"I hate otaku"

That ironic line spoken by the Otaking himself, in the prologue to Studio Gainax's classic anime Otaku no video 1982: Graffiti of otaku generation, sums up my feelings as of late very well. Otaku, in particular anime otaku culture in Japan has become too influential lately, and it's destroying the very medium that spawned it.

I have been a fan of Japanese animation since I first saw Battle of the planets (Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman) in 1979 on US TV, but it wasn't till 1991 that I really got introduced to "fandom". I started going to conventions and immersed myself in it. When I saw Otaku no video, I, like many eager young fans saw it as a celebration of the excitement and youthful enthusiasm we had for Japanese cartoons and comics. I adopted the title of otaku, blissfully ignorant to the negative connotation of the word in Japan.

Japanese Otaku are often pathologically obsessed with whatever their interest is (The word can apply to any hobby that is taken to an extreme). Being a geek is not a crime, loving something so much that people around you don't understand it isn't either. Things only become bad when groups of people begin getting together and start reinforcing bad habits and patting one another on the back. a sense of entitlement and justification rises up. when enough of this happens they begin to have influence. That is where we are at now in Japan.

Most shows that are created today lack the creative spark of shows produced in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It's gotten to the point where Anime studios in Japan are manufacturing series from the ground up to appeal to different vocal otaku subsets. Sometimes these "Manufactured" shows are good like Code Geass, sometimes they suffer badly for it, as with Macross Frontier.

DIE RANKA LEE, DIE AND BURN IN HELL

Which brings me to the Moe' problem, and the wide acceptance of Lolicon (Lolita Complex). Ranka Lee is supposed to be 16, the same age as Lynn Minmay in the original Cho jiku yousai Macross series. While Minmay looked like a young woman, Ranka looks 12 at the oldest. This is very intentional. It is to appeal to pedophiles pure and simple.

She is also an example of a Moe' character (at least through most of the series) That is basically a helpless usually VERY young female character that the audience of hopeless dorks will want to protect. This love of little girls exemplified in the Moe ideal is supposed to be non sexual, but I have known far too many fans who where almost exclusively into this crap... and what's on their hard drives... to buy that.

If I sound angry it's because I am. I take this and other characters such as the Zentradi character Klan very personally as a long time Macross fan.

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

Klan looks like a Lolita when Miclonized, and has Huge breasts when at her full Zentradi height, something that makes NO SENSE AT ALL in the Macross universe.Neither character design fits with the universe well, and only serve as wank material for 2 very different subsets of otaku culture. The thing is I kind of like the character of the mature Klan, she is pretty kick butt. I am not uptight about female characters being sexy (I love the Dirty Pair.) But This is just so blatant and unappealing, it turned me off what otherwise might have been a decent character.

So many other things about Macross Frontier where very good, but these cynical and shameless pandering elements almost completely ruined the show for me. I will write a full article on Macross Frontier in the near future. Hopefully it will be balanced, now that I have gotten out some of this vitriol.

The news isn't all bad. There are still really good shows being made, but it is a very small percentage of the huge amount of mediocre to terrible shows being produced in Japan. I will talk about some of the good stuff soon.