“Why would I trick someone like you? You are a freaking Otaku! I only trick normal guys.”

My sister said this to me recently and I dismissed it as a trivial matter. But upon further reflection, I found the premise of this statement quite interesting.

It all happened after a family dinner I had recently. I found myself caught up in one of those after dinner conversations again with my sister and mother. While enjoying a slightly serious conversation with Mom regarding the economy and the onslaught of stagflation, I noticed that my sister’s face was as dark as a thunder cloud.

Being a concerned older brother of 1 year, I made the mistake of asking her what was wrong.

She immediately opened the floodgates and after awhile, I felt like I was drowning. It had something to with this guy, who we will call Delta, and how she was pissed off with him because she had to pay for him when they went out on dates.

Now I would say that my sister is at least above average in the looks department, and she currently has 3 suitors under consideration. One is Delta (around my age), which is the closest to being her childhood friend. The next guy is an aspiring combat pilot trainee (same age as her), who we will codename Echo, of which she only met up with recently. The last guy is a sociology major who is a full-time executive, of which I will refer to as Foxtrot (definitely older).

My mom and her agreed that Delta was a nice guy, but that he definitely would not guarantee her financial stability. As the conversation dragged on, it became obvious that even though my sister spent the most time with Delta throughout her school years, the likelihood of her getting together with the above mentioned guys is as follows:

Delta < Echo < Foxtrot

For those who can’t be bothered to read through the above rambling, I’ll summarise all I’ve written in one statement which is as follows:

THE WORLD IS A F*CKED UP PLACE.

Which underscores how unrealistic a lot of anime are when childhood friends are concerned. Males and females make relationship decisions ultimately based on ladder theory. If you think this theory is crap, think again. It just so happens that Delta is right at the top of her friends ladder, which if you ask me is a very sad thing indeed because I personally feel Delta is more deserving of her than Echo or Foxtrot. But heck, I believe in ladder theory myself, so please don’t expect me to “set things right” or anything like that. Because it just ain’t gonna happen.

I’ll employ dialogue for the next part of the conversation:

Sis: I mean, he (Delta) can’t expect me to support him next time right?

Me: Well, people are becoming more open minded and so in the future, it may not be uncommon to see women supporting men instead of vice versa. I mean, women are rising up the social ladder quicker than ever, and a lot of them are earning obscene incomes.

Sis: Do I like look I can earn an obscene income to you? (And quite honestly at the rate things are going, she definitely can’t.) Which is why I have to trick guys.

Me: But I doubt that you can trick me…

Sis: …why would I trick you? You are freaking Otaku! I only trick normal guys.

Now, me and my sister are quite close. From empirical observation I would say that we’re closer than most brothers and sisters are. But please, I am certainly NOT a siscon (I don’t give a f*ck who she dates, or whether she has a date) and she doesn’t look like Isurugi Noe.

ANYWAY, there was this point of time when I was still in service (and was perhaps only half-Otaku) that we would spend time together watching the latest episode of the 2006 rendition of Kanon (she likes Tsukimiya Ayu best). In fact, she enjoys every one of Kyoto Animation’s works before Lucky Star (she hates Lucky Star) and she emotionally recognises terms such as loli, moe and Shoujo Ai (I made her watch Manabi Straight!). In fact I find it rather ironic, because she watched anime way earlier than me (I started seriously only at the age of 19). Primarily Shoujo stuff such as Akazukin Cha Cha and Fushigi Yuugi on Animax, which I of course hated.

We don’t do that anymore though, as she is aware of the general reputation Otaku get. It became obvious to her when she swore to me that Kanon was the best thing she ever saw in her entire life, only to realise none of her friends are watching it.

Thus, she does understand fully why I do what I do, and definitely isn’t using the term derrogatively. So she is actually implying:

1. Otaku are smarter than normal guys.

2. Otaku resist hype because hype and trends are ultimately trickery no matter how fun it may seem.

3. Otaku do not conform to social norms because some norms are also a form of restrictive trickery. Social norms benefit society and not the individual, thus conforming is a form of social stupidity. Conformists are not afraid of conforming, since they can blame other conformists and cry on the shoulder of other conformists if anything stupid happens. And there are definitely many more conformists than deviants.

It just so happens that many anime bloggers are in college (or likely to enter college) training to master respected disciplines. I will not quote specific blogs as any general lurker will be able to sense this if they read enough about pages. And quite honestly, there is simply no reason for an anime blogger communicating with the world to lie about his or her qualifications, as it would alienate readers and work against the blogger.

Just a litte bit of something to ponder on. And yup, it is an unwritten rule between me and her not to talk about Otaku-related stuff when we’re in the company of others. She doesn’t watch anime anymore anyway, and both of us respect each other’s decision to thread different paths. Heck, I don’t even talk about Otaku stuff without her anyway. Closet Otakuism is the only way to go in this f*cked up world, but with the advent of a more technologically saavy younger generation and the proliferation of more anime blogs, this might change just yet.

In a nutshell: Yes, girls are more than willing to sacrifice ultimate happiness (memories of childhood and watching KeyAni adaptions) in favour of financial stability. So for those hopeful ones, I would advise you to brace for impact.