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OTAKU_FED

                                                 August 30, 2012
                                         Rev: September  5, 2012

Talked around but not about,
so let's do it here:

   A theory:

   Japan has redeemed consumerism, by
   maintaining respect for the consumer;     The alternate theory is
   they don't fall into the trap of          simply that exoticism
   imagining themselves as some sort of      santitizes the consumer
   genius manipulator / salesman...          crap from distant lands.

                       STERLING_DISTRACTED       Much of the problem someone
                                                 like me has with pop
      For example, a reviewer writing for        culture is simply
      "Otaku USA" complains about some           over-familarity.
      prefunctory, cliched plot twists
      (like "The hero is dead! Oh look,
      he got better."), commenting that    I started to get interested in
      this was the reason a lot of us      Iron-Man again recently, as written
      have given up on American comic      by Matt Fraction.  Then they went
      books.                               off into another round of
                                           super-crisis-in-infinite-cross-overs
                                           and I gave up again.


       It really does seem
       that "successful         SANKAKU
       translations between
       media is more common                  SOUND_AGAINST_VISION
       in Japan."

       And that can be taken as a
       sign of having more respect    There are counter examples
       for the material.              like the Black Butler
                                      anime, which gets
         Hollywood is famous          unwatchable whenever they
         (or at least used to         put on stage a character
         be) for a contemptuous       they introduced for the
         "Aww, they won't know        anime: a really silly
         any better" attitude.        boy-toy/werewolf,
                                      presumably an attempt at
                                      adding some more physical
                                      action to animate.


                                          There are some episodes of
                                          "Sket Dance" that make one
                                          wonder as well.


   So, are Otaku the ultimate
   suckers, consumer fools that
   swill down any product put       OTAKU_CONSUMED
   in front of them?
                                        In a recent popularity
   Or is their loyalty in some          contest for AKB48 members,
   sense resepcted, are their           there were reports of people
   affections courted carefully         buying insane numbers of
   enough that their loyalty            CDs just to get contest
   is deserved?                         entry forms.  Cases of
                                        hundreds of CDs were left
                                        abandoned on the streets.




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