Episode 561 – The Otaku, Part 3

Facing Backward Podcasts

In the final episode of this series: how did “otaku culture” spread overseas when it was so stigmatized at home, and what can all this tell us about Japan in the post-bubble era?

Sources

Kinsella, Sharon. “Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement.” Journal of Japanese Studies 24, No 2 (Summer 1998)

Eng, Lawrence, “Strategies of Engagement: Discovering, Defining, and Describing Otaku Culture in the United States” and “Anime and Manga Fandom as Networked Culture” in Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World. Ed. Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji.

Images

Miyazaki Tsutomu’s mugshot from 1989.

Promo poster for the original Yamatocon in 1983.

Title image for Robotech; shows like this helped popularize anime to a much wider audience than had been the case in the 1970s.

Roof shot from Anime Expo 2004 in Los Angeles.