Patrick W. Galbraith
Introduction
This chapter is an exploration of ‘otaku’ sexuality in Japan. According to the Kojien Japanese dictionary, otaku are ‘People who are interested in a particular genre or object, are extraordinarily knowledgeable about it, but are lacking in social common sense’ (cited in Kam 2013: 152). After a mass-mediated debate in the 1990s that attributed heinous crimes and antisocial behavior to otaku (Kinsella 2000: 126—29), the term became associated with men with ‘abnormal’ interest in manga, anime and electronic games featuring bishojo, or ‘cute girl’ characters. In Japanese academic discourse, otaku sexuality has become an object of inquiry (see Saito 2011, [2000]; Azuma 2003). Yet, in recent years, the problematic elements of otaku sexuality have largely been erased by the naturalisation and trivialisation of the fan cultures surrounding manga, anime and games in Japan (LaMarre 2006: 387—90; Galbraith 2010). Likewise, as manga and anime have spread around the world, it has become commonplace to state that ‘there is a little bit of otaku in all of us’ (Condry 2013: 203). It is no longer clear what it might mean, and what is at stake, in being designated an otaku in full or in part.
With the aim of troubling the discourse that smoothly incorporates otaku into imagined Japanese or global collectives, this chapter provides a prehistory of ‘otaku’ sexuality. Through a critical genealogy of otaku, it shows how men who desired bishojo or cute girl characters in the late 1970s and early 1980s challenged the common sense of gender and society in Japan. Thomas LaMarre refers to otaku as a ‘collective force of desire’ (LaMarre 2006: 359), but, historically speaking, it is desire for bishojo that is associated with otaku. Here I trace the evolution of this ‘orientation of desire’ (Saito 2011: 30) and reactions to it. While specific in its focus, the implications are far reaching. If otaku are a ‘taken-for-granted feature of the global cultural landscape’ (Ito 2012: xxvii), then this is only to the extent that they are separated from desire for fictional girl characters, which is met with increasing suspicion and fear around the world. Court cases concerning possession of ‘obscene’ manga and anime are occurring with disturbing regularity. These cases have an impact on the distribution of media from Japan, encouraging self-censorship and criminalising fan activities and desires. By returning to the question of otaku sexuality, this chapter opens a space for debate about how desire for fictional characters is read as abnormal and becomes problematic in Japan and overseas.