Review of the anime Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (“It’s so hard to love an otaku”, “WotaKoi”)

A typical otaku living in typical otaku habitats.
Otaku

(Japanese katakana - オタク, hiragana - おたく, historical notation お宅 and 御宅 are almost never used) - a type of fucked-up anime fan, distinguished by a fanatical attitude towards anime / manga.

However, not all anime fans who call themselves otaku are. Often anime-ness is age-related, or the desire to reveal oneself in the company of like-minded people.

By the way, if you see a 35-year-old guy with a beer belly and Haruhi badges on his enormous chest, know: this is not an otaku, but a kidult.

Otaka

(verb form
to otakuvat
or
otakuvat
) - the activity of an otaku with the goal of convincing a neotaku of the merits of anime/manga. Not to be confused with Otake.

[edit] Original meaning

Anime Club
The Japanese word "otaku" comes from the words "home" and "family" and before all the anime bullshit meant something like "homebody". And since people who sit their ass at home are, as a rule, busy with some useless hobbies that take up more time from them than they can afford, the concept smoothly mutated into an analogue of a geek, a nerd, a freak - in a word, a nerd. But when passing through Japanese customs as part of a wholesale shipment of anime, the meaning was assigned to the crazy Germans.

In general, otaku (respected house, respectable family) is an archaic way of addressing a person.

Media formats[edit]

Works and phenomena of otaku culture in Western fandom often receive their own designations, distinguishing them from similar non-Japanese ones. Successful franchises often migrate from one media format to another.

• Manga
  (Japanese: 漫画) - comics.
  Doujinshi
  (Japanese: 同人誌) is Japanese “samizdat”, works published by non-professional authors not associated with official publishing houses. The term was originally applied to literature, but nowadays doujinshi usually refers to manga, although there can also be, for example, doujin games and doujin music. The closest analogy to the last two is the Western term “indie” (“Japanese indie games”, “Japanese indie music”), but there are noticeable cultural differences. Doujin works can be either original or based on popular franchises and even previously released doujin works (fan fiction manga, fan fiction games, and numerous discs of video game music arrangements are common in this medium).

[edit] Religion

Otaku test

And this is a little more complicated

Among anime fans the word is otaku

(not) used often as a religion (e.g. Christian, Buddhist, otaku).

As soon as the number of “people” reaches the level of creating their own sect, otaku unite into communities of like-minded people with thematic names. However, the threshold for joining such clubs is quite high (every anime fan can stay there for a long time and finally become an otaku). The hierarchy in these communities is established by “who will bully whom.”

Related professions[edit]

• Mangaka
  (Japanese: 漫画家) is a manga author/artist.
• Seiyu
  (Japanese 声優; in Japan itself the term “CV” is more often used, from the English
  character voice
  ) - voice actor. In Japan they graduate through special courses. They often sing well.
• Idol
  (Japanese アイドル
  aidoru
  , from English
  idol
  ) - “star”. A man whose profession is to be adored by fans. They try to appear in front of the public as often as possible, so they usually show themselves in several media formats.

Fanfiction and samizdat

Where there is creativity, there is also fan fiction - this works the same in relation to Western novels or TV series, and in relation to anime and manga. And in some cases it results in samizdat. Otaku create their own works, in the form of drawings, stories or novels, and most often publish them on the Internet or in specialized publications at their own expense.

However, sometimes as a result of such amateur performances a new “star” appears - and the circle begins anew: fan fiction is now created based on the works of a new popular author.

Samizdat otaku is popular, especially among fans of original works. The following plots occur: the main character ends up in the world of the source anime or manga, or the author introduces a new character from the same world, or the author takes the main characters from the original work, but completely changes the plot to his liking.

In the Russian “community” of ficwriters (the largest number of which can be found on lib.ru) there is the most fan fiction based on anime. Not many people write about “Japanese comics” - among them, for example, is the well-known otaku Felix in these circles, whose credits include works in the world of “Bleach” and “Sekirei”.

Demographic focus[edit]

Works, regardless of their media format, can be divided into several categories, depending on the demographic group they are aimed at.

• Shonen
  (Japanese: 少年
  shounen
  ) - for teenage boys.
• Seinen
  (Japanese: 青年
  seinen
  ) - for men.
• Shojo
  (Japanese: 少女
  shoujo
  ) - for teenage girls.
• Josei
  (Japanese: 女性
  josei
  ) - for women.
• Kodomo
  (Japanese 子供
  kodomo
  ) - children's “unisex”.
• Minna
  (Japanese: みんな
  minna
  ) - for any audience.

From the point of view of Western culture, the boundaries between them can be unexpected. Let’s say, the difference between “adult” and “children’s” categories is not the presence of erotic content (which the Japanese can find anywhere), but rather the attention to “adult” topics that children will simply not understand or be interested in. Also, for all categories, favoritism may appear - characters of this particular category will be favored by the plot. On the other hand, the works often have a strong “fetishistic” component - anime about girls is very likely to be aimed not at girls, but at those who like girls.

Brief information

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii is a comedy series produced by A-1 Pictures in the spring of 2018 as part of the noitaminA . Consisting of eleven episodes, the script is based on a web manga authored by Fujita . The events of the series unfold around the girl Narumi Momose , who, having almost been late for her new job on the very first day, was pleasantly surprised that her childhood friend Hirotaka Nifuji , with whom she was not I've been communicating since I was in school. Word for word, they decided after work to go to a local bar, where Narumi got drunk and opened up about her personal life, in which she was constantly unlucky. Of course, who would want to date a girl who is actually an ardent otaku who loves manga and anime? As soon as the suitors learned about the hidden hobbies of their passion, their communication immediately came to naught. After listening to his friend’s suffering, Hirotaka plucked up courage and invited her to meet, because it turns out that he, too, is no less an otaku who is fond of games than Narumi, so he will not find fault over trifles. To which she, without thinking twice, agreed. But the question remains: will the two otakus be able to find a common language?

Panache

On the one hand, I found Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii A very soft color scheme, moderate use of “comic” graphic simplifications and good character design are perfect for the comedy genre, which is so lenient on graphics. On the other hand, we should not forget that we are talking about the creation of the studio A-1 Pictures , from which you always expect outstanding graphics, which is, of course, not the case Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii So the viewing experience remains twofold - it seems to be okay for a comedy, but you still expect more.

Classification of Japanese otaku

The Nomura Research Institute (NRI) conducted two in-depth studies, the first in 2004 and the second in 2005. As a result, scientists were able to identify 12 main areas of interest:

• for the largest group, 350 thousand otaku - manga;
• about 280 thousand were fans of pop idols and celebrities;
• 250 thousand considered traveling as their hobby;
• 190 thousand – computer fans;
• 160 thousand were addicted to video games;
• 140 thousand - cars;
• 110 thousand – anime.

The remaining five categories included mobile technology, audio-visual equipment, camera enthusiasts, fashion and trains.

If you look directly at anime fans, you can identify another interesting group - hentai fans.

Among the genres of Japanese animation there is what other nations might call pornography - however, in the Land of the Rising Sun the attitude to the issue is slightly different. Thanks to this, there is also a rather specific group of otaku. Hentai is what is of interest and hobby for these people.

Literature

• Shagalova E. N.
  Dictionary of the latest foreign words. - M.: AST-PRESS KNIGA, 2021. - ISBN 978-5-462-01845-9.
• Azuma H.
  ​​Otaku: Japan's Database Animals. Translated by Jonathan E. Abel and Shion Kono. University of Minnesota Press, 2009, p. 176, ISBN 978-0-8166-5351-5 (English)
• Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons. Edited by Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam and Björn-Ole Kamm. Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, p. 240, ISBN 978-1-4725-9497-6 (English)

Popular anime that show the otaku image[edit]

• "Lucky Star" (neutral otaku image),
• "Genshiken" (neutral otaku image),
• "Otaku no Video"
• "Densha Otoko (film)" (positive image of an otaku),
• "Perfect Blue" (negative image of idol fans)
• "Boogiepop Phantom" (negative image of geimu otaku),
• "Blood Lad" (neutral otaku image, slightly comical)
• "Welcome to the NHK" (neutral otaku image),
• “Chaos;Head” (a negative image of an otaku, but with a hint of possible recovery from addiction, with constant forced interaction with the real world),
• "Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu" (positive image of an otaku),
• “Dramakon” (positive image of an otaku),
• "Akihabara@Deep" (Neutral Otaku Image),
• "Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai" (neutral otaku image).
• "Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai" (neutral geimu otaku image)

Notes[edit]

1. Brief anime-Russian phrasebook // anime*magazine
   . - M.: Sakura-press, 2004. - No. 3. - P. 37.
2. Survey about "Roots" of Otaku Lifestyle Published. Anime News Network (May 31, 2007). Retrieved May 28, 2011.
3. ↑ 1234
   矢口真里：「セーラームーンになりたい」栗山千明、加藤夏希とオタク全開特別番組 (Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun (2009.06.30). Retrieved October 10, 2009.
4. (Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun (2006.06.28). Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
5. (Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun (2007.12.08). Archived from the original on May 18, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2009.