Week 6 - Beautiful Fighting Girl: Defining Otakus as Maniacs

Beautiful Fighting Girl by Tamaki Saito, pg 1-81

In the first half of Beautiful Fighting Girls, Saito takes a look at the otaku phenomena and the evolution of "beautiful fighting girls" through a combination of historical research combined with psychoanalytics. The part I found most intriguing, however, was his attempt at defining what it means to be an "otaku". Instead of adopting either an extremely negative Miyazaki-incident induced or extremely defensive Otsuka Eiji perspective on the matter, Saito parallels the behaviours of "otakus" with those of "maniacs". Although I do not agree on many of the points and examples given in the chapter, nor find them to be well supported apart from "personal impressions" as pointed out by Saito himself, I find the term "maniac" the closest and neutral description of otakus I've ever come across. Saito defines, "The term maniac referred originally to the kind of person who is obsessed with something that yields no practical advantage." To an extent, the behaviours of otakus can often be described as strongly obessive while their hobbies often do indeed serve no practical purpose other than self enjoyment. That does not, however, imply any negative connatation nor social disorder in otaku behaviours or preferences.

Just as an audiophile seeks only the most crisp sounds, the highest quality original audio, an otaku (even per Okada Toshio's definition) will fully appreciate the deep intricacies of the material being consumed. For anime, this could be the short but distinct cameos or homages to other series/events and sometimes even studio-based self-references that are often overlooked by casual fans. For manga, this could be the pinpointing of the unique art styles and/or drawing techniques that differentiate some doujinshi from main-stream manga studio productions. For figurines or dolls, this could be the tiny details and polish points that showcase the original designer's craftsmanship differentiating that are overlooked by passing by observers. This level of maniacal "obsession" separates "otakus" from the larger group of "anime/manga/etc. fans". How this obsession is viewed from a public eye, however, is an ever-changing topic that's always open for discussion but nevertheless independent from the definition of "otaku". The unarguable fact, however, is that otakus can be described as "experts" in their fields at a level that can sometimes only be described as "maniacal".

The other point of the parallelism described by Saito is that of "no practical advantage". For most otaku, it is a source of pride to be able to prove overly-excessive obsession of their field of interest. The "possession" described by Saito could be expressed in either knowledge or material form. For some otaku, it could be in the form of knowing every single piece of trivia or reference in an anime/manga/drama series.  For others, it could be the large physical collection of anime DVDs, manga/doujinshis, models and figurines, or PC software/galge. I, for example, pride myself in having an extremely long and comprehensive "watched anime" list which I regularly update and maintain. Does it serve any practical purpose? No. Will it lead anywhere in life? No. In the end, it's purely an extreme and overly-obsessive expression of passion and interest that is separate from the real world.

The extreme ability to critique works and associated obsessive possessiveness of objects or knowledge serving little to no larger real-world purposes are what I believe define "otaku". For better or worse, no better word parallels this definition other than that of a "maniac".