Let's Manga

One of the most interesting things about the manga phenomenon is the way fans make it their own; even more than traditional comics, manga seems to inspire readers to go off and make their own books.

The pressure on Akiba Walker's Paradise has been heating up, and the media has also joined in the game by adding more spice to the weekly Sunday drama. Today at Akiba, an interesting phenomenon has happened; a group of policemen whom the otaku calls the 'blue people' were followed by groups of reporters from TV stations and behind them is an even bigger group of curious crowd.

Some in Akihabara wondered how long it would take for the scars to heal."There will be some negative impact for now," said Takuma Kobayashi, an 18-year-old university student. "But it will be erased as time goes by."

Sure, one could easily focus on all of the negative aspects of people who are called or call themselves otaku--people have been making fun of otaku for over 25 years--but considering that most otaku around the world aren't criminals but are instead doing some very cool and creative things,

Cultural commentators such as Keiichi Kashiwabara, a professor of philosophy at The Open University of Japan, blame the growth of otaku culture for the widening chasm between youth and mainstream society.

Sunday's attack has prompted politicians and health care professionals to lament again the country's high rate of depression and anxiety, especially among stressed school children.

Experts warn separately that the virtual world inhabited by Japanese youth has caused many to become too comfortable with the idea of seeing dead characters return to life. As Ukyo Murakami, a 14-year-old boy, told the AFP wire service yesterday: "I'm afraid [Kato] did this because he played video games. But he should have known that, in life, you can't hit the restart button."

Twenty-five years after the idea of otaku began poking through like a sly worm from the apple of Japanese materialism, there are geek-culture wormholes everywhere.

Otaku is not what they do, it's the way they do it; an attitude and style associated with compulsive acquisition of popular culture objects and experiences and saturated in IT, especially interactive technology, a field in which otaku are increasingly influential.

Still, some popular journalism in Japan persists in casting otaku as a slur on society. Some sociologists still warn they are a hazard to themselves. Some foreign commentators keep using them to witter on about existential isolation in contemporary Japan.