The Dilemma of the Impoverished Otaku

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Ah, yes. I don’t suppose most readers out there are bothered with this matter, yes? As a matter of fact, I, for whatever experience I may have in the past, have recently branded myself as a “poor” otaku. And it’s not like I can say I’m “in the red” in pure jest. I wear red, and I like red. It just turned out that I was red both in a monetary and preferential sense.

How is it so that I labeled myself a poor otaku? I tried to think of the things that affect me the most in my daily life, especially the parts where otakuism is never a concern:

• There are times where I’d prefer to spend my money on stuff rather than use it for daily commodities.
• I eat 3-minute instant noodles/ramen for more than five days a week, and the other two days aren’t even sure meals of rice.
• Sleep is more than compromised, which affects the daily routine. The blame is on the Internet, volume-size manga reading sessions, and series-size anime watching marathons.
• I’m forced to buy shelves for my items, which I debate with myself if I had to buy them because they’re as expensive as the items themselves.
• People throughout the day say I’m shabby, disorganized, confused, tired, or stressed.
• I put more creative juice input into otaku stuff and the like more than any other important matter.
• I attempt to haggle for prices on items even when I have an ample budget for buying stuff, just so I can buy all the stuff I need without having to spend too much.
• I talk aloud to myself about money problems, though I always make it a rule to myself not acquire debts especially from friends or fellow otaku.
• I learned to be thrifty, especially to myself.

This resulted in an “impoverished” life, wherein the luster of material possession takes precedence over comfortable living. Things that should have been used for something that would make people comfortable, is being used on something that I think would make myself comfortable, which is wrong. Worse comes to worst, people doing this kind of stuff would start being unkempt, unsocial, and would stay inside their homes as if they were locked beasts in self-isolation. In short, you’ll become what is pertained in these posts.

So if you consider yourself a Konata or any of the Genshiken crew, you are neither a NEET or a Hikki.

OS (2009/6/18)

The very idea is hard to explain, since trying to define a lifestyle with regards to otakuism and its different factors would have to be something regarded as negative overall. It’s easy to say that the intensity of temptation may be strong enough to even defy normalcy, given we look at it through an otaku’s eyes. True, since people try to have close ties to a franchise of choice by buying merchandise. On an even better perspective, these people define, delve, dissect, describe, and ultimately spawn material that is outside of the original franchise. This consumeristic mutual tandem of give and take makes most things in the otaku world go round. But note that the alluring powers of such a rich culture would have to demand richness, most especially in the financial, chronological, and creative aspects. Thus, this extends the idea of poverty beyond money.

Me, me, me, me too: Lazy, overworked, and happy about it.

Scary, indeed, that the hobby itself would be the cause of a person’s overall decline. The mutation of the person in question becomes the basis of problems that are outside the realm of being an otaku. And if done in the extreme, this would utterly change a person’s way of life completely, having complete preference over otakuism without even the slightest regard on anything else. But, this thought also crossed my mind: Should I settle to what I brand myself and be done with it?

Ultimately, I can say that living the otaku life has its ups and downs, just like any other lifestyle out there. It just depends on how we manage on living it. After all, we are who we make ourselves, and by saying that, change for the better or worse would depend on how we see it.

I think I just opened a can of worms…