Originally this was gonna be a post about how crazily awesome the Densha Otoko DX special was. However, after all the drama raised over at Renegade over the state of blog writing I’ve decided to do something different. Recently I’ve been unhappy with my anime and music posts. I knew they were hastily written the moment I clicked the published button, but there was little that I could think of to change. At Renegade’s suggestion I think I’ll try one of his so-called ” editorial ” post on something Densha Otoko got me thinking about, mainly the commercialization of ” Otakuism “. Be warned however, this is hardly organized at all, and I just wrote as things came to me. Worked kind of nice though.

To set the stage, the new Densha special begins with all the rabid otaku being driven to their secret underground maid cafe’s, mainly to escape the flood of ” normal ” people into the den of otakudom, Akihabara. Even one of the otaku characters is interviewed on the deterioting state of things, before being accosted by a mob of schoolgirls wanting to take pictures. The main ploy of the films villian is not to still Hermes-tan, Densha’s beautiful girlfriend, but to create a Densha museum for millions of money! Of course all of this is played for laughs (and what laughs they were! I dare you not to find something in here funny, from barbarian natives dancing to J-pop to the antics of Jinkama Vader-chan) but still there is a grain of truth in it all.

Arguably the whole Densha Otoko started the crash commercialization of otaku, taking a group of hapless geeks and making them into the pride of Japan. Otaku were no longer those weird guys who hugged pillows of 2-d girls, but real humans with human needs. More importantly however, some business exec realized that these new humans also had wallets, and that he could sell shit to otaku as long as it had a pretty girl on it, and still make a ton of money. Now I’ve only been a hardcore fan since around 2003 I think, but still it seems to me merchandising has gone through the roof since then, with all the random paraphanelia and what all. That’s probably just me though. Maybe there’s some numbers somewhere to support me. Anyways you don’t need merchandising to tell you how much of a business the otaku craze has become. This last years spring and fall seasons have been record breaking in the number of new shows. And more importantly it’s no coincidence that a large number of these new shows lend themselves incredibly well to random merchandising, no matter what the quality (I’m looking at you long ass name Crescent Love!).

Just when Densha Otoko made otaku human, business made the otaku a global economic wave that would revolutionize the world, and revitalize Japan’s bank accounts at the same time. It was just last year I think when one the high government officials talked of using Japan’s ” soft power ” to rule the world! Ok not really, but I think you get my drift. Otaku=money in the eyes of many of Japan’s leaders. Now I would like to talk about the culture of moe for a minute, and it’s effects on the otaku business. To me, the new otaku wave and the culture of moe are synonymous. Both started at around the same time and are fueled by eachother. Otaku like moe and buy a ton of it. The people who make moe like money and sell it to otaku. Pretty nice system. However, moe hardly fosters any intellectual, or hell, even artistic development at all. I admit I like looking at pretty drawings, but I like good stories also. Lately you hear a lot of people talking about how the new season doesn’t interest them at all. Moe is probably to blame. After awhile your just sick of staring at doe-eyed loli sis-cons. Moe as a business isn’t over yet, but I think we’ll start seeing a movement against it in the next couple of years, probably started by us westerners who aren’t immersed in it 24/7.

So in this sea of business interests and moe, where does the average otaku lie? In truth I don’t know. All I can say is that the current system can’t last forever. Whether this is the golden age of otakudom or just another step to the destruction of the culture in the mainstream will be for later otaku to decide. I don’t think even the most hardcore of japanese otaku can put up with things the way they are now. The constant merchandising, the continious stream of new shows and games, the ever tightening wallets. As the current otaku grow and decide they want something else, what then? What would happen if a large force of the otaku population stopped buying all together after burnout? Would businesses collapse? Will western fans take up the slack as the growing otaku youth gain a steady income? Who knows. I’m hardly a cultural anthropologist. All I can think is that it’s a fascinating time to be an otaku, and hopefully will continue to be so. And watch Densha Otoko. It’s a great show that will have you laughing and crying, sometime at the same time. Damn, I can’t believe I just wrote all of that…

oh, and woohoo for being on Nano!