"Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes... 'I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,' Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. 'She has really changed my life.' Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo." The New York Times' Lisa Katayama on "2-D lovers" in Japan, the latest outgrowth of otaku subculture.
posted by digaman on Jul 23, 2009 - 166 comments

Meet Chikan. He likes to touch young women in the crowded subway of Tokyo. Meet Chikan, Otaku, Pachinko, Yopparai Salaryman, and yes, even Geisha at 51 Japanese Characters. [more inside]
posted by redsparkler on Nov 15, 2008 - 30 comments

The anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has some pretty devoted fans. OK, very devoted fans. One such fan has started a petition to allow people to legally marry anime characters. The object of his affection is Asahina Mikuru. His goal is 1,000,000 signatures, and is making slow progress. One blogger cites two legal snags: Japan doesn't allow polygamy, which means one human per anime character, and Japan gives tax breaks to married couples, so those with a strictly 3D arrangment might view the otaku as getting an unfair deal. Yet another blogger has cited a third, perhaps more obvious snag.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing on Nov 1, 2008 - 43 comments

Anime Music Videos. Yet another remixing web subculture, they're usually a source of amateurishly produced angst. From the competitive perfectionists, though, come well lipsynched, action packed, meta-mashuped, and occasionally just filthy stuff for cartoon nerds. Besides the usual metal, ballads, and pop rock, there's some Daft Punk, club, and downtempo accompaniment. Or you can just go to hell. Wear headphones and no-one will know.
posted by anthill on May 28, 2007 - 22 comments

Densha Otoko (Train Man) is the true story of a japanese otaku who finds love. After saving a beautiful woman on a train from the unwanted attentions of a drunken groper, an anonymous poster writes about the incident on the the Japanese mega messageboard 2ch. With the encouragement of his fellow internet geeks, he pursues her romantically and posts every detail to 2ch. Japanese media has been obsessed with the story all year, and the original postings were adapted into a best selling book, a major motion picture, an enormously popular TV show, and even a stage play. Of course, it may not be real.
posted by JZig on Dec 11, 2005 - 31 comments

"Michael Lohman is sick" read the email to students in MAT 308: Theory of Games, explaining why the Princeton mathematics graduate student had not yet graded their homework. Not sick as in "flu"-sick, but sick as in "squirting his bodily fluids into unsuspecting women's drinks and cutting off locks of their hair for unspeakable acts involving mittens"-sick. And not just any women, but exclusively Asian women. An extreme case, to be sure, but the Western"otaku" lusting after (and often having much success with) Asian women is a quite familiar and often disturbing trope for those of us who have spent much time among the disaffected English majors, anime fans, martial artists, dirty old men, and various other Asiaphiles. Yet decidedly non-nerdy folks have expressed a definite preference for Asian women as well. Where does this preference (which certainly goes both ways) come from? As such interracial couplings increase, should we even try to distinguish relationships based on "Suzie Wong" stereotypes or even outright economic exploitation, and relationships that are somehow more "acceptable?" Or will non-Asian guys with Asian girls constantly be forced to prove it's not just a case of "Yellow Fever?"
posted by banishedimmortal on Apr 13, 2005 - 148 comments