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Originally Posted by Black Francis
Baka-Batlord Senpai
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The thing that amuses me about self-proclaimed Western otaku, is that "otaku" is an insult in Japan. It's like calling someone a nerd, but with an even greater emphasis on the subject being an obsessive loser with no friends. Apparently in Japan, "otaku" prefer the term "moe" nowadays. Calling a Japanese anime fan an otaku might get you punched, if they weren't such polite pussies.
I forget the specifics, but apparently their were some kind of newsworthy incidents involving otaku kind of people over there that really put a black mark on the term (like school shootings or something in that general, sad nerd crime sphere, but definitely don't quote me on that).
And yet weeaboos are too clueless about any real aspect of Japanese culture to actually be aware of this. I've been mostly out of the anime business for a number of years, but I probably know more about the country's culture, history, and geography than those goofballs.
Update: here's a Wiki excerpt about several crimes that really ruined the term for Japan.
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The 1989 "Otaku Murderer" case gave a negative connotation to the fandom from which it has not fully recovered. The usage of "(interest) otaku", however, is used for teasing or self-deprecation, but the unqualified term remains negative. The identification of otaku turned negative in late 2004 when Kaoru Kobayashi kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered a seven-year-old first-grade student. Japanese journalist Akihiro Ōtani suspected that Kobayashi's crime was committed by a member of the figure moe zoku even before his arrest. Although Kobayashi was not an otaku, the degree of social hostility against otaku increased. Otaku were seen by law enforcement as possible suspects for sex crimes, and local governments called for stricter laws controlling the depiction of eroticism in otaku materials.
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