It’s like Touhou Nekomata: You can show how you’re rabidly cute… WITH A CHAINSAW.
The game is moving in a steady phase somehow. Because of that, the blogosphere suddenly questioned a certain factor that makes us what makes us. Strength? Rage? Depth? Mindless Inclination? Rabid Determination? Surely, this goes beyond preference, depth, and the different ways to achieve satisfaction from the fandom, yes? So what about it?
If some of you can remember, I hypothesized how the word otaku became paradoxical due to it being severely misunderstood. Although it has been given a lot of meanings, this plethora of assumptions turned the word into an ambiguity, even defeating the purpose of defining it by transforming itself into a collective not bound by mundane definition. After the definition came the requirements, what makes us otaku, or at least some kind of assurance that we are. The final outcome after that is for us to decide, and for others to judge.
When I returned from my indefinite hiatus last year, I have given deep thought of what I said on the above paragraph. Back then, I was like some berserker, ranting and raving like some kind of complete idiot, completely disregarding everything else because I’m way too busy boosting my ego by means of trolling everyone in sight. Then I saw ETERNAL, whose enlightening posts give complete clarification aside from the fact that he shows his fandom in an intellectual kind of way. Now, I can say I’ve mellowed down into someone who can simply digest the content, say something about it, engage people in ambient discussion because of it, and be quietly content with how it goes. But then, I see Digiboy, whose fandom was given merit because he disregards and regards everything in symbiotic harmony. You see how passion is being poured out in various ways and means that there’s almost no similar reaction if you compare any of them.
This compels me to ask: Is being overly zealous of the fandom a deciding factor that defines someone as an otaku? And if it is, is it advantageous or not? If we are to take this into consideration, we can see that it’s simple to achieve, easy to manifest, and interesting enough for other people to take notice. But let’s flip the coin to the other side. You see people displaying their fandom, and the rest of the society brands them as something close to an abomination. It also has the capability for self-destruction, alienating the people from the actual fandom just because of what they wanted the fandom to achieve. So yes, zeal is a factor indeed, and it’s volatile enough benefit you or destroy you entirely.
The world of visual culture is vast, and surprisingly, more than half of it is composed by the very society that engages in a never-ending cycle of give and take. True, that this extremity cannot be simply defined, but it can be understood, where simply acknowledging and accepting its very existence is the only way to define it, but of course anybody can prove me wrong on that one.
Otakuism doesn’t need to be CAPS CONTROLLED for you to steer.
Further Reading
“Casuality”: Your Call If You Want The Quotation Marks Removed:
Epic in an Instant – Creating the Casual Fans
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