Real Otaku Shun "Love Capitalism"

[Captain Japan]

A world of his own: Create, erase, redraw
Asahi

Toru Honda boasts he is the archetypical otaku. A single guy, he lives alone in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. Fashion bores him. He buys his clothes exclusively from Uniqlo. His shoes cost 1,000 yen.

Honda splits his time between the Nakano Broadway shopping mall and Tokyo's Akihabara district. The nearby locale features shops selling video game figurines; the latter is the premier otaku oasis.

A 35-year-old freelance writer, Honda spends almost all his money on his otaku hobbies. He has eight DVD recorders. He can record up to 30 hours worth of animation a day. He bought a 45-inch LCD TV for 900,000 yen to watch his fantasy friends in delicious detail.

Honda has no girlfriend. He says he can't remember the last time he talked to a woman, excluding the 80-year-old owner of his apartment building.

He would be satisfied with his peaceful existence but for the public's tendency to turn up its collective nose at otaku. He says otaku are almost considered ``untouchables'' in a society that defines love as the most noble of human emotions....more...

I like this part:

According to the story [Densha Otoko], an otaku wants to get to know a woman he encountered on the train. He solicits romantic advice from bulletin board participants and keeps them apprised of his progress. The story has a happy ending, of course. The geek gets the girl and reaps the congratulations of his online advisers.

The predictable story irritates Honda. He says the heart-warming ending is not an otaku victory, but rather a failure.

``(Densha Otoko) is an otaku's surrender to `love capitalism.' What the main character should've done is turn the girl into another otaku and bring her to Akihabara,'' he says.

[Kuang_Grade]

For 405 pages, Honda makes the case that the otaku life is superior to the run-of-the-mill existence. Moe, he says, is essential for peace in the world.

Maybe DARPA should start working on Moe based weapons a la the sex bomb
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10211

[Neo-Rio]

He says he thought he could start a new life in a new environment, but soon came to the arguable conclusion that women only go for guys who are either handsome, have money or a nice car.

Obviously, he hasn't met ALL women.

[dimwit]

Moe, he says, is essential for peace in the world.

Maybe DARPA should start working on Moe based weapons a la the sex bomb

I always thought the Stooges were somewhat overrated. :P

[Ptyx]

A single guy, he lives alone in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. Fashion bores him. He buys his clothes exclusively from Uniqlo. His shoes cost 1,000 yen.

for a second i thought they were talking about me.

[Charles]

I always thought the Stooges were somewhat overrated. :P

No way. The Stooges changed the course of history.

[Captain Japan]

Japan's nerds unite in their introversion
Washington Post

TOKYO -- At his favorite neighborhood cafe, Shunsuke Yamagata, a college student who proudly calls himself a nerd, smiled shyly behind his horn-rimmed glasses at waitresses hurrying about in black Minnie Mouse shoes and lacy, racy mini-dresses inspired by Japanese comics.

The place is a dream come true for Yamagata, whose passion is collecting comics and cartoons. He giggled when his servers addressed him in the squeaky voices they use to delight a fantasy-loving clientele.

It was just another night out with the pocket-protector crowd in Tokyo's neon-splashed Akihabara district, where "costume cafes" are the latest of hundreds of new businesses catering to Japan's otaku, or nerds. A subculture obsessed with electronic role-playing games, manga comics and Japanese animation, they began gathering here in the late 1990s, lured by the district's rise of electronics retailers.

Maligned by the mainstream, they stayed here. Their tastes and habits transformed the area also known as Electric Town into what sociologists are calling an urban first: a ghetto of geeks....more...

[L S]

"The Japanese have never been good at verbal communication, but the problem with otaku is that they are so engrossed in their own favorite world and don't have the ability, interest or confidence to interact with other human beings," said Hiroko Mizushima, a legislator and psychiatrist. "The impact on society is enormous. They just don't want to have close relationships with others."

This is, sadly, a great paragraph. If you live(d) in Japan at least at least a handful of images/thoughts pop up immediately....
...not good verbal communication = the fucked up J-relationship I had
...not good verbal communication = nobody fucking talks in my office!
...not good verbal communication = my J-coworker is either pissed at me or really shy
...don't have the ability, interest or confidence to interact with other human beings = it takes the J-coworker 3 beers to have a 1 minute conversation with me about bloody natto!
...The impact on society is enormous. = Low birth rate.
...They just don't want to have close relationships with others." = fill in the blank here....

[Neo-Rio]

I'd like to add two more

.......don't have the ability, interest... = assume you are not genuinely interested, and are only asking them questions to pry in on their personal lives.
......confidece... = asusming anyone they come into contact with is out to get them somehow

[Samurai_Jerk]

He says he thought he could start a new life in a new environment, but soon came to the arguable conclusion that women only go for guys who are either handsome, have money or a nice car.

Obviously, he hasn't met ALL women.

Yeah, that's only the hot chicks.

[Pencilslave]

He says he thought he could start a new life in a new environment, but soon came to the arguable conclusion that women only go for guys who are either handsome, have money or a nice car.

Obviously, he hasn't met ALL women.

Yes, he's conveniently forgotten that there are women otaku( Why else would Yaoi Manga and doujinshi be so popular?) I'll admit that I get pretty damn geeky in regard to anime and manga, but I do have other interests, most of 'em cheesy-science fiction films and novels, horror, industrial and rave music. It's really sad this guy thinks that all women are so shallow that looks, and money are all that they're interested in.

The man needs to go find himself a cute otakuette.(Looks in the mirror, Oh shit! So do I! )