The Geek the nerd and the otaku

Here in the west, we are aware of the subculture known as “Nerds” & “Geeks” who are the type of people to be extremely enthusiastic about their hobbies and interests. This subculture was born from a passion for the media in a general sense and usually grows with exposure as a child to the media they enjoy.

The first and biggest culprit was “Star Wars” which captivated the world unlike anything that has come before and even after, George Lucas’s fantasy space adventure captured the geeky side of the mainstream audience and has become a behemoth of a staple within the subculture that’s still alive to this day.

The geek fandom is overwhelmingly dominated with American media. With the fantasy and science fiction genres being at the core of this subculture, it was pioneered by Pulp Fiction novels that then became comic books dating back to 1938 with the likes of “Action Comics #1”. ”But the subculture exploded in popularity during the 80s due to a handful of cultural events.

Other big staples include the television series “Star Trek”, J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic “The Lord of the Rings”, Wizards of the Coast’s tabletop RPG “Dungeons and Dragons” and lastly the emerging video game industry that came from Japan.

The Japanese video game industry inherently introduced to the west their own variety of geekdom. Not only did it introduce its own unique style of artwork, but it introduced in conjunction their own brand of storytelling which was immeasurably popular with franchises created by “Nintendo” and by “Squaresoft”. But Japan’s influence wouldn’t take full form until the end of the 90s when Japanese cartoons known as ‘Anime’ became a lot easier to acquire, while still a niche genre with very little in terms of selection, classics such as ‘Dragonball’, ‘Akira’, ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Gundam’ blew the doors wide open for more. This was the birth of the western Otaku.

Since the late 90s/early 2000s, the interest in Anime/ Manga in the west has exploded! Leading to a general interest in Japanese culture, music and language, and has created a whole new category of subculture within the existing geek subculture. The western Otaku is likely to collect anime figures, collect manga and anime, create elaborate costumes that emulate their favorite characters, and attend events that surround their interest.

In Japan, the word Otaku translates to the word “geek”, the Otaku has a somewhat parallel history to western geeks, but with more of an emphasis in Japanese comic books known as Manga and the Anime’s that are based on that work.

Such events have increased in accessibility in the UK over the past 15 or so years and are regularly attended by fans of this genre. With limitless enthusiasm and passion for their interests, the western Otaku culture has flourished over the past decade, with multiple stores popping up catering to the interest.

BY ADRIAN IZQUIERDO