In recent years, anime It has become one of the most consumed forms of entertainment worldwide, and productions of this type of work grow every day with million-dollar budgets aimed not only at Japan or parts of Asia, but also at the entire world with an ever-increasing variety. . But this positive image was not always like this, as a terrible moment in Japanese history marginalized the "otaku”And their tastes in manga and anime, so for many years they were seen as weird, but now that seems to have changed a bit.
Anime and otaku culture seems to be more accepted nowadays
The fact of how otakus are classified in today's culture has become relevant again due to the definition that can be seen in the Japanese version of Wikipedia, mentioning the origins of this word and how it was used derogatorily in many cases, but apparently that has changed. And there is a fact that for a long time marked anime culture lovers as outcasts, weirdos, or even unpleasant people.
According to the same Wikipediaat first the word “Otaku"Otaku" emerged as a term for fans, originally popularized in the 1980s. But it was at the end of that decade that a horrific event shook Japan, involving the kidnapping of several young girls in that country, with the worst possible outcome. What changed people's view of otakus was the fact that the person responsible for these acts, Tsutomu Miyazaki, was an avid collector of manga, anime, and various artifacts from this culture. Therefore, the media used his tastes to classify him as the main motive for the action.
Being such an important fact, the term “otaku"would be affected forever, but one of the current paragraphs was what surprised many, and that is that the term would have begun to be much more accepted today, attributing in this case the same Wikipedia The various factors that led to this. Since the expansion of the internet in the late 1990s and the rise in social status of anime, manga, video games, and even idols, they have helped to change the negative connotation, only to remain today as someone "fanatic" or "enthusiastic."
As we mentioned, the event had a lot of repercussions on social media, especially in Japan, where users expressed their feelings on the matter. It's possible to see messages from many "otaku" fans from the past or the 1990s, where it was actually seen as a bad thing. Many of them agree that these tastes were kept secret, and neither were many of the series that are now considered the best of all time, such as Evangelionthey could clean up that bad image.
This new definition of the word "otaku" only demonstrates the significant growth this culture has experienced, not only in that country but also globally. Although in many countries it continues to be used as an insult or a joke, more and more people are delving deeper into these mediums. This has also been fueled by the widespread adoption of projects, which in many cases seek to reach audiences not only in Japan but also worldwide, with major Western companies like DC looking to create anime adaptations of their most popular franchises.
