Collective and Otaku Culture (Writing Sample)

Collective is defined as: done by people acting as a group, belonging, or relating to all the members of a group, taken as a whole; aggregate. There are many origins starting with late Middle English meaning representing many individuals to Old French collectif and colligere meaning to collect. Otaku is defined as a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to detriment their social skills. (Oxford Language) They are not just fans, who simply like a particular manga, animation, or fantasy world. Otaku are obsessed so much that they spend their money towards their obsession as if it was a basic living expense. Otaku, in modern day Japan is often regarded as a collective than the individual. Most Otaku are known to have weak communication skills and a physical appearance that is far from what is considered normal dress and grooming. In Japanese society Otaku are often looked down on, and Otaku individuals typically have to hide their Otaku personalities and conversations at work or typical social spaces. Contrary to the dictionary definition, Otaku may start out as a young person, but many continue their lifestyle even as they get older. The longer one is an Otaku, the more Otaku they become. The following uses the text of Hiroki Azuma’s “Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals” and the concepts of collectivity to understand the aesthetics of collectivity and aesthetics of Otaku. What keeps Otaku together? What is the result of the Otaku collective?

To understand Otaku, we first need to look at different collectives and collectivity in general. We can see several subcategories within collective: collective action, collective conscious, intentional collective, unintentional, or forced collective and the invisible collective.

Collective action and places for collective action are places of protest and the act of protesting. Typically downtown, in a central park, town square, or busy street. Demonstrators

take a public area and transform it into their stage of expression. In these cases they are also constructing themselves as part of a collective.

Collective conscious can be seen in places like the balconies in Ukraine where people started to build their own balconies as an extension of their interior spaces. They are using the balconies as an extension of their interior spaces. Walking through the streets of Ukraine we can see the collective conscious of how the same set of values are visible, of wanting to show their personalities on facades built during the military regime, even though they may come in different forms. 1 An intentional collective is an outwardly exclusionary collective, like gated communities and private streets. In these cases, they often follow the logic stated in Oscar Newmann’s Defensible Space; to reduce crime to emphasize group territoriality, and designing spaces to create territorial influence. Neighborhoods would become smaller, neighbors would be closer to each other, and there would be a sense of informal social control. This is one example of collective- they are connected by an effort to control their areas more, and collectively work towards it, one of them methods being surveillance. Because residents live in a smaller scale environment, they feel more personal responsibility and control over themselves and others.2 On the other hand, unintentional, forced collectives spur in places like emergency shelters, and homeless encampments. These unintentional collectives may be the most visible and calls for immediate action. Emergency “shelters,” however they may look, need to be formed immediately to support those impacted by natural disasters or natural emergencies. Even if one doesn’t want to be considered homeless, they are forced into the collective of homeless. This

. TEDxTalks, “Collective Design for Better Architecture | Kuba Snopek | Tedxkyiv,” YouTube (YouTube, December 14, 2018), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPoVW4XG34I. 2 Oscar Newman, Defensible Space, 1978.

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collective of homeless is so visible, because hostile spaces are specifically and intentionally designed to say “we don’t want you here.”

The newest kind of collective is the invisible collective. Keller Easterling states how cables and signals that create our everyday life are “infrastructure space.” The nature of collectivity no longer requires a physical space anymore.3 Accelerated by the pandemic, there is now a call for more virtual spaces. Starting with social media like Facebook and Instagram, more and more people are utilizing the virtual sphere as a way of connectivity. Meetings held via Zoom are requiring less of a need for a physical office space. There is now more of a need for spaces that enhance connectivity, rather than the spaces themselves being the connector.

Collectivism is a main aspect of Japanese society and culture but we can see aspects of individualism visible in Otaku culture. The opposite of collectivism is individualism. Otaku culture is comprised of individuals with individualistic minds at first, which come together in the collective Otaku. Collectivism values interdependence and people “see themselves as connected to others, define themselves in terms of relationships with others, and see their characteristics as more likely to change across different contexts.” Whereas individualism values independence and people “see themselves as separate from others, define themselves based on their personal traits, and see their characteristics as relatively stable and unchanging.” 4 An example of space that intends to have individualism within a collective is SANAA’s public housing project in Gifu prefecture, Japan. The head architect, Kazuyo Sejima wanted to create a new way of living, but adding a loggia space that is connected to each unit as free space. In an interview, she states,

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Keller Easterling, Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space (London: Verso, 2016).

Afs-Usa, “Individualism & Collectivism - AFS-USA,” AFS, October 13, 2021, https://www.afsusa.org/studyabroad/culture-trek/culture-points/culture-points-individualism-and-collectivism/).

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“From the front you can distinguish between each living space but from the back it all looks connected. It has a kind of anonymity. The common corridor and the dwelling unit are next to each other, so in one way privacy is always threatened. But this anonymity creates a privacy beyond the physical distance.” 5 This distance, created by the grid façade and narrow walkways encourages inhabitants to be more individualistic in their collectivist environment. Their free spaces aren’t meant to encourage congregation or to be viewed as, but if they seem like they are part of one from afar, perhaps the uses can be more individualistic.

Individuals within the Otaku culture construct their own shell of their selves in order to engage in fantasy rather than social reality. Hiroki Azuma, Japanese critic writes in his book “Otakus: Japan’s Database Animals” from critic Nakajima Azusa that "What the word 'Otaku' (meaning 'your home' or 'your family') …The reason Otaku no matter where they cart around tons of books, magazines, fanzines, and scraps stuffed into huge paper bags like hermit crabs" is that, if they do not ferry around "the shell of their selves"- namely their fantasies of group affiliation-they cannot be mentally stable. The personal pronoun Otaku fulfills the function of mutually endorsing the fantasy of group affiliation. “6 One is identified by the relationship one has to their home unit and their territory, not the personal territory itself. By carrying around their “shell of their selves” Otaku are able to maintain the relationship mentally and emotionally to their territories. It also visibly shows their wanting for someone to reach out and invite them in-having that group affiliation. Otaku carry around items that serve as an extension of the fantasy world. The preference for fiction is rooted in their identity; “The Otaku choose fiction

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“妹島和世インタビュー：新しい公共性について──2000 年以降の建築実践：フォーカス｜美術館・アー

ト情報 Artscape,” 美術館・アート情報 artscape, accessed December 21, 2021, https://artscape.jp/focus/1229986_1635.html.

6 Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 27.

over social reality not because they cannot distinguish between them but rather as a result of having considered which is the more effective for their human relations, the value standards of social reality or those of fiction...”7 Otaku don’t deny sociality but seeing the dysfunction of social values and standards around them, they feel an immediate pressing need to construct their own alternate values and standards. Azuma uses the idea of a grand narrative that guides one during a given time. Japan experienced the Oil Shocks and the United Red Army incident, the society was triggered by high-speed economic growth and there was a loss of grand narrative.

Otaku uses junk subcultures to fill their gap to form their own “grand nonnarrative” a realm that exists behind small narratives but lacks any form of narrativity.

Otaku start off alone, whether that is how they become an Otaku from a fan or how they found their interests in the first place. Currently, there is also a phenomenon growing in population of living alone together. Looking at Japan, more and more people are doing activities alone, yet there is still that stigma that if you are alone, you are lonely. Instead of just being called hitori, ひとり(alone) one is called hitori-bocchi,ひとりぼっち (lonely.) Perhaps these collectives that are driven by the individual are the strongest forms of collective. No one “controls” the other Otakus or gathers people to create their Otaku collective, but they each come with their individual desired that by effect create a collective. Not just in Japan, but accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic there is a mental health crisis with loneliness. Words like quarantine, work from home, isolating oneself lead to one needing places where they can affirm that they are alone but not lonely. Libraries and coffee shops serve as places of “interaction”- a spot to see others who are living alone. In these locations both the service and the layout of the

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Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals,27

space make it ideal for these alone but not lonely “interactions.” The service brings people to the space, it gives one a reason for coming that doesn’t turn too personal. Borrowing a library book or buying a cup of coffee are some actions that may lead to creating habits as well. The layout or the space, often with tables being spread out with many chairs bring those who are alone together and is often what keeps these people together. One could easily grab a cup of coffee and go to their individual home or borrow a book if they need and go back to their own room. However, it’s the act of drinking coffee with others that one won’t interact with that brings a sense of comfort. There is no need to assert your existence or “show” anything to anyone, just by sitting in a chair and drinking a coffee or reading a book can make one feel like they are not lonely. It is these places of habit that true “interaction” can happen because the size of the collective is able to be estimated. It is more than one or two, but enough that one could recognize and maybe know their names. A size small enough that one could feel like they know everyone, but large enough that it doesn’t feel like one is living their life along with them.

This phenomenon of living alone together applies to Otaku culture. A key element of interaction within Otaku culture is consumption: watching, listening, playing, buying. Richard Coyne, professor at the University of Edinburgh defines Otaku as “The word Otaku has two connections relevant to architecture. According to a classic paper from the 1990s by Volker Grassmuck, Otaku is an everyday word meaning “your home,” which references the housebound aspects of the Otaku individual. But the word also connotes the polite form for “you.”

This polite form implies a certain distance, physically and mentally, in which Otaku individuals tend to keep not just from others in general but from other Otaku as well. It comes from a place of politeness. Otaku living in their homes populate their space with “racks of DVDs, comics, old games consoles, plastic models of fantasy characters, and with the detritus of a lifestyle that pays

little regard for personal grooming, health and sociability…”8 It isn’t the physical unit or architecture itself that creates a space for Otaku, but more how one populates and uses the space.

This is similar in Japan’s tiny homes and tiny apartments. Because of the limited, sometimes uncomfortable space there is, what one brings and where they put it in the space shows ones values. Because it is one small unit per person, they are able to customize and become their own designer of the spaces. In this way, any home with a television of a computer has capacity of becoming a space for Otaku. Their home is part of their “shell” they carry around. Their main hermit crab shell is their room, a private space where one can explore what being an Otaku means for them.

Hermit crabs inhabit different shells throughout their lifetime. Like hermit crabs, Otaku have expanded their shell and created several permanent or semi-permanent shells-spaces that they can feel comfort in without their own “shell of their selves.” Nobuharu Imai of the University of Tsukuba uses these three locations, Comic Market (later referred to as Comiket), locations that inspired places in animation, and Akihabara to examine the culture practices of the Otaku collective. Otaku use religious terminology in all three cases; for instance, the Comiket is called “the festival” or “the carnival”, the journey to visit animation locations is called “a pilgrimage”, and Akihabara, which is the heartland of Otaku culture, is called “the sacred place.”

He states that “Otaku are a tribe which treats Otaku culture as their totem. They affirm their own reference group and strengthen their plausibility structure by moving between two spaces, and

“Otaku Architecture,” Reflections on Technology, Media & Culture, November 18, 2016, https://richardcoyne.com/2011/02/05/otaku-architecture/.

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thereby raising the intensity of their community.”9 We can start to see the interactions by looking at these three locations in detail.

Perhaps where Otakus as a collective are most visible is at Comic Marketplace, an event held twice a year in Tokyo. It is a place where derivative works, such as the “reproduction of original manga, anime and games sold in the form of fanzines, fan games, fan figures, and the like”10 are sold. Otaku culture is ruled by narrative consumption. Each product have no independent value on their own, however they are valued because of their association and quality of association to the database and larger narrative in the background. Yet in reality, it is difficult to sell settings and worldviews themselves as works; Azuma quotes Otsuka Eiji’s Theory of Narrative Consumption, it happens to be small narratives, which are fragments of grand narratives, that are sold as surrogate products. Otsuka labels this situation narrative consumption.

This is the natural consequence of the inundation of simulacra known as derivative works.” 11 Comiket is organized and set up voluntarily, with participation from companies and organizations. They convert Tokyo Big Site, one of the largest international exhibition centers in Japan into their marketplace.12 Looking at just one hall of Tokyo Big Site, we can see that the layout of the selling booths are not too different from libraries or coffeeshops. (Figure 1) Long tables with goods placed, plenty of room for circulation. Comic Market gives one the service of buying these derivative works while also making it a place for each individual to recognize themselves as part of the collective. It is a momentary and placeless community. The location

Nobuharu IMAI, “The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with Regards to Otaku Culture,” Inter Faculty, accessed December 21, 2021, https://journal.hass.tsukuba.ac.jp/interfaculty/article/view/9.

10 Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals,25 11 Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals,31 12 Comiket.co.jp, accessed December 21, 2021, https://comiket.co.jp/.

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can be anywhere- there are comic markets all over the world in major cities like Paris and Los Angeles. According to the tenets set out by the Comiket Preparations Committee are as follows: everybody is a participant, there are no “customers at the Comic Market, the Comic Market is operated, maintained, and comprised by those who participate in the event, all participants are treated equally, Comic Market must remain a space where freedom of expression is maintained.

It must expand every effort toward securing as much freedom of expression as possible.”

Yoshihiro Yonezawa, who is a former representative of Comiket said that “Comiket is a city which appears for a few days a year by the participants’ will…there is a momentary Utopia in a space where Manga, Anime and game fans are able to come together in a common time.” 13 The general attendees and staff of Comiket are not looking to raise profit, but more to experience that festival-like atmosphere and to meet friends. With these events, Otaku can affirm their real community which usually only exists on the internet and to create that homogenous space. In visible Japanese culture, Otaku and Otaku culture is often looked down on. The Comiket serves as a place of asylum, a safe community, a place of festival that they make themselves and welcome others into.

Locations inspired by animated works become “sacred places” to drive and encourage Otaku. To perform this “pilgrimage” of going to a “sacred place,” one must watch, understand and appreciate the animated work and also understand that many locations of fantasy or science fiction productions cannot be visited. Film tourism, generally organized through travel agencies usually do not include these areas because they are not of main interest to the general public.

Therefore, Otaku must look for the location by themselves. From researching if the location

IMAI, “The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with Regards to Otaku Culture,” 13

actually exists, to identifying, it is a difficult and long process. Otaku rely on each other through their internet networks to find these locations. Along with their comments and opinions on the scene itself, Otaku would “often juxtapose animation screenshots with photographs of the physical geographic location and maps.”14 (Figure 2) Imai argues that this process can be compared to van Gennep’s or V. Turner’s theory of the rite of passage which is composed of three phases: separation, liminality and reincorporation. Otaku performing their pilgrimage first must withdraw from internet or television realm and go to a “sacred place” and then they return to their internet networks (also known as computer minded community space, CMCS) and reinforce the capacities of the Otaku culture. By visiting these sacred places, Otaku are able to activate and affirm their worldview. The process of finding sites and uploading images to the internet shows Otaku trying to break down the boundaries between the real world and the animation world.

The third location Akihabara is a small area in the center of Tokyo, once widely known for its concentration of electronics stores. Shops in Akihabara specialized in personal computers, which are essential to Otaku as shown in the location above. The cityscapes of Akihabara, which “ha[ve] become a play pantheon permeated by narrative auras, every surface – walls, floors, screens .15 (Figure 3) How Otaku have tried to break the boundaries between the twodimensional CMCS spaces and the three-dimensional real world becomes true in Akihabara.

Akihabara is an actual physical location, however this boundary has collapsed and Otaku can enjoy the two dimensional virtual world in a physical, real bodily sense. From the attempt at

IMAI, “The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with Regards to Otaku Culture,” 15 IMAI, “The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with Regards to Otaku Culture,” 14

breaking down the boundaries and enjoying a space with no boundary, this can only result because Otaku clearly can distinguish fiction and social reality. They seek to maintain their grand non narrative by wanting to overlap and combine aspects of fiction and reality.

The Otaku journey and collective show similar characteristics to the invisible collective, the intentional collective, collective conscious, and collective actions. One starts as a mere fan and then chooses to become an Otaku, often starting within the invisible space. From this invisible space, one needs to intentionally join the invisible network to and in order to understand the popular culture or media of their interest more. This invisible network is maintained due to the collective conscious Otaku hold. Some are able to spread their knowledge and opinions and others are in the space to learn and listen. Together through collective action they create spaces of interaction for individuals within the Otaku culture. They affirm each other’s existence and can continue to live alone together, at times physically coming together through these interactions and because of these spaces of interaction. The interactions- like drinking coffee in a coffee shop or borrowing a book from the library- are what make Otaku culture stronger. In places like the coffee shop or library there is the concept of seeing and being seen, which exist in spaces of Otaku as well. One goes for the service or purpose, however being seen and recognized as part of the space comes along with it. However, these shells that one does not carry around are spaces for more intense connection and interaction than a coffee shop or library. One doesn’t need to have a plethora of knowledge on coffee or have close ties to a library to fully enjoy and utilize the space. Otaku collective and culture is so strong because one needs to be an individual before joining the collective. One must have their own background knowledge, their own strengths, contributions and intensity that creates a stronger collective when all collected together. Because Comic Market only happens twice a year, because the locations are hard to

find, and because Akihabara is located in Tokyo, these shells need to not only serve as places of interaction but also affirmation and empowerment. The act of constructing their own shells and converting them into Otaku places, some only those who are core Otaku can understand maintains their collective. By going between these spaces, carrying around their own “shell of their selves” intensifies the connections between the spaces and to each other. Creating spaces that one could not have made as an individual (the hermit crab shell of their selves) but only by the collective (physical spaces visible to all) strengthen the Otaku collective. Because they are able to live alone, only can they live together.

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Afs-Usa. “Individualism & Collectivism - AFS-USA.” AFS, October 13, 2021. https://www.afsusa.org/study-abroad/culture-trek/culture-points/culture-pointsindividualism-and-collectivism/).

Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku: Japan's Database Animals. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Comiket.co.jp. Accessed December 21, 2021. https://comiket.co.jp/.

Easterling, Keller. Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. London: Verso, 2016.

IMAI, Nobuharu. “The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with Regards to Otaku Culture.” Inter Faculty. Accessed December 21, 2021. https://journal.hass.tsukuba.ac.jp/interfaculty/article/view/9.

Newman, Oscar. Defensible Space, 1978.

“Otaku Architecture.” Reflections on Technology, Media & Culture, November 18, 2016. https://richardcoyne.com/2011/02/05/otaku-architecture/.

TEDxTalks. “Collective Design for Better Architecture | Kuba Snopek | Tedxkyiv.” YouTube.

YouTube, December 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPoVW4XG34I. “妹島和世インタビュー：新しい公共性について──2000 年以降の建築実践：フォーカ ス｜美術館・アート情報 Artscape.” 美術館・アート情報 artscape. Accessed December 21, 2021. https://artscape.jp/focus/1229986_1635.html.