Comments on: Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals

By: A Year in Review 2: Books | Games, Play, and Society

A Year in Review 2: Books | Games, Play, and Society — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:11:31 +0000

[...] put up 10 books that impacted me. I will put these in alphabetical order by author. Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals. Throughout college, publically and personally, I struggle with acknowledging I am a fan of [...]

By: scraps: “we con” panel notes – nekocon 2011 | Anime

scraps: “we con” panel notes – nekocon 2011 | Anime — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:48:01 +0000

[...] the past six months? Do people resist the notion of taking anime too seriously? Why? -Azuma forces fans to come to terms with the dark qualities of staying a fan. Fans and non-fans: If you [...]

By: Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime « Contemporary Japanese Literature

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime « Contemporary Japanese Literature — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:02:44 +0000

[...] plot populated by characters that are little more than amalgamations of tropes culled from the otaku database. Despite this (or perhaps because of this), the book is a fun read. It’s short, and it moves [...]

By: Ed’s Saturday and Sunday at Otakon 2010 » Manga Worth Reading

Ed’s Saturday and Sunday at Otakon 2010 » Manga Worth Reading — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:18:15 +0000

[...] Moving Castle, Frederik L. Schodt’s Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, Hiroki Azuma’s Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, and the academic journal [...]

By: Haru Comic City, the dojinshi market, James/Snape, fandom etiquette, dojinshi legal troubles etc etc | Fanfic Forensics

Sun, 23 May 2010 05:05:58 +0000

[...] 2: Here's a more useful review of Azuma's book.) [...]

By: Katherine Dacey

Katherine Dacey — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:21:09 +0000

Ed, this is a very thoughtful and sophisticated analysis of Azuma’s work; you do a terrific job of using American pop culture to explain how Azuma uses the terms modernism and postmodernism in his work. From a scientific perspective, I think Azuma’s description of modernism is compelling; one need only look at the myriad ways in which the Victorians tried to make Darwinism a universal theory of animal and cultural evolution.

I’m less persuaded when it comes to literary narratives, however. We’ve been extracting favorite characters out of context for years, tampering with grand narratives (happy endings for Shakespeare and Don Giovanni, anyone?), and doing violence to the integrity of narratives since the Elizabethan era. Not all of these exercises had a direct commercial application, but many certainly did, even if it didn’t translate directly into action figures or plushies.

By: Dolorous Haze - Blog Archive » Comics Worth Reading Reviews Otaku: JapanÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Database Animals

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:07:39 +0000

[...] Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals Ã‚Â» Comics Worth Reading. [...]

By: Ed Sizemore

Ed Sizemore — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:11:14 +0000

David, There is a section in the book where Azuma shows how this rejection of grand narratives started with fans and then was adopted by corporations, at least in Japan. Azuma shows how fan community began focus on characters over story setting. So someone might love Luke Skywalker and collect action figures, posters, trading cards, etc. of him and him alone without any regard to the Star Wars universe. They might then write stories about Luke Skywalker as a samurai, a high school teacher, a doctor, etc. They might make original figures of him dressed up in these new occupations. Corporations began to sell their own alternate world figures and merchandise of famous characters when they saw the market the fans had created for such items. It was the fans who first saw characters as independent marketable commodities long before the corporations. But Azuma also thinks that fans couldn’t have developed this perception outside of embracing the postmodern mindset, whether consciously or not. The modernist mindset sees a character so embodied in a given narrative that it can’t make sense of the character outside that narrative. I agree with you that in the US, postmodern consumerism seems to have started with the comic companies. So it’s an odd reversal of roles on this side of the Pacific. It’s this comparing how Japan & US fan communities and companies behave that I find so fascinating about this book.

Hsifeng, It’s true that in Japan ‘otaku’ simply means an obsessive fan. It is applied to all kinds of individuals in Japan: gun collectors, manga collectors, train collectors, etc. For the purposes of the book Azuma uses a very specific definition of otaku. I’m just giving the definition that Azuma uses so we’re clear on the scope of his discussion.

By: Hsifeng

Hsifeng — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:13:40 +0000

Ed Sizemore Says: "Otaku is the term used for devoted Japanese fans of anime, manga, and video games." Isn't that just the way it's used in English? The version I heard is that "otaku" in Japanese simply means an obsessed fan (even if an obsessed fan of fencing instead of manga) and "otaku" in English got narrowed down to a fan specifically of Japanese pop culture. It's like the way "spaghetti" in Italian simply means noodles (even if ramen instead of vermicelli) and "spaghetti" in English got narrowed down to specifically Italian styles of noodle.

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:54:32 +0000

I am not sure that this is so much a “post-modernist” rejection of overarching narratives as much as a segmentation an “comoditization” of those narratives, driven by an increasingly Consumerist culture. That it happens to appeal to a new – defacto different – type of fan is secondary to the fact that it is being driven more by the corporations doing the selling that the fans doing the buys.

Before you could tie a towel around your neck, jump off the roof, and *be* Superman. (Participation in the narrative.) Now you have to have the official Naruto [tm] Ninja Headband, or you aren’t really a fan. (Ownership of – and by – the character.)