April Peavey

April Peavey

April Peavey produces the Global Hit. She is based in the Boston newsroom of The World.

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The Strange and Startling World of Japanese Otaku

December 20, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Harada Mariru owns over 13,000 manga. (Photo: Androniki Christodoulou)

Harada Mariru owns over 13,000 manga. (Photo: Androniki Christodoulou)

In Japanese the word Otaku literally means “your home,” but it’s also come to describe someone who is deeply interested in comics, manga, video games or something similar.

Sometimes these collectors go to extremes and dress up like their favorite character.

In Japan this is called cos-play.

Author Patrick Galbraith met many die-hard fans of Otaku in Japan.

The result are these images taken from his book “Otaku Spaces.”


(Slideshow Photos: Androniki Christodoulou)

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Discussion

6 comments for “The Strange and Startling World of Japanese Otaku”

  • CyberSkull

    If you go to any kind of convention you will see a lot of cosplay (one word).

  • CyberSkull

    Lemme see what I can recognize:

    Slideshow:
    * Terra (Tina) Branford from Final Fantasy VI
    * Son Goku from Dragon Ball

    The documentary:
    * Kyoshi warriors from Avatar: The Last Airbender
    * The Weighted Companion Cube from Portal
    * Princess Peach from Mario
    * Some characters from Darkstalkers
    * Seras Victoria from Hellsing
    * Some Jedi & Sith from Star Wars
    * Yuna and Paine from Final Fantasy X-2
    * Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon

  • CyberSkull

    The main reason I don’t cosplay is that I don’t have the money or skill to invest in the creation of a cool Samus or Vash costume. (Also I just don’t have the hair to pull off Vash without a wig.)

    • http://twitter.com/redthehaze Red Veron

       Don’t put yourself down just like that. Almost all pro cosplayers I know who started off as just doing it for fun with poorly made costumes. They learned to do it better and find cheap and easy materials for costumes. Its for fun and don’t let what anonymous jerks say make you feel otherwise.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=524272220 Shelley Mikloski

        I started out with a dress I had laying around and added things to it. Now that I’ve been cosplaying for two years I look back and it’s amazing to see how much you can learn.
        The only person who will put down your costume is you because….well it’s just what you do. If you just put together half of a costume you’re doing more than those who show up in day-to-day clothes. It’s fun even if you’re just wearing a wig and makeup. 
        I was nervous for my first con but when you get your first photo taken or your first compliment you will feel like a million bucks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1310068595 Micah Christopher Fields

    The name “Otaku” has a negative connotation from a serial killer, Tsutomu Miyazaki(also known as the Otaku killer). killled several little girls(ages 4 to 7) and then sexually molested the corpses of the girls. He was caught when he stuck his camera lens up the vagina of a small girl in public. Miyazaki was an Otaku himself, collecting many horror movies on vhs, he had many stacks of horror movies in his room in his parents house, where he lived. The people of Japan have never forgotten Miyazaki and his strange obsessions, many many people still remember this man and his lust for killing and molesting(in that order) small little girls. People still remember this incident each and every time they see someone who obsesses over a particular type of media, because in their minds, this is what caused the irregularity in the mind of Miyazaki. In a land where mental illness is widespread (suicide rates in Japan are among the highest in the world) There might have been many factors that help perpetuate this killers motives. Regardless the people of Japan look at obsessive people as having mental illness and see them as capable of many horrific things based on this one serial killer’s actions.