Changing Face of Akihabara

[Susanoo 321]

Since TV talent called 宅八郎(Taku Hachirou) appeared about 15 years ago, I have remembered that the word Otaku became common.

He persists in an actual idol singer and he continued appearing TV during many years by the impact of his disgusting.

Although Otaku was the language meaning those who are absorbed in a specific field and things specific in the wide sense, it seems that it has come mean only the enthusiasm person to the animation which is a part in it recently.

One Otaku said that the method of judging whether it is Otaku was whether to memorize the sexual urge of a degree to an animation idol character very much.

The wish to such a virtual image was called「萌え(Moe)」, and it was nominated for the vogue word this year in Japan.

Maid Cafe which they use actually is contradictory to the definition of an intermediary in Otaku and Moe.

A news TV program asked Otaku about that in Maid Hair Salon.

http://www.moesham.com

Otaku answered "although I am very much pleased with Maid, she is the next of the animation idol who is present in my house."

This Otaku may be rare and almost all Otakus may not use those shops.

Maid Cabakura (Maid Bar) actually exists as a shop similar to it also in Osaka in which I live .

However, that is not already a shop for Otaku generally defined.

People with the serious realistic impulse opposite of Otaku use.

True Otaku always should be filling the wish in the place which we do not know.

Although it is said that the market for Otaku is 290 billion yen per year, the things to derive from them may increase in number further from now on, and we may come to follow the Otaku back unconsciously.

If I define Otaku, only those who are called Otaku, are not unpleasant and call themselves Otaku by themselves will be Otaku.

15 years or more ago, Railroad Otaku was always called Railroad maniac.

For them, being referred to as Otaku cannot be glad.

And if we who gather to this forum are based on the definition of a wide sense, we will be Otaku altogether.

We will not be silent if we are called Otaku based on the definition of the narrow sense containing Moe.

I think that these are the standard which judges Otaku.

It is ? of which you expect what kind of idea as Maid Cafe for us if we are Otaku.

Naturally, Tsuihiji-san will serve a drink by Hishaku(a ladle made from wood). (Help me...)

Layzer Ramon HD, alias a hard gay, was a comedian in Yosimoto-shinkigeki in Osaka till about six months before.

It is difficult to get to know his popular reason, without seeing him.

In a TV comedy show, it is in fashion to show feeling weird today.

There is no truth in a variety program including that he is hardgay.

Since he appears on TV every day, if I look at him by chance, I will also enjoy, but it will not last long.

Supposing he is possible as the person of the year, the reason is that he jerked as nonsense most in Japan.

I also looked at the collaboration which Petr-san looked at.

Honestly, I laughed.

Probably, there are few people who can do it to there.

(Being ninja...)

Edited December 1, 2005 by Susanoo

[Kintamayama 41,285]

Are you sure about the Leather? Leather in katakanago would be "reza-" but HG is "reiza-", right?

FWIW, various places (including this Mainichi article, for example) are also using "Razor" as the transliteration.

Razor Ramon? You gotta be kidding.. that was Scott Hall's shikona on the old WWF. He used to come on the squared dohyo with a toothpick in his mouth and use a Latino accent. My favorite heel.

[Asashosakari 16,979]

FWIW, various places (including this Mainichi article, for example) are also using "Razor" as the transliteration.

Razor Ramon? You gotta be kidding.. that was Scott Hall's shikona on the old WWF. He used to come on the squared dohyo with a toothpick in his mouth and use a Latino accent. My favorite heel.

Well, the Wikipedia entry for the comedian does make a point of noting that Scott Hall's use of the name predates this guy's.

Edited December 1, 2005 by Asashosakari

[Kintamayama 41,285]

Well, the Wikipedia entry for the comedian does make a point of noting that Scott Hall's use of the name predates this guy's.

I didn't think otherwise. Maybe he named himself after him, is what I was thinking..

[Amanogawa 67]

Interestingly and good-timingly, I saw this cute little article about Akiba/Otaku

on the Japan Times. This author Kaori Shoji is a very good writer and would

usually do movie reviews for the paper. She is a Japanese woman who

finished an American university ( if I remember correctly ).

Of course sweetness does count for women. (Heart)

Sweetness Counts for Women in Search of Geeks

By KAORI SHOJI

First of all, they're not called otaku anymore but go by the much snazzier

name of Akiba-kei. With this recasting, it looks like Japan's muscle-less,

girlfriend-less, PC/iPod obsessed class of bespectacled oddballs have moved en

masse into the cultural mainstream.

No longer the shunned weirdos of yesteryear, Akiba-kei are now reputed to

influence everything from stock points to semantics to sexual relationships. So

while the New Yorkers looked to the television series "Sex and the City,"

Tokyoites are looking to Akiba-kei for pointers on love.

After all, the season's most popular TV drama, "Densha-Otoko (Train Man)," was

about the relationship between a virgin Akiba-kei who had never dated and an

intimidatingly beautiful, sophisticated career woman. To borrow a phrase from my

niece Asami (15): "Ussssoooooo, arienaaaaaai! (You're kidding! It can't be

happening!)"

Naturally, Akihabara has now been upgraded to Akiba. Though the majority that

stomp its streets are still the classic geek types in sleep-flattened hair and bad

jeans, there has been a noticeable surge in hip foreigners and sightings of young

women, two segments of the populace who until recently, would not have been caught

dead anywhere near the place. Supermodels like Naomi Campbell have reportedly been

seen there, and actress Daryl Hannah was walking around in Akiba-kei jyaajii

(sweats) in Omotesando with a "Toyoko Takkyubu (Toyo High School Ping Pong Club)"

inscription. Akiba has actually become oshare (fashionable), a transformation I

rate on par with Baghdad becoming a Club Med destination.

And who would have thought that the Akiba-kei could ever become an object of

desire among young women looking for marriage? Says my friend Maiko (32): "Mou,

moteotoko no jidai wa owatta. Akiba-kei no houga yasashikute, dasakute, kawaii

(The age of the hunk is over. I prefer the kinder, nerdier, cuddlier Akiba-kei.)"

Indeed, Maiko and her friends profess that the less dating experience a guy has,

the more they are susceptible to -- and appreciative of -- feminine charms. So

what if they're a little overweight, a little sloppy and have never, ever shopped

for Armani? They're sweet, and in the end, sweetness is what counts.

At the same time, Maiko admits: "Akiba-kei otoshi wa muzukashii (It's difficult to

bag an Akiba-kei.)" She's right: having played around with digitally animated

cuties in cyberspace for most of their lives, Akiba-kei are notorious for their

impossibly high standards. To catch their attention a woman must be "kawaii,

atsukaiyasui, kyo-nyu, ashi-hoso, dekame de ecchi (cute, malleable, big-breasted,

thin-legged, large-eyed and erotic)," as described by hard-core Akiba-kei Yuusuke

(35), whose most recent dating experience goes back to his second year in college.

"Nama no onna wa dejitaru no kawaiko-chan ni doushitemo makeru (a real woman will

always lose out to a digital chick)" he claims and says it's OK because he prefers

the digital versions anyway. Asked if he doesn't feel the usual,

"I've-been-single-too-long symptoms of loneliness, alienation and self-doubt,"

Yuusuke shook his head. "I'm not after sexual or conventional relationships. It

was never about any of that."

This is precisely what Maiko and other women are up against: the Akiba-kei is

uninterested in intimacy; they are after sensations. The closest they get to

falling in love is the state of moe (pronounced mo-ay) which means "blossoming."

They want to look at a woman (digital or otherwise) and feel an agrarian bloom

somewhere in their jaded brains. After that, the Akiba-kei will tend to their

blossoms like gardeners fussing over their favorite roses, and if the blossoms

should die, well they'll look around for something new.

Nowadays, that something can often be found in the Akiba-specialty: the Medo Cafe

(Maid Cafe). In these establishments the waitresses are decked out in full

Victorian maid regalia, complete with huge white aprons and little lace caps

adorning shiny black braids that hang from each side of their pixie faces. And

they will refrain politely from any personal interaction. The Maid Cafes are the

Akiba-kei's current No.1 moe hot spots; in the maids, they see a shyness, stoicism

and demure charm long gone from ordinary Japanese women. Indeed, why go out with a

namano onna when A-kiba beckons, twinkling in all its cyberspace, kosu-pure

(costume-play) glory?