In this blog post, we will look at the cultural background and social perceptions of why manga and anime otaku are uniquely evaluated negatively.
The meaning of otaku in Korea
In South Korea, it takes a lot of courage to say that your hobby is watching cartoons or anime. This is because such a self-introduction is interpreted as meaning that the person is an otaku who is obsessed with Japanese cartoons or anime. Otaku was originally a Japanese word that referred to a person who is passionate about a particular field or hobby, but it is used in a distorted sense in South Korea. In particular, otaku for manga and animation have a much more negative image than other fields. We would like to find out how this image came to be established in Korea and why manga and animation otaku are perceived more negatively than other fields.
Otaku in a negative sense
When you hear the word otaku, you probably have an image in mind. The common image of an otaku is that of a person who is an adult but is obsessed with fictional characters from manga and anime, and who is fat, wears glasses, and has a lot of acne. However, the etymology and original meaning of the word otaku is somewhat different from this image. Otaku is a Japanese word that originally meant “house,” and is used as a polite term to refer to a house. If a fan is a person who is passionate about their hobbies and preferences, then a mania is a person who is passionate and can speak with clear standards of their own, and an otaku is a person who goes even further and has an expert-level eye. Here, we can raise a question. Otaku is a word that can be applied to all fields, but it is currently used mainly for people who enjoy manga and anime.
To understand this prejudice among the public, we need to first look at its origins. In Japan, where it originated, when otaku were first introduced to the public, only the provocative and irrational aspects were emphasized due to media distortion. In 1989, a case occurred in which four girls were murdered, and the arrested culprit, Tsutomu Miyazaki, was the typical otaku that many people associate with today. In the broadcast, reporters revealed his room, and the otaku became known to the world. Tsutomu’s room was stacked with as many as 6,000 videotapes, and the floor was littered with manga magazines that clearly showed Tsutomu Miyazaki’s sexual preferences. After this incident, otaku became synonymous with potential pervert-killers who would commit any crime to get what they want.
Moreover, the negative view of otaku is not unique to Japan. Since the burst of the Japanese economic bubble in the 1990s, the emphasis on efficiency and productivity, and the emphasis on following social norms, have become more pronounced in society, and otaku culture has been regarded as an “abnormal hobby” that deviates from these social norms. Japanese society began to view otaku as irresponsible people who do not contribute to society. This eventually led to the perception that adults who are absorbed in manga and anime are not fulfilling their social roles, and the negative image of otaku became more entrenched.
In Korea, otaku were introduced in a similar way. In 2008, the number of cable channels increased rapidly due to deregulation of the Broadcasting Act, and broadcasters needed more stimulating content to survive in the fierce competition. From the perspective of cable channels that wanted to attract the attention of the public, the existence of otaku, which was not yet known to the public, was a very attractive subject. Eventually, they were introduced to the public for the first time through exaggerated and distorted broadcasts on a cable channel. The main character of the show enjoyed a date with a pillow with a picture of her favorite cartoon character and attempted to take a wedding photo shoot, showing eccentricities that are difficult to understand not only for ordinary people but also for otaku with the same hobbies. Of course, this broadcast became a big issue, and the impact was so great that Otaku was plastered all over the search rankings of every major search engine. The broadcast focused on the fact that the main character’s hobby was so extreme that he could not distinguish between reality and fiction, and the public who first encountered the image of an Otaku through this broadcast were naturally misled.
After the cable channel incident, manga and anime otaku were seen as social misfits and objects of contempt. Tsutomu Miyazaki and the main characters of cable TV were very rare and extreme examples of otaku, but the public perceived them as representative of the entire otaku group. Because this stimulating event was imprinted on the public from the beginning, otaku still has a negative connotation, and many people misunderstand that otaku refers to someone who likes Japanese manga or animation.
Hobbies for the right age, Koreans’ obsession
Of course, it is true that the meaning of otaku is changing little by little over time. It has been used in a much wider range of fields than before, and is now sometimes used with a friendly meaning. However, when otaku is used in other fields, such as “classical music otaku” or “baseball otaku,” it is used as a positive expression with an admiring and respectful meaning, while it is still used negatively when it comes to anime and manga. While the word otaku has changed to a positive meaning, why does the negative perception of manga and anime otaku persist?
In the generation that has benefited from mass media, it is very rare for anyone to grow up without watching manga and anime as a child. Even today, many children like animations such as “Pororo the Little Penguin,” and the main customer base of webtoons, which are the mainstay of the Korean manga market, is the youth group. If the reason why the public is reluctant to accept manga and anime otaku is simply human wariness of unfamiliar cultures, this generation would have relatively less prejudice against otaku. However, this is not the case. Rather, it is the current generation of people between their teens and thirties who first encountered the word “otaku,” who used it most actively, and who have the most ingrained prejudice against otaku. Therefore, it is not convincing to say that people have a negative perception of manga and anime otaku because it is an unfamiliar field.
It is difficult to understand intuitively why people who have no experience or knowledge of otaku in other fields would have a more negative perception of otaku in the manga and anime fields, hobbies that they have tried and enjoyed at one time, than otaku in other fields. However, this is understandable when considering the obsession with the predetermined course of life that exists in Korean society. In Korean society, there are important events that must be completed by age to live a successful life. Koreans are always living a life of “having to do something” according to a predetermined course. Koreans must go to an English kindergarten, attend cram schools, and prepare well for the college entrance exam to get into a good university. After graduation, many people are under the compulsion that they must find a good job, get married, and have children, and that they must follow a predetermined path step by step in order to have a successful life. If they fail to complete even one of the successive steps, they fall into the illusion that they have become a failure in life, and they feel superior and relieved when they see someone who has failed even one step in their surroundings. In Korea, the negative view of manga otaku is similar to the view of a laggard who fails to complete the set of steps and falls behind. This is because adults who still watch cartoons and animations that children watch are considered to have an age-inappropriate hobby.
