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.

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.

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.

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.