Speaking Without Subtitles: The Universal Language of Otaku

Fans exist in many forms and in many places. They are as diverse as the races and ethnicities from which they come, just as the object of their devotion can be anything in existence. That which is of interest does not always need to be some form of art, but the objects of entertainment lend themselves to great potential for the creation of culture, an obsession that can change lives.

There are of course casual fans, the people who can still perceive a division between them and the object. Their lives change little, and they may pursue something beyond their status as a fan. Most people are like that, everyone expresses a little more interest in something, be it a sports team or a soap opera. Then there are the more intense fans.

In Japan, these individuals are known by the name otaku. The word is one of many referring to "you," especially in confronting someone the speaker is unfamiliar with but still wishes a degree of politeness. The word "was originally written as o-taku, with the honorific phonetic character o- preceding the Chinese character for 'house.'"¹ The exact reason for the usage is unclear, but such appropriation might be in reference to the apparent isolation of these fans, as outsiders who must find more solitary forms of entertainment and build a life in and around it. They are for the most part socially inept, using passive forms of entertainment to replace the often-difficult task of making friends and interacting successfully with them. Things like manga and anime (comics and animation) offer pleasant fantasies, they do not criticize or reject, and in the case where an otaku may not like one, they can easily find another. The obsession becomes their social life, and the word otaku embodies this social self-sufficience.

The word in Japan has its negative connotations, especially after an incident where the murderer Tsutomu Miyazaki was revealed to be a major fan of hentai (perverted) anime and manga, even publishing his own and selling it at major conventions. To deliver the remains of his victims he used the pseudonym "Yuko Imada," reportedly the name of a favorite anime character. The incident sparked a media frenzy akin to the one arising after the tragedy at Columbine High School. The word otaku "came to represent mostly young males who could no longer relate to real world people (especially women) and thus bury themselves in pornographic manga and animation and masturbatory fantasies, and harbor dangerous sexual proclivities and fetishes; in short, people who might be mentally ill and perhaps even a threat to society."² As the word came to represent an outsider culture in a negative way, the members of the culture began to embrace the term, taking all the connotations of the term and treating it as a positive attribute, in the same manner as homosexuals who use the word queer. Giving a name to something also gives it identity, and having a distinct identity can legitimize a group as a cultural entity.

With that identity comes cultural artifacts, those things which define a group of people. Otaku are defined by their obsession, the object that they place their focus on. It can be almost anything, like model building or special effects in films. But most fans, especially those here in the United States who choose to call themselves otaku, the interest is anime and manga.

The two industries are closely intertwined, and the aspects of Japanese culture that lend themselves the most to exportation. Even the word anime is not really Japanese. It is actually a French word adopted by the Japanese, and refers to any animation produced in Japan, be it traditional hand drawn cel animation, stop-motion animation, or the latest CGI techniques.³ Here in America the word has come to signify the particular art and narrative style of cel animation from Japanese, replete with big eyes, psychic powers, and lots of explosions.

When the word otaku made the transition to the English speaking world it was stripped of all its negative connotations, though a whole new package of stereotypes was introduced to media they worshipped. Anime is still judged by the Western conceptions of what animation should be, as a medium meant only for the very young. Because anime often bucks these conceptions, it is thought of by the mass media as inappropriately violent and vile. Oddly enough, in Japan most anime is intended for children, despite the "graphic violence, crude humor, and explicit eroticism"⁴ It is merely the product of a different culture, and as diverse as the medium from which it grew from and continues to draw influence from: manga.

Although comics have existed in Japan in various forms for hundreds of years, the word manga was created in 1814 by the woodblock artist Hokusai. Manga is a combination of two kanji⁵ characters, "man (which means "involuntary" or "in spite of oneself," with a secondary nuance of "morally corrupt") and ga (which means "pictures")."⁶ The combination of characters has a number of meanings, among which are the terms "comic book," "caricature," and "cartoon." In any interpretation, the word manga usually implies something less than serious, humorous, or even whimsical. The nuance "morally corrupt" could be extended to the idea of manga as guilty pleasure, which is certainly valid considering the variety of stories and opinions for which it serves as an outlet. Manga (and comics in general) can be used to poke fun at authoritative figures or function as a medium for sexually charged material, both genres unthinkable in the feudalistic and repressed atmosphere of pre-WWII Japan. The medium flourished after the war, when those left to pick up the pieces of a shattered society sought out inexpensive and uplifting forms of entertainment. Today manga compose roughly 40% of all Japan's publishing output.

Just as the word anime has come to signify a distinctive style of animation to Americans, the term manga has come to embody a particular art and storytelling style characteristic to Japanese comics. The art is more fluid and dynamic, the stories long and complex with a predetermined destination. The association is strong enough to be marketable, to the point where a London-based firm has christened itself 'Manga Entertainment' and utilized the word manga in reference to the translated Japanese animation videos it distributes. The Cartoon Network dedicates their weekday afternoon programming to the presentation of action cartoons, the majority of which are well-known anime series. The block of shows is dubbed "Toonami," a pun on the Japanese phrase tsunami, a word meaning "harbor wave" that has been assimilated into everyday English usage. The Saturday morning edition of the program is "Rising Sun" and its tagline is "a day which will live in infamy," both references to World War II Japan. The war maintains a presence in the American perception of Japan, as the last decisive conflict the United States may have ever fought and the catalyst for Japanese technological superiority in the 1980's. Manga culture in Japan arose from post-war devastation. Therefore it is natural for wartime association to play a major part in conversations regarding Japanese society and culture. The association also leads to a backlash toward the commonly used term Japanimation. While the phrase seems an innocent combination of the words "Japan" and "animation," it is also construed as "Jap" plus "animation," a racial insult that will instigate a vehement response from most otaku.

Otaku are passionate over a number of issues, most notably the debate over whether anime should be dubbed or subtitled. Dubbed anime is more accessible to American audiences because in watching a subtitled movie, the viewer is constantly engaged in shifting focus between the action and subtitles. In a dubbed video, the cultural references are often changed to make the plot and characters more understandable to foreigners, and nudity is often edited out completely. Most otaku prefer subtitled anime because it is intact. The dialogue is translated literally, while in a dubbed anime the dialogue would be changed to fit a character's mouth. The cultural references are left intact, as is any nudity present. A dubbed video would be considered "Americanized," while a subtitled video still maintains its Japanese identity. To preserve this cultural experience otaku may even import videos straight from Japan and do the translation themselves. The homemade subtitled videos are referred to as fansubs, usually distributed at clubs and conventions, or between friends.

Despite the portrayal of otaku as apparent loners, they have developed a culture in which social interaction plays a large part in maintaining that interest. Here in North America otaku join clubs where they watch anime and play video games. In Japan, otaku will often gather into "saakuru, or 'circles' - groups of like-minded amateurs who collaborate to create and publish their works."⁷ These works are labeled dojinshi (fanzines), and are often sold at large conventions to other fans. The largest of these conventions is Komiketto, a name short for "Comic Market." One of the founders of Komiketto was influenced by the proliferation of science fiction conventions here in the United States, hence the English-derived name.

The English influence in the cultural language of manga and anime extends beyond the fans into the realm of mass media, where journalists and researchers prefer to use the English-derived term komikkusu when referring to comics, because they believe it confers a greater level of sophistication. As part of Japanese pop culture, manga has developed an unrefined and coarse image, similar to the perception of television here in America. Industry people even refer to American comics as ame-komi; a term similar in context as manga is in the conversation of American fans. Both terms are used as ways to differentiating the products of two different countries and cultures.

Otaku originate from completely opposite regions of the world, representing two cultures whose values are eternally at odds. But whether they come from the east or the west they are united by a common language: the language of fandom. It is a vocabulary defined by their relationship to the media they all love and embrace.