Yesterday I had no post because I was busy throughout the entire day. The main event was an interview done by a reporter, Miss Lu Caixia of Lianhe Zaobao (under Singapore Press Holdings. Though I and Gordon were also invited via email, I think the main focus was on the power bloggers and well-known hobbyists of such culture, namely 0ne, who was the most vocal there and certainly very experienced in the field, LianYL from RIUVA and DarkMirage. The two of us sat there listening to their views most of the time, and even when I did have something to say, I usually kept quiet and just listened. There is much to be learnt from just listening, if you know what and how to.

In any case the article was posted this morning in the local papers (Lianhe Zaobao is a Chinese paper) and according to 0ne’s post on it, Caixia did a good job debunking local myths and helping other SG’ers understand what exactly people within the circle think about the term “otaku” and their own culture in general. Surprisingly, she asked about Team Blue as well, though I doubt it was mentioned in the article. Throughout the post will be some pictures taken by the official photographer from Zaobao.

In case you wonder how I got them, my dad happens to be Caixia’s direct superior (LOL not sure if I was supposed to let this leak but oh well), but he was not the one who asked her to write this up so yeah. The pictures were taken at KKnM and so thanks to the bosses of the separate sections of KKnM and the Anime House for allowing use of such photography! Also thanks to the boss of Anime House for the nice albeit short chat before I left.

Warning: Pictures are big. They are going to take time to load. I already downsized them but well.
 

From left to right, Gordon, 0ne, LianYL, DarkMirage and me. We were holding up figures, mine was Enterbrain’s Yoko which is expected to arrive for me later this week at La Tendo.

 

Us supposedly reading some manga. Lol 0ne was actually telling me how Bleach manga was not to be read…and yes I am actually a fan of Bleach but not to the fanboy extent, 0ne.

Before I begin on my views though, I would like to stress that the following opinion is mine to hold alone and does not represent others’ opinions unless they say so. Whether you agree with me or not, is something that I will leave up to you to decide. What I can do is merely write my views on what I feel.

Otaku culture is in itself something of a mystery to folks who are not acquainted with it. But is it really that strange? It is the same thing if we take an example of say, someone who is into bikes, and someone who is into stamp collecting, and neither likes what the other does. Basically most of us have a passion or a hobby that may not be easily understood by others who do not share in that same passion or hobby; this is the same as people interested in otaku culture. Certainly, like any other hobby or passion, there are people who have varying degrees of enthusiasm in the hobby.
 

One of the last pictures the photographer took. We were having a group chat or so.

Take stamp collecting for example. Some people prefer to be small-time collectors, only having just a book in their collection, or less, preferring only to keep what they feel are interesting or artistic stamps. Others may go after really rare stamps and the like, and have thousands of them in their collection.

Such is with otaku culture. We do have hardcore and softcore otaku, and even most of us within the circle only use the term loosely – to deem yourself one is actually quite a different thing, as DarkMirage mentioned during the interview, than to be called one in Japan. In his words, “the barriers to entry for the term ‘otaku’ are simply far lesser here than in Japan”.
 

Otaku culture is not mainly restricted to either anime, or manga, or figure collecting. Like any other broad category it encompasses even music and other branches of interest. It only has a name attached to it, how different is it from other hobbies or passions that may have names attached to them? The only difference is that otaku culture is more towards the Japanese (or East Asian as 0ne suggests) side of interest where our areas are concerned. Is it any different therefore from geek culture? In fact, as Lian said during the interview, it might even be considered geek culture, or a spawn thereof from.

Certainly, for me, I never considered myself one. Even today, the term carries derogatory and negative undertones, whether in Japan or elsewhere. I myself am definitely not hardcore into the culture. And if you were to say that otaku culture attracted me because of what it is, not because of originally who I am, I have to say that you are not entirely right but not entirely wrong either.
 

Group shot, best one I guess. From left to right, Gordon, me, 0ne, DarkMirage and LianYL.

This is an allusion to the fact that Japanese media picked up on the Akihabara tragedy that occurred last Sunday. Indeed, what they tried to immediately exploit was the fact that killer, Kato Tomohiro, was into anime, sang anime songs at karaoke lounges regularly, and even drew a character with a sword in his high school days (sword alluding to what he used to stab people that day). He also once pronounced that he was only into 2D world (that is to say, anime world), and the media immediately highlighted that fact when they found out. Unfortunately recent investigations and queries by the police on Kato himself has revealed the actual reasons as he sees it for what he did at Aki last Sunday.

Certainly it was not because of otaku culture that he did what he did. Just like the violent video games link to a shooting in America a few years back (unfortunately, I forgot the name of that incident), there is no evidence to suggest that either violent video games or otaku culture was the cause. Rather, it just so happened that the games or the culture attracted such people on average more often than other hobbies or passions. This is a huge point to learn for many people – never believe in cause-and-effect relationships so easily. There are many underlying reasons as to why someone might take such actions, but to blame it squarely on any one thing without further research and investigation means you are jumping to conclusions and may instead be really biased about the whole thing.
 

As for Kato’s actions, like 0ne I also believed from the start that it was his societal problems that led to him taking such an act. He was feeling the stress and the emotional alienation from society itself, but this is not truly unique to Japan either. I am sure many of us feel the same way, just not to the same degree as Kato did. The world is alienating people all over. It just so happened that Kato made it public in his own country, and he chose a spot he believed had the most people that unfortunately also is a symbol of a certain culture called “otaku”.

Otaku culture is just another hobby, pastime or passion, especially here where I live. And I know that people fear what they do not know, it is human nature to do so and probably evolution gave us that. But what truly is fearful is how people do not bother getting to know what they do not know, and start making conclusions based on what they think they know.
 

Rene Descartes perhaps portrayed it best when he went around doubting everything, much like Socrates before him. Both philosophers challenged the notions of what we “know”, and both showed us that sometimes, what we think we know, we actually do not. What we think we know is a group of assumptions based upon more assumptions and things that we believe as facts. Certainly, it is time for us to try and change what we think we know, into what we really know.
 

Socrates. Image thanks to A Lust for Episteme.

I digress. Philosophical issues aside, I am not an otaku, and probably never will be serious enough to be considered one. I do not know if that is a good or bad thing, but I do know that I will continue my interests in this culture, and you can count on me to keep blogging about my interests here.
 

Cogito, ergo sum,
Panther
 

PS: Image at the top from Sexy Beach 2 but I am not too sure. Got it from 4Chan /w/ as always, a long time ago.

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