Mega Megane Moé
Hell and Heaven Moéltdown
The Otaku Girl Archetype and a painfully serious reflection on living the anime life
The adages “birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract” are often at war, being two different ways to describe how people come together. While usually this is meant to describe the relationship between two distinctly real people, these sayings can be applied to the fandom of anime characters as well.
And in this 2D realm, oddly enough, the situation is much the same in that there are veritable arguments for both sides of the coin.
It’s quite obvious that there are character types in anime that would never be possible (or at least extremely implausible) in real life, ones that clash with the passive, soft-spoken attitude that most male anime fans embody. At the extreme end of the scale you get dominatrix-type characters in shows best left hidden in a dark corner somewhere (or under a mattress), but even more family-friendly personalities can pull off the appeal of being the polar opposite of the stereotypical harem lead archetype.
There are the extremely hyperactive types that simply exude energy, bouncing off the walls and willing to try everything as least once, no matter the consequences. Their outgoing attitude and lack of shame is a nice fit for any daydreaming viewer who wishes they could be as enthusiastic.
The appeal of a tsundere can somewhat fall under this umbrella as well; rather, it is the umbrella, housing the love-love couple of these two trains of thought at one time. A tsundere character as strictly defined will reach both sides of the spectrum; being a totally different, almost foriegn personality with their cold, sometimes brutal tsuntsun side, yet exhibiting the same blushing, stammering, flustered deredere side that many inexperienced romantics are familiar with.
But more than that, when I mean ‘birds of a feather’ I don’t mean characters with simply the same personality but those who share the same kinds of beliefs and passions as an anime viewer. It’s one thing to relate with a character based on their experiences and emotions but when you find someone else who can appreciate the same thing you do … it’s scarily intriguing.
Perhaps too much.
Probably 99% of all anime, hell, all entertainment on Earth is escapism, at least to some degree.
Some pander worse than others. The fanservice shows get the worst rap, although harem and harem-types aren’t far behind; anything that appears to hinder social skills is something that will never be approved of fully in society.
But there’s other kinds of pandering as well. There is emotional pandering; the shows with sad girls in stuff, that appeal to the inner knight in shining armor. A romance show, which draws out the idealistic romantic in people. Some soap operas and reality shows cater to people by making them feel better about themselves in the “at least my life isn’t that” sense.
And then there are the sort of niche shows that make you just say, “See, I’m not crazy. I’m not the only one.”
Maybe it’s too existential to say that, a bit too serious, but people are always looking for confirmation in life, looking for support, because as cool as it sounds, it’s hard to be a true loner. Some seek safety in numbers, while those we brand as ‘loners’ are merely those who choose a more exclusive group to have a circle affirmation with; comfortably different, but very rarely radically departed from society’s norm.
Anime fans tend to be this brand of people; they are passionate, and devoted, but nearly always feeling a sort of oppression from society, perceived or actual. Perhaps it is just me that cannot fully let go and drop into the world of figurines and internet memes and character-print pillowcases, but a lot of anime fans enjoy having one foot in both proverbial doors, if only out of some desire to be ‘normal’.
You don’t see it a lot of times on blogs, per se, as these are the extensions of the ‘insane’ side of fans; but see it in the way that people on forums and the internet treat each other , in the hierarchy scramble of people all of the same general class, but still always feeling an urge to be ’superior’ to others relative to the social norm. “I may watch anime, but at least I don’t watch fanservice shows.” “I may watch fanservice shows, but at least I don’t collect figurines.” “I collect figurines, but at least I don’t sleep with hug pillows.” The scale goes on and on.
Of course ‘normal’ is all relative; in some alternate world Japan is run by some girl in a sailor uniform and everyone shuns the guy in a business suit, and so this whole ‘normal’ thing is borne out of an uncertainty of detaching themselves from what the majority thinks.
Is that a good thing? Is it better to be normal? After all, it’s not like being ‘normal’ is being a brainless conformist who grazes on the same field as everyone else – as the ‘nonconformists’ would have you think. There is room for some deviation for the casual fan; of course, it will require some sacrifice, but it shouldn’t be sacrilegious to enjoy other things in life.
But in the tug-of-war over an impressionable mind, those ingrained in the anime world will fight back, and in this long, probably depressing, aimless rant, we end up at today’s topic: the otaku girl in anime.
I see them as that kind of fan-pandering mentioned above, a character type meant to be Just Like You, to make you feel better about thinking differently … yet alike all the other different people.
When I say an ‘otaku girl’, I don’t just mean the casual anime-viewer in anime, the kind that will toss out a line about a current show now and then. I mean the full on, means business, Konata Izumi type, that lives, breathes, and collects anime.
They epitomize what we both revere and fear in anime fans, the one truly devoted to their art, to the point where their walls, their appearance, their demeanor, and probably their wallet reflects it. The kind that’s not afraid to sleep with a hug pillow, or stand in line for hours for a limited edition figurine, or spend hours, maybe days, making extremely esoteric, yet somehow cool, fanworks.
They appeal to the hidden (mostly) side in all of us who secretly wants to be insane, that wants to be this passionate and this honest. We see them as extensions of ourselves, what we are in part and could be if we dared, and so we idolize these otaku girls.
No less, of course, because they embrace this ‘dirty’ stereotype of otaku, yet have an appearance attractive to the outside eye, not least due to the fact that they carry two X chromosomes. They ‘prove’ that not all people who watch anime are fat smelly men who live in their parent’s basement (to set the record straight, I’m on the first floor here) … well, theoretically, if they weren’t 2D.
And that’s why I don’t like otaku girls (in anime, at least).
It’s not to say that the stereotype of anime fans is true; many are real people with real lives, who carry this hobby sensibly as just that – a hobby. (I have this strange sense I’m contradicting my earlier argument, but I digress.) But the fact that we percieve, that we set this stereotype for ourselves and subsequently feel the need to break it, is something that annoys me.
The otaku girl in anime exists because we as anime fans place ourselves as distant from the rest of society. She is made from our insecurity, our need to have confirmation and justification. If we didn’t keep making ourselves ‘different’, didn’t keep trying to be isolationist, there would be no need for the otaku girl.
But, instead, she exists, and I’m stuck in that median between the casual and the diehard fans. I can’t see the otaku girl in anime as an equal, as an idol, or as a joke character. Rather, it’s just unsettling more than anything else.
It’s the same awkward feeling as a poor or middle-class person would feel if suddenly they were served by maids (another famous trope of anime), the sense of “why do I need this?”. It’s too patronizing, too much like we need someone lower than us, or in the same boat as us, to feel like people.
Instead of confidence in who we are, we hide behind each other and behind these characters who are in the same situation, claim they understand what it’s like to be different. What happened to breaking the false stereotypes with our own hands? We’re not different than any other fanatic about any other passion.
We don’t need to be.
-CCY
(Although, naturally, there is some irony about publicly posting a blog post asking people to stop asking for acceptance from other and start accepting themselves.)
(Wow. Just wow. What was originally a rant about how I Don’t Like Konata turned extremely existential and kind of melancholy in mood. I’m sorry if that post took a lot out of any of you – being serious and reflective is something I think is necessary, but something that I find is not really something that is all that fun to do. Or read. Especially when I don’t plan it out and just go on a rampage. I’ll make sure to whip up more of the funny for next time, because in the end, I still enjoy my escapist insanity more. It’s all good.)
May 7, 2008 - 10:35 pm
1. Wait a second…are you a girl? Has yet another anime blogger reverse-trapped me?
2. “it’s hard to be a true loner”
It’s actually quite easy. Just ask Hayami. All you have to do is nothing. Sitting alone in my room all day rocks. I tried the friendship thing before. It sucked. People were always trying to hang out with me, eat with me, watch movies with me, ask me for advice – it was annoying. I’ve got my own things to do. For example, I still haven’t watched Neon Genesis Evangelion…
3. Getting off the topic is fine. It happens to me all the time.
May 8, 2008 - 12:31 am
You described an Otaku Girl as the worst kind of otaku that you never want to be. At the same time though, some of us are stuck with whatever problems they have in life, for the mere fact that Otaku Girl exists. They keep telling themselves that “at least someone is worse than me”, and in effect they refuse to reinvent themselves and move away from their monotonous status. “I’m still fine, I’m still fine.” and “…I can change in another day” are the usual excuses.
I think you and me are on that median. Similar to your first sentence, the phrases “Be yourself” and “You must change” are also at war. You don’t like yourself, and yet you can’t bring yourself to change things.
I think I’m just repeating your own insights though so let me give my own solution. Oof… sorry, there is none. Nothing will change EVEN if you change. Even if you solve your problems, there is just another one lurking around like an endless shounen manga. That’s the way life works, an endless set of walls to climb. Suppose you or I were able to stray ourselves away from the lonely anime life, well, we enter a lonely X or Y life instead.
I can’t figure out if there really is a solution. Maybe “satisfaction”, or “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey” kind of mindset, but that’s the same thing as denial or sour graping, as long as Otaku Girl exists. Tell me, are you able / do you know how to make the Otaku Girl completely disappear? It’s as hard trying to interpret different bird feathers as the same…
It’s getting insane too over here, lol.
May 9, 2008 - 3:59 pm
It took me a while to realise what that first image was about; that 3D Konata picture is weird! There are many unsettling details to it, not only is there a seifuku girl hiding in the draw, the monitor is turned to face the computer case and the intel logo is too big. The worst part, though, is that Konata is just too tall!! What have they done to little Konata?
When lucky star first aired, I remember writing somewhere on the world wide web stating: “OMFG!! Konata marry me! Orz!!!” But of course Konata is just a character designed for artistic and commercial purposes. There is nobody like Konata, a character is a character. None of them from Animé, TV, movies are remotely realistic – characters are made. It is irrelevant to judge yourself against a character because humans are unable create a realistic persona of themselves, not even close.
I believe at one point everyone gets dragged back to something approaching accepted normalities. You can’t be a NEET forever! Live a little around the office coffee machine and you know what? You have a ‘dirty’ little urge to end your loneliness and talk. In that process, you might say that you change to become normal or conformist, I say it’s the human being’s infinite capacity to expand.
Does this make the anime fan a normal person with otaku hobbies or an otaku trapped with a normal life?
Well, I reckon if you get an otaku couple together, they’ll still end up living together, getting married and having kids. They might get there via polyester resin models but the ending is familiar to everyone. The Otaku Girl/Boy exists inside a normal boring person.
May 10, 2008 - 3:58 am
Ah. Amazing reflection, if somewhat convoluted. But it’s not like your usual stream-of-consciousness style is to blame, anyway. Once I figured out what you were saying it all fell into place, and I can only think of it as a mark of Lucky Star’s greatness — truly “deep” anime is reactive and reflective, not just the former. In any case, good job at pointing that out. Perhaps you could call this an otaku’s existential moment?
May 11, 2008 - 9:49 am
@Baka-Raptor: I AM?! *checks pants*
Well, I watch magical girl shows, enjoy anime like Kare Kano and Marmalade Boy … yeah, I’m one hell of a manly man alright. XD
And on more serious points, in the day of the internet it’s hard for people to be what I would consider loners; even if they have no or few real friends, they can cluster with other likeminded people on the internet.
@bluemist: Personally, I think a lot of the problem here is that we’re too desperate to make ourselves seem better than others, or to redeem ourselves in some way. I mean, the Otaku Girl personality, when considered seriously, is usually taken as either one of the few peers that ‘understand’ the viewer, or as someone lower than them (by virtue of being nerdier). It’s always seen on the gaming blogs like Kotaku, whenever something really amazing is shown, there’s always a comment of “At least I have a life, unlike this guy.”
The kind of solution I am looking for is a kind of individualist one, that involves people taking and giving less offense to nerd culture in general; a lot of people tend to think they are being repressed by society, and yet they are the ones that oppress those higher up the nerd ladder than them. Something about us causing our own problem; we don’t try to believe we are the same, so we don’t act that way. But perhaps I’m being idealistic.
@Teeif: The image gave a strange feel to me too, but I just thought it was the strange realistic style of it.
I like your way of thinking of “it’s the infinite capacity to expand.” It does seem to fit the image – or at least the stereotype – of many otaku-type that they tend to shun reality. That was one of the reasons why I was kind of disillusioned with the Konata-type and wrote this post, that it tends to encourage the separation of otaku from society, one way or another. (I’m not saying it’s wrong to be one of these types of people … but calling yourself distant is kind of immature, kind of like a teenager shouting “you don’t understand me at all!” to their parents)
@Owen: I laughed at you trying to relate this to Lucky Star, perhaps because of your recent post on it. Personally it was more of a reflection in general on the stereotype and our own stereotype, with no particular character in mind. I just found that in terms of Otaku Girls, Konata was the one that came to mind under the ‘don’t like’ column. Tama-chan, Hiyori, Fujiyoshi, etc. I’m less biased against, for some reason.