Before leaving for Japan to be an exchange student for Kansai Gaidai University, I
was told by several Japanese people to not mention my love of anime and manga due to
the otaku connection.
In Japan, the otaku label has strong negative connotations with local papers running
stories of some loner weirdo killing people in Akihabara, the electronics district,
who has a manga and anime DVD collection at home. For every fringed fan there are
those who accepted fandom in good humor and refrain from physical assaults. My
favorite example of a good otaku is someone like Shoko Nakagawa. Shoko is a Jpop
singer who has a vast knowledge of past and present anime and manga. She is a huge
fan of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Currently, she can be seen on several Japanese TV
shows as a goodwill ambassador for otaku culture. I saw a video clip of her on YouTube
teaching Japanese celebrities how to be otaku. So the culture has come a long
way and hopefully the media will lighten up.
When I first got to Japan, I met people from the US, who were part of various manga
and anime clubs that they either started or were a part of back at their American
universities. This was a small percentage of Americans going to Japan to study Japanese. Most
students wanted to learn International Business or become translators. I never
really identified with the business students, although I understand why they are
needed.
Anyway, in Japan it was so easy to meet Japanese girls because language schools are
predominantly female. Most males would study business or engineering. This made it
easy to meet Japanese women.
In the beginning I really tried to take my friend’s advice and bury all my
fan boy passions. Eventually it just came out. You would be walking in a shopping
district in Umeda and see an ad on TV for One Piece and start to watch it. One day,
the girl I was with asked me directly if I was interested in anime to which I
replied yes.
She told me that her younger brother was into anime too and that he was only eight
and I should grow up.
So I stopped talking to that one.
A month later a met a very attractive Japanese girl who was obsessed with Final
Fantasy games. This was someone I could identify with and talk to. We had a good
time playing Final Fantasy in Japanese at the school’s dorm.
The whole incident taught me that no matter how strange or weird your passions and
hobbies are, you have to be true to who you are regardless if social acceptance is
there or not.
It's your choice if you wish to suppress what you like. One day it will come out so I
believe in just telling people right from the beginning. If they stop talking to you
then move on.
I still like all the otaku fan boy stuff but after going to college, I developed an
interest in other aspects of Japanese culture.
At the university we all took Japanese language classes and electives. I studied
Japanese history, Zen Buddhism, and a class called Youth Culture and Consumption.
I developed a love of history from the Introduction to Japanese History class. I
learned about philosophy in the Zen Class. However, my favorite class was Youth
Culture and Consumption where the entire class talked about anime, manga, baseball,
video games, dating, sex, and all aspects of Japanese popular culture. It was
interesting to me to see anime and manga discussed at the college level.
Around this time I started going to the campus library to read works from the
masters of Japanese literature. I didn’t take a class because I already had a
BA in English and I didn’t want another literature class so I learned on my
own. I was reading Tanizaki, Mishima Yukio, and Nagai Kafu.
Most people would probably switch over to serious art and literature at this point.
I didn’t. Everything I learned about history, Zen, and literature helped me
to see things in anime and manga that the average fan probably doesn’t see.
After reading the two oldest historical documents of Japanese history, the Nihon
Shoki and Kojiki, I discovered that both books contain wonderful stories of myths
and legends. These legends are still around and presented to each new generation in
current manga and anime.
I am still the same way today. Instead of letting go of past hobbies, I follow new
hobbies that support the old one in ways I never imagined possible until I opened up
to it and tried.
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2009 by Jason Fetters. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.
