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Keine Minderheit prägt die Popkultur derzeit so sehr wie die Otakus - japanische Nerds, die von Games, Mangas und Animes besessen sind. Der in Tokio als Fremdenführer arbeitende Autor erklärt alle relevanten Begriffe der Szene und interviewt bekennende Otakus wie die Künstler Murakami Takashi und die Street Fighter 2 -Meisterin Anno Haruna. --GEE Magazin
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With over 500 entries - including common expressions, people, places, and moments of otaku history - this is the essential 'A to Z' of all the facts Japanese pop-culture fans need to know! Otaku: Nerd; geek or fanboy originates from a polite second-person pronoun meaning 'your home' in Japanese. Since the 1980s, it's been used to refer to people who are really into Japanese pop-culture, such as anime, manga, and videogames. A whole generation of people, previously marginalised with labels such as 'geek' and 'nerd' are now calling themselves 'otaku' with pride. The author, Patrick W. Galbraith, has spent several years researching deep in the otaku heartland and his intimate knowledge of the subject gives the reader an insider's guide to words such as moe, doujinshi, cosplay and maid cafes. Insightful interviews with key players - such as Takashi Murakami, otaku expert Toshio Okada, and J-pop idol Shoko Nakagawa - are interspersed throughout the book offering an even deeper look into the often misunderstood world of Otaku. This book offers a fascinating insight into the subculture of Cool Japan - from cosplay to anime, manga, videogames and a whole lot more. This is the definitive guide to the world of Otaku - Japan's anime nerds, game geeks and pop-idol fanboys - no competition.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Otaku Encyclopedia is an encyclopaedic dictionary of about 600 Japanese terms mainly from the Otaku subculture. It includes slang, jargon, characters, creative people and companies, and the like.
The main areas covered are manga, anime, cosplay, figures and dolls. Associated areas such as video and tabletop games, or airsoft guns, are also briefly mentioned.
Each term is fully explained with its original Japanese katakana and/or kana.
There are also frequent mini essays or interviews on some of the main personalities of the subculture, such as maid cafe idols, big name otaku, and figure sculptors.
As far as my knowledge goes this is all accurately explained. The author is an otaku-journalist, who having lived in Japan for about five years, is pursuing a PhD in otaku culture at the University of Tokyo. While I can't claim his depth of knowledge, my association with Japan goes back over 15 years. Although not an otaku myself I have been following Japanese and anime/manga culture since the early 1980s.
So I recommend it. If you want to know what "tsundere", "moe" or "gokko asobi" means, this book will tell you. It will also work as a general overview of the otaku scene.
If I have an argument with this book, it is the presentation of otaku as a part of Cool Japan. Good anime is cool. I don't think otaku is cool. Although otaku love anime, otaku itself is mainly a mode of consumption rather than self-expression or creativity. It does not have a cool image in the west, and much less in Japan itself. While the 2005 movie "Train Man" started to rehabilitate the image of otaku, it still remains a slightly weird subculture, especially on the outer fringes.
Some aspects of otaku -- cosplay, maid cafes, "dollpla" and "doujinshi" -- undeniably have a camp charm and demonstrate creativity and active fun.
The fetishisation of pubescent girls as sex objects, nude printed dakimakura (hug pillows,) and various kinds of sex dolls and figurines, will never be cool. It feels a bit creepy. It seems a small step from that to the pervy sarariman, groping schoolgirls on rush-hour trains and stealing housewives' panties off the washing line.
A major area of genuine cool is the Harajuku based street fashion scene, portrayed in magazines and books such as Fruits. This is only peripherally part of the otaku culture, via photography and fetishisation, for example, of schoolgirls' loose socks. It isn't covered here, which isn't a criticism as you can easily get other material covering it.
The book is an excellent introduction to the otaku subculture. I am left with the feeling that it is as much an attempt to claim public space and validate the author's personal interests, as it is a celebration of a successful cultural movement.
The main areas covered are manga, anime, cosplay, figures and dolls. Associated areas such as video and tabletop games, or airsoft guns, are also briefly mentioned.
Each term is fully explained with its original Japanese katakana and/or kana.
There are also frequent mini essays or interviews on some of the main personalities of the subculture, such as maid cafe idols, big name otaku, and figure sculptors.
As far as my knowledge goes this is all accurately explained. The author is an otaku-journalist, who having lived in Japan for about five years, is pursuing a PhD in otaku culture at the University of Tokyo. While I can't claim his depth of knowledge, my association with Japan goes back over 15 years. Although not an otaku myself I have been following Japanese and anime/manga culture since the early 1980s.
So I recommend it. If you want to know what "tsundere", "moe" or "gokko asobi" means, this book will tell you. It will also work as a general overview of the otaku scene.
If I have an argument with this book, it is the presentation of otaku as a part of Cool Japan. Good anime is cool. I don't think otaku is cool. Although otaku love anime, otaku itself is mainly a mode of consumption rather than self-expression or creativity. It does not have a cool image in the west, and much less in Japan itself. While the 2005 movie "Train Man" started to rehabilitate the image of otaku, it still remains a slightly weird subculture, especially on the outer fringes.
Some aspects of otaku -- cosplay, maid cafes, "dollpla" and "doujinshi" -- undeniably have a camp charm and demonstrate creativity and active fun.
The fetishisation of pubescent girls as sex objects, nude printed dakimakura (hug pillows,) and various kinds of sex dolls and figurines, will never be cool. It feels a bit creepy. It seems a small step from that to the pervy sarariman, groping schoolgirls on rush-hour trains and stealing housewives' panties off the washing line.
A major area of genuine cool is the Harajuku based street fashion scene, portrayed in magazines and books such as Fruits. This is only peripherally part of the otaku culture, via photography and fetishisation, for example, of schoolgirls' loose socks. It isn't covered here, which isn't a criticism as you can easily get other material covering it.
The book is an excellent introduction to the otaku subculture. I am left with the feeling that it is as much an attempt to claim public space and validate the author's personal interests, as it is a celebration of a successful cultural movement.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fun a-z about a special Japanese subculture. It is full of information. Some of it seems a bit dated in the fast moving world of youth culture, but that is always a risk when writing about this subject. One weakness with the book is that you do not get any information about how this subculture fits with the rest of Japanese culture. Overall I can still recommend if you want to understand more.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ok, it's not something you might even have heard of, but once there you can't fail to miss it. Teenage girls, and more recently boys walking around in the most amazing outfits, Tokyo or Osaka or most City really in Japan. You start to wonder and this book answers all the questions you could have.
This is the sub culture that most guide books barely touch on, if at all, but it is massive and you will see it. It's part of what makes Japan Japan.
Laid out in a simple A-Z format, I am reading it page by page as opposed to dipping in here and there. It's funny, well written and always interesting. A book like this could easily have been an excuse for fetish pictures, cheap sexual text and basically concentrating on the more sexual side of this culture. Instead the author has treated it seriously but with humour. The A-Z style is interlaced with various short articles on people or parts of the culture, one soon understands that Galbraith is passionate about the subject. He hasn't simply clawed together some views and explantions littered with pictures, but rather has lovingly constructed what must be the most comprehensive study of this amazing underground culture that is as much Japan as sushe is.
A very worth while additional to my book shelf.
This is the sub culture that most guide books barely touch on, if at all, but it is massive and you will see it. It's part of what makes Japan Japan.
Laid out in a simple A-Z format, I am reading it page by page as opposed to dipping in here and there. It's funny, well written and always interesting. A book like this could easily have been an excuse for fetish pictures, cheap sexual text and basically concentrating on the more sexual side of this culture. Instead the author has treated it seriously but with humour. The A-Z style is interlaced with various short articles on people or parts of the culture, one soon understands that Galbraith is passionate about the subject. He hasn't simply clawed together some views and explantions littered with pictures, but rather has lovingly constructed what must be the most comprehensive study of this amazing underground culture that is as much Japan as sushe is.
A very worth while additional to my book shelf.
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