All of us can sense that 2 dimensional Japanese subculture is intricately complex, but how complex is it exactly? I will try to answer this question using a real-life experience I had encountered recently.

Remember this post I did awhile ago when I started my first module in university? I suspected the guy mentioned was a Bleachtard because he didn’t know what was eroge, but hell I was dead wrong. For the next two classes, he came in with a Hatsune Miku shirt, followed by a Suzumiya Haruhi shirt. I was like… *jaws drop* omgwtf this guy is really liberal about his Otakuness. I always go to class with my very neutral sports shirts and bermudas.

However after the next two classes, he went back to wearing normal round necks and sports shirts. I got the impression that he was trying to find out who was Otaku in class, coz he never went back to any COSPA shirts.

I bumped into that guy again on my way to bustop about a week ago. Prior to talking to him that day, I didn’t really talk to him at all.. but I guess we hit off quite well.

The following conversation ensued (roughly):

“Me: *smile*

Him: Oh errr, hi. I didn’t really notice you.

Me: Haha. Hey, do you really not know what is eroge?

Him: Oh that! No I do know what is eroge. Its just that I read Kanji (traditional chinese characters) slowly.

Me: But that wasn’t Kanji, it was Katakana!”

For those Otaku who don’t know Japanese, there are 3 different kinds of Japanese characters: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Katakana is used to write words that do not originate in Japan. For example coffee is written “ko-hi-” and supermarket is written “su-pa-” in Katakana while tea is written “cha” (masculine) or “o-cha” (feminine) using Kanji and Hiragana, because some tea did originate in Japan. In the case of “eroge”, Katakana is used to emphasise the word or something, since eroge contains freaking 18+ material. Heck, Eroge is the shortened form of “Erotic Game”, so even though the derivation is not Japanese, eroge itself is very Japanese.

“Him: Oh really? Ahahaha… anyway I was at Cosfest yesterday.

Me: Hmm? Doing what?

Him: Basically taking some photos. Its like when the Gundam guy appeared, he was instantly mobbed! They didn’t care about anyone else.

Me: Haha really? I don’t really like Gundam. I’m more of a moe fan.

Him: Haha yeah I figured that out already. If you like eroge but don’t like Gundam, you must be a moe fan.”

This is actually a very interesting deduction. It shows that you do not need to actually know ANY Japanese to be knowledgeble about Japanese subculture.

“Me: Haha yeah. I was like thinking… “what the hell this guy is wearing a Miku shirt!” when you came into class that day. I mean, I would never do something like that. Most people wouldn’t understand.

Him: Oh so you’re a ninja Otaku.

Me: Closet Otaku.

Him: Whatever. Anyway, I’m kind of liberal about my hobbies.

Me: Haha yeah anyway yupz moe rocks. I like play eroge all the time even though I don’t understand it.

Him: That’s cool.

Me: I mean, eroge is the best freaking thing on earth. Its like, people have no idea what they’re missing out on man! And its not just the porn scenes, its the freaking moe!

Him: Yeah, I get what you mean.

Me: Have you watched Potemayo?

Him: Err no, not really.

Me: What?! Do you read anime blogs?

Him: Hmmm… only bjOrn I think.

Me: HAHA you don’t read Hop Step Jump?

Him: Hmmm no.”

I found this really insightful. It seems that those who are already Otaku have a lower propensity to read animeblogs as compared to those who are half-Otaku. This guy was a real cosplay fanatic.

“Him: Anyway, I’m part of Collateral Damage Studios.

Me: Oh, that explains why you read bj0rn’s blog. So you know him personally?

Him: Not really, I’m like the guy who does manual jobs.

Me: Haha really? Anyway CDS is like the first serious doujin group in Singapore right?

Him: Yup.

Me: Yeah I really like some of your stuff.

Him: Hmmm I’m not really sure about that… I feel that their stuff’s priced too high.

Me: I was thinking of getting your Mag Mell, but after looking through it at the Toy Convention I decided not to. I mean, did Xephonia do those?

Him: Not really sure.

Me: Looks like his. I mean I’m a fan of Xephonia, but I think he does Miku and Itou Noizi style characters better. His style doesn’t really match Key’s.

Him: Haha but Key’s stuff is really like… WAAAYY up there. I don’t think its easy to draw doujins of Key well.”

….

I could keep going until I the point when I had to break off for my oral conference, but the length of the dialogue will definitely detract the main argument.

The fact is that there is a vast variety of different media forms that is available within the subculture, and that even more select interests are prevalent within the subculture. Whether it is anime, eroge, manga or light novels, it is almost impossible for even the most hardcore of Otaku to experience absolutely all of the media released.

Later in the day, we bumped into another one of his friends (Sierra) which he told me was Otaku as well. Sierra acknowledged the word, but guess what: he doesn’t know who is Hatsune Miku. As a moetaku, I find this abhorable. But heck, he should at least have heard of Vocaloid or something like that. Thing is he didn’t, and when I played some Miku songs for him using my handphone, he was hell interested. The other guy (who couldn’t read eroge in Katakana) whipped out his PSP and we ended up watching a whole bunch of Miku videos. It should be noted that the guy without basic Japanese knowledge knew that Hatsune means “first sound” in Japanese, which shows again that Otaku do not need to recognise basic Japanese!

Take another example: me. I am a moe fan, so when the guy tried to stir up conversations about Macross, Code Geass and Gundam, I really didn’t know what to say. Yeah, I know that these shows are incredibly popular around the Otakusphere, and even moetaku watch them, but it isn’t like I didn’t try to watch them. I mean, I am content playing eroge in Japanese, re-watching moe(/)loli anime on DVD, and I doubt most within the Otakusphere would have a huge issue with that. Macross and Gundam are heavier mecha, and I have never penetrated past Full Metal Panic!, which argubly was very light mecha in comparison to the teenage romance portion.

So in the above two examples we have two types of Otaku: a moetaku (me) and a cosplay fanatic. Its interesting how huge the deviation in interest is even though we do share some common knowledge.

To draw an example from Lucky Star, note that Kagami can hardly be considered Otaku, but she is a light novel fanatic. Which means Kagami is actually some sort of Otaku, EVEN THOUGH she doesn’t know half (or even a quarter) of what Konata is talking about when he rants on and on about Otaku stuff. Due to Konata’s low tolerance for the masses of words found in light novels, she can’t really understand fully what Kagami is talking about even if she has already watched/played the adaptions of the light novels.

What I’m trying to show here is using the word Otaku is way too vague to suffice in any sentence and Otakusphere is more appropriate, as Otakusphre is broad. Moetakusphere would be inappropriate, since it cuts off alot of what is already in the Otakusphere and may not be broad enough to qualify as a sphere of influence.

So what is the comparable mass of the Otakusphere in terms of complexity? Probably enough to engulf both the spheres of influences exerted by both popular visual culture, and popular western gaming culture. As popular culture is easily accessible to both Otaku and non-Otaku, and these spheres of influence are rather arbitrary, I will leave the rest for all who have reached thus far in this blogpost to decide for themselves.