970~1990, I'll stop here. I haven't bothered much with material from the 1990s or early 2000s yet.

[Osoweeb]

I'm gushing over your video! I can literally the otaku spirit that's flowing through my veins as I continue to watch your vid. Esspeically with the amount of names/faces/and writers I recognize in your project! I also noticed your original video that's in Spanish and I'm happy to know another bilingual person who's apart of anitube...

Porque no sotos necesitamos mas gente que hable espanol en la comunidad del anime YouTube.

Keep up the good work and I'll look forward to more projects by you!

- Osoweeb signing out.

[animagamer]

Super interesting! I felt like it lost a bit of steam towards the end and I wish that era had a bit more bite to it, but it was super interesting learning about the roots of Otaku!

[nightcoffeeshot]

That's such an awesome documentary, I had to stop doing dishes and focus entirely on it.
Sugoi.

[Prodmullefc]

The part about oppresion and demonstrations starting at 45:00 kinda reminds me of that anime Magical Destroyers and I kinda wonder if that's what the show was based on now. I only started taking a serious interest in otaku culture after watching it and now after learning more about it as a cultural movement in Japan, I kinda want to rewatch it.

[invasoradopc]

This video is super well done, many stuff that I didn't know!

[SirParis]

Hey! I'm here because Shaybs really recomend your video.
Let's see it! :D

[Anonlyso]

Find it interesting how after a major scandalous incident, many Defenders of Otaku identity build up the "We're not like THOSE Otaku", which ironically further fans the hate framework, perhaps saving themselves, but damning the wider community at large to scrutiny. I can think of more than few Fandoms that in rushing to defend from Culture Critics, wind up making their image FAR worse (either in awkward self-sabotage, or perhaps being toxic enough to lose all face)

Course even as persecution grew, perhaps self-fulfilling as it was, it's almost a miracle that Otaku had a "redemption arc" through so many factors, even comparing to American Nerd Culture, I'm unsure we've fully rehabilitated the image from "DnD IS SATANIC WORSHIP" into, idk, Big Bang Theory mild-misogyny *canned laughter*

Also in the final quote about the changes in Otaku generations, or that "Otaku have died, multiple times", there's a tonal hint of Boomer-ism, that Current Day Otaku "didn't suffer in the Trenches like the OGs", both in further gate keeping "normies" and deeper playing into their communal persecution narrative.

Also applause for having the incredibly rare pushback to Galbrath on the Akihabara "police brutality", at some point while there are most definitely still inflammatory critics, there is a lot of self-feeding hatred dynamic one that HAS to frame themselves as victims of the system in maximal way. Frankly besides Otaku no Video, I can only recently recall something like Magical Destroyers in actively portraying "the systemic oppression of Japanese Otaku", exaggerated as it was...but it was deeply ironic considering it was the brain child of a non-native foreigner, and imo it showed in it's sheer superficiality of the culture itself.

Wild I'm hesitant to further the "Otaku as heavily marginalized failures of Japanese Society" storyline, it is perhaps more interesting that even post-miracle and Akihabara recovery, in a community that has survived and surpassed the Cool Japan attempted policy, that it's still ingrained in the Otaku psyche as being judged as "weirdos" and so they pre-emptively have to act like "they're not so different as productive citizens of society", yet have such deep wounds that...frankly they keep opening themselves.

[lucasrijana]

Are you argentinian man lol you sound like it I think