Post 2: A Big Misunderstanding on being an Otaku

The world is not free of discrimination, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but nonetheless, some people just take it too far.

Tsutomu Miyazaki
via Google

Do you know the name Tsutomu Miyazaki? No, he's not the son of the famed Hayao Miyazaki.

 Lawrence Eng's "The Politics of Otaku" says that Tsutomu Miyazaki was a murderer. Back in 1989, Miyazaki kidnapped and murdered 4 little girls, after he was arrested, the police found loads of anime and manga -some were stated as pornographic materials- in his apartment.

After this incident, Otaku's were ostracized, believing that they were the same as Miyazaki, the mainstream usage of "Otaku" as someone who loves their alleged hobbies became a word loathed and feared by a lot of people.


This particular misunderstanding still lingers nowadays, a lot of Otakus especially in Japan are discriminated, there was even this rumor I read from Kotaku.com, Brian Ashcraft's "Japan Police Hunt Otaku, Discriminate" that the Japanese police conducted a search for Otaku's on the streets of Shinjuku, stopping people who look like Otakus and subjecting them to spot checks.

What a silly thing to hypothesize! Since an Otaku committed a crime, one should think that all Otaku are criminally inclined?

Considering how Otakus are now co-opted by the media and mainstream society as the black sheep of society, one might think that anime and manga lovers should just give up the term and change to something better. It's not that easy, they will still be branded as "scary" or "disgusting", a simple name change wont stop the opinion of modern-day society.

Calling yourself an "Otaku" and disdainfully thinking that you are a sociopathic freak just because you like anime, isn't that just a sad fate? As long as the word "Otaku" is negatively associated with that incident, anime fans will be stigmatized by the people.

Personally, I don't think that otakus are not that bad, we are just a group of people expressing our passion for something we really love. People are more accepting of us nowadays but nevertheless there are still some people who think that Otakus are people to be feared. We just have to show them that otakus aren't as bad they are lead to believe.