Otaku Expanded
From Mod Mania
Otaku – Extended
Aliff Dean s3285827
The Otaku culture extends further from anime and manga, “Wotaku” and “tetsudō otaku” are two other examples. Wotaku also abbreviated as “Wota” are a community of extreme followers of Japanese Idol groups[1]. Unlike western boy and girls bands idol groups can sometimes contain up to 40 band members and the age group of the members are usually under 25 years old with members being replaced as they get too old, the group AKB48 containing 48 members is famous for this [2]. The tetsudō otaku are a group of usually males who are train enthusiasts although some females areinvolved [3].
Modding is a major part of all otaku groups this is more evident in the tetsudō otaku who usually collect and modify models trains. Within the Wota community Modding is a lot different, it involves the modification of the songs from the idol groups, this is a very common practice and it usually involves a humorous parody of iconic songs. A famous parody which has become a huge internet meme is the song “Yaranaika” meaning “shall we do it” in Japanese is a parody of the song Balalaika by Japanese Idol Kusumi Koharu. The parody is based on a Gay themed manga where one of the characters first greeting to another was “shall we do it”, this parody is technically about gay sex [4]. The Anime and manga otaku are usually involved in the cosplay culture, which is a combination between the two words costume and play, this usually involves the dressing up as anime, manga or videogame characters [5]. Other forms of Modding in the Wotaku culture include original dance videos, this usually involves people re-inventing or changing the Dance performed by the Idols in their music videos and then uploaded on to YouTube or the Japanese video sharing site www.nicovideo.jp . a famous video sharing site within the otaku community. This site is mainly used for uploading dance videos and MAD’s or AMV’s (anime music video) which is usually an edit of the clips from anime playing against a song.
Cosplay is the hugest aspect of Otaku culture, it also an extremely huge Modding community although buying costumes is the easy options many cosplayers enjoy making their own costumes whether it be from scratch or modifying existing clothing. Some Celebrities have also participated in cosplay. Lady Gaga has cosplayed in the Lolita fashion [6], a fashion style which takes inspiration from the Victorian era, she has done this one 2 occasions [7][8]. Kirstin dunst[9] has also cosplayed for a collaboration between famous artist Takeshi Murakami and McG the director from charlies angels which features Dunst Dancing to the song Turning Japanese by The Vapors, this video itself is probebley a commentary on Western otaku culture, Dunst herself has said that she is a fan of anime. Although not anime cosplay Johnny Depp has also cosplayed at the American Comic Con convention. Examples of modification includes wig dying [10], because of various colours of hair that anime characters have, it is often difficult to achieve the correct hair colours and high quality wigs of those colours are often more expensive. White wigs are easier to obtain and can easily by dyed straightened and curled using simple techniques, colouring can be done extremely well with sharpie ink, and hot water and hair spray are perfect for straightening and curling respectively. Another example would be dissembling pieces of clothing and re assembling them with new features added, an example which I have created personally was dissembling a black jacket and shortening and adding fake fur and Faux pockets for my cosplay as squall leonhart from the videogame final fantasy VIII.
Many of the communities are online based such as www.cosplay.com however meet ups for group cosplay or the creation of cosplay are frequent and as a result strong friendships are created which totally destroys the assumption that otaku are social outcasts. These communities are very social groups and they are usually used to share ideas and tips as well as gain help from other cosplayers or to ask other cosplayers to make your costume for you, usually for a price. Cosplay communities are also great for creating smaller groups within this community, smaller groups are usually those created to compete against other cosplayers in cosplay competitions such as the World Cosplay Summit [11] Featuring the best cosplayers from around the world including Australia. These cosplay competitions also break the negative stereotype of anti socialism as many otaku do have many friends in real life, not just online friends. Online communities usually hold stalls or meet ups at conventions such as Australia’s supernova [12] and Manifest [13], these stall allows the cosplayers to meet other members of the forums and to show off their works which they may have discussed or even asked advice for online. While Otaku itself is a huge group that has been built around a negative stereotype of anti socialism, it is its cosplay community which takes away this negative stereotype away from the group. The other forms of modding within the community such as AMV making also contribute to this.
[1] http://www.wotakunow.co.uk [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48 [3] http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php?topic=902.0;wap2 [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tl2yMxpjg [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_Fashion [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sjsFPw-bQM [8] http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/29507735/Lady+GaGa+GaGa+in+Lolita+style [9] http://kotaku.com/5478889/nsfw-kirsten-dunst-is-your-magical-nerd-princess [10] http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=82947 [11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cosplay_Summit [12] www.supanova.com.au/ [13] www.manifest.org.au
