Meta-Otaku: Exploring Otaku Media Through Time
What can anime possibly tell about itself? If there are such things as otaku media, is it worthwhile to conceptualize the meta-otaku as a genre or undercurrent? If the meta-otaku is a speech constructed by a subculture, how has it changed throughout time? Do meta-otaku works form a corpus of archives that may — today or in the future — acquire historical value? And, were the meta-otaku to be thought of as gradual (or a spectrum), with a scale of degrees, how should we attempt to define them? With otaku culture becoming always more integrated into globalization, will the meta-otaku come to encompass a wider meaning?
Having formalized some relevant questions and hypotheses, let’s dive right into it. Anime has rarely produced storytelling on the act of animation itself, and so any fragment of it holds tremendous value to fans and researchers alike. On Animétudes, Matteo Watzky published an article titled Exploring sakuga — Conclusion : A sakuga starter pack on October 17th, 2020. This is a very interesting piece, as it has a didactic approach to learning more about sakuga as a sensitivity to the animation part of anime.
Not only does it include watching anime about anime (“[They] are the perfect entry point, whether you want to learn more about the workings of the industry (in the case of Shirobako) or are fascinated with animation as a means to embody the limitless forms of one’s imagination (Eizouken).”), but also developing a theoretical knowledge of animation (“you don’t just have to know what tools is animation made with, but what are the artistic techniques that make it look like what it looks like. Some of these techniques were formalized by Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson in their book The Illusion of Life [1981].”).
One may add to the more modern Eizouken (2020) and Shirobako (2014), the movie Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san (2021) for its ability to please contemporean viewers while educating them about video editing. An industrial parallel can be made between the movie industry in the show and that of the anime industry, for example with crowdfunding as a financing strategy. But for depictions of a more traditional anime production, the OVA Animation Seisaku Shinkou Kuromi-chan (2001) and the final episode of Golden Boy (1995) also hold historical value, with cels instead of digital art, as well as a more interesting focus on the management side of animation, with the seisaku shinkou or production assistant as entrypoint.
Perhaps because it is audiovisual, anime seems to be the default otaku medium, hence its value to more intuitively depict the meta-otaku. If there are otaku media, as was postulated before to investigate about the idea of an otaku literacy, should the meta-otaku be a defining genre? As Golden Boy was mentioned previously to deal with the anime industry in its last episode, and because the show is structured in an episodic manner, it doesn’t make sense to call the entire work meta-otaku; however Shirobako from its title itself (referring to the standard, rectangle-centered sheet to produce animation, forming a white box in a 16:9 aspect ratio) to the depiction of various unseen jobs involved in the anime production pipeline is definitely meta-otaku, in the core of its plot. So we can say for now that to use meta-otaku as an analytical axis, one should be especially careful.
What are media? The name itself evokes mediation, that there is an intermediary stage. But media also contain data, or symbols, whether spoken, drawn, written… That form speeches, and to receive speeches we have to process them according to our brains. The symbols are compiled according to the models we use to assume things about the world. The conventions spread throughout otaku media can for instance be found in voice-acting (typecasting), narratives (tropes), and visually (what may be known as the animanga artstyle). Those otaku conventions can for instance be the tsundere character archetype.
If media can be speeches, then it makes more sense for otaku media to be speeches catering to the subculture. And there is also proof that the subculture meaningfully constructs its own speech about itself, in a process of cultural memory. The pseudo-documentary parts as well as the narrative of the anime Otaku no Video (1991), by Gainax, are just one aspect of it — for Toshio Okada also wrote Introduction to Otakuology (1996, that Matteo Watzky also analyzed in the first part of the series of articles dedicated to sakuga. At the very least, the way Toshio Okada compared otaku culture to the traditional rakugo theater as a legitimate art form to ennoble the former is clearly the subcultural construction of a speech.
But this article merely wishes to outline the evolution of the meta-otaku throughout time, not to be comprehensive. There are however two anime titles that should obviously be mentioned to touch upon the 2000s. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (2006) and Lucky Star (2007) shouldn’t be considered one without the other. Both were animated by Kyoto Animation, and probably helped making it one of the most known studios. One is the anime adaptation of perhaps the most iconic light novel ever, and the other has tons of references to the culture. There is an anecdote that is analyzed in Simon Auger’s Le modèle “base de données” d’Hiroki Azuma et sa mise à l’épreuve dans la série d’animation japonaise Lucky Star (2007), concerning the voice actress Aya Hirano. Follows my own translation of an excerpt.
“During a scene, a reverse angle shows Konata looking at Haruhi’s voice actress, Aya Hirano, drawn in the Lucky Star art and reproducing an iconical musical recording from the anime. Besides the fact that Konata watches the one that voices her incarnating another character than her, the bit shows that Aya Hirano is relaying an affect of Haruhi Suzumiya, in spite of the physical disemblance she shares with her character. The scene also acts as a gag to specialists, since Konata faces the one voicing her, since Aya Hirano also did her voice-acting.”
This analysis matters because it is a play on voice-acting as an otaku convention, especially since Aya Hirano worked in so many different shows, for example in Akiba Meido Sensou (2022) as the panda. Which makes for a splendid transition from the past to the contemporean, as it is an anime that both stages Akihabara, a sacred ground for otaku culture, and deals with maids, a fantasy quite ubiquitous in the culture.
However, there isn’t really much to be gleaned in the way of a subcultural speech, perhaps because the context is much different from the time when Gainax produced Otaku no Video. This is just an assumption, but the Cool Japan policies (just to give historical context, but in 2002, “Douglas McGray wrote of Japan “reinventing superpower” as its cultural influence expanded internationally”) to both build a national identity, and capitalize on the exported soft power, may have provoked a significant shift in the Japanese perception of the otaku — thus Toshio Okada’s impetus for the legitimacy of otaku culture may not have been needed anymore.
Though there were also TV anime depictions of the otaku as a social outcast or downright recluse since. WataMote (2013) stars Tomoko, a schoolgirl character with a very distinct design for her prominent dark circles, and black, unruly hair. The dark circles are a way to characterize the otaku lifestyle as nocturnal, as free from the “natural” daily rhythm of Japanese modern society — and perhaps that it evokes also to mind the idea of late night anime time slots, that targets more of a mature audience compared to morning anime (like Futari wa Precure (2004), on Sundays at 08:30 (JST)). New Game! (2016) was meta-otaku because it was an anime about game developing, particularly 3D art and animation. Credited to Doga Kobo, the anime aired on Mondays at 22:30 (JST), a time slot more favorable for daily fulltime workers, and according to my interpretation of Simon Auger, the way the manga was published in Manga Time Kirara, targetting a seinen demography, and the way adult women are depicted as cute girls with moe characteristics may be to sell merchandises to adult men.
Lucky Star, WataMote and New Game! mark an evolution of the otaku girlhood, with more or less successful social integrations. In Lucky Star, Konata Izumi attends to Comiket 71, cosplays as Suzumiya Haruhi in the cosplay café she works at, things that integrate her to the local economy and the otaku “infrastructure”, if such a word is fine to use to refer to all related instances of otaku development, like conventions, stores… In WataMote, Tomoko is more of an outcast with cravings for more popularity, but somehow the drama is about her rehabilitation? In New Game!, the moe is an instance of inclusive feminity, where the moe is attractive and socially acceptable, like for Hifumi’s tremendous shyness.
As for the social recluse as otaku, the anime titled NHK ni Youkoso! (2006, with a manga having starting release on 2002) and Kamisama no Memochou (2011, light novel released on 2007) are two works that splendidly depict the hikikomori as well as the NEET, examples of lives that do not coincide with the mainstream way of life fostered by the government. For instance in Kamisama no Memochou, Alice does not go to school and instead works as a private investigator, mostly using the Internet. Hitoshi is a military otaku that uses attending university to leech off the library, playing survival games instead when not hanging out with fellow NEETs, reminding one that has watched Otaku no Video of the pseudo-documentary bit with a military otaku (parody?).
The historical value of meta-otaku works racks up over time, as the corpus of archives grows bigger and the time depicted grows farther, as well as the sheer volume of relevant analyses being made by researchers. However, an important part of culture is its preservation, and while institutional efforts are made (for instance with initiatives like the Kyoto International Manga Museum, or — but only fractionally — Settei Dreams, the “internet’s biggest archive of animation production materials”…), the way capitalistic licensing functions makes it hard to archive works of historical value. One has to wonder: how much of research can only be achieved by piracy?
We have already mentioned anime about animation. But what about light novels about light novels, like Eromanga-sensei (2013), or Imouto Sae Ireba Ii. (2015)? Or visual novels about themselves like Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu (2015)? They are just as much meta-otaku, and offer complementary glimpses at the modernity of the Japanese otaku. For example, Imouto Sae Ireba Ii. has a chapter dedicated to the filling of taxes, where the idea to write off games or figures or otaku goodies is thought of for light novel writers — this is epitomic of an integration to the otaku “infrastructure”. And Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu also permits distanciation from the concept of a bishoujo visual novel, because revealing the creative process is a way to illustrate the untold possibilities.
It may be easier to define meta-otaku as a spectrum to be inclusive of many cases. However, being gradual has the advantage to discern more clearly between meta-otaku works, though defining clear levels may be too discriminative and absolute. How to separate a narrative work in different parts? Perhaps we could go with the following: plot; theme; setting; characters. In Lucky Star, Konata is an otaku and her quality as protagonist implies some of the themes are going to birth from her impulses, like cosplaying or Comiket. The plot however is that of a iyashi-kei yonkoma manga, so not to say there isn’t but it’s about a slice-of-life in either the school setting or the domestic or urbane life. Well, since we mentioned an “otaku infrastructure”, perhaps this could be the setting part. The cosplay café and the Comiket are both prominent places in the otaku lifestyle. So that would mean 3 of the 4 elements characterize Lucky Star as a meta-otaku title.
An outlier may be the Robotics;Notes (2012) anime in particular. Though it originates from a VN in the SciADV multimedia series, like Steins;Gate (anime released in 2011) that is also relevant, Robotics;Notes may be more meta-otaku than the latter. We enter heavy spoiler territory. In Robotics; Notes, the plot is about building a mecha, in direct inspiration with an anime. The theme is robotics, mecha anime, science-fiction… in historical continuity with the otaku culture that has been spawned since Gundam (anime in 1971) and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), two landmarks Hiroki Azuma recognizes as characterizing different otaku generations in Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals. The setting is varying, but the robotics school club remains the most defining feature. And the characters include a mecha, first-person fighting game expert, as well as a girl inspired by an anime to build a mecha in the club, and a robot battles champion… Diverse but all kind of otaku-ish…
Steins;Gate is less of a meta-otaku work than Robotics;Notes, one may argue, because the plot is about a time machine instead of a mecha. The setting is more scientific, though Akihabara is at some point really relevant because a separate timeline saw the moe culture not spreading, totally changing otaku culture as it lost its sacred ground… The reason for mentioning two VNs of the SciADV series is because they explore psychological effects with science-fiction on the otaku: in Robotics;Notes, subliminal propaganda is used in the last episode of the Gunvarrel fictitious anime, whose production had a dramatic event occurring. And the lack of Akihabara as an identity-shaping place for the otaku is explored in Steins;Gate. Subliminal propaganda and an alternative timeline are two effects from science-fiction that could result in a warped psychology for the otaku, and the character is a surrogate for the viewer to reflect on it all. And so, both are meta-otaku works. But they also coincide with the denpa aesthetics.
To end on a wider note, if otaku culture has spread in recent decades from Japan to other countries via globalization, sometimes being a core part to the identity of the youth in the West, then it makes sense that the newer generations of artists will include otaku elements in their artstyles. There is also the fact that the success of Japanese entertainment goods will have been analyzed by other companies from other countries, as the global economy is in a state of perpetual competition. For example, Elsword (2007) is a South Korean MMORPG that has animanga artstyle elements (ani- because the visuals are colored).
But generalization leads to uniformization, which may dilute the meaning of the meta-otaku concept. Indeed, it finds its root in the otaku, a stereotyping term born in Japan, framed very pejoratively by a moral panic, and equating with social stigma. And yet the mainstream spread of otaku culture through globalization, and the formation of a national identity through Cool Japan, can be thought of as negating the value of a subcultural reading. One shouldn’t think about the otaku without including a wide-encompassing understanding of Japan, its modern history and culture. The short reference to the denpa and iyashi-kei aesthetics are also a part of this, for example because denpa was also linked to moral panic, and iyashi-kei in Simon Auger is thought of in the context of consumption society and in the New Age spirituality.
While Elsword was rooted in its own original world, there are other instances of otaku media created by foreigners, like visual novels originating from the English language. Because languages are paradigmatic, referring to specific, cultural understandings proper to geographical places, there may be core differences in the depiction of the Japanese otaku in English and the Japanese otaku in Japanese, for example because the globalized spread of otaku media transmitted the stigma (with shows like WataMote) but not really the cause, a panic framing about the pedocriminal and serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki arrested on 1989. An example of a visual novel on modern otaku culture in Japan but from an English-speaking perspective can be VTuber Connect, a product of the worldwide reach of VTubers.
To sum up this long-winding article, we have first focused on the way anime could produce a speech about itself. This has mostly been achieved by mentioning shows depicting anime production (financing, the management or the various jobs involved) as a theme or core plot point, and not through specific scenes, cuts or frames. But watching the titles themselves will surely prove enriching in seeing anime’s pedagogy with its own visual codes. For instance, the video editing in Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san, or the attention to the details of gestures, movements and physical phenomenology in Eizouken. In New Game!, the game animator is also enacting physically to reference her own acting.
We have also tried to follow and enrich the concept of otaku media already defined elsewhere, by thinking up the meta-otaku genre or lens of analysis. This lens of analysis has also permitted to glance at the subcultural speeches around otaku culture, by the otaku through otaku media since Otaku no Video (1991) to New Game! (2016), thus covering almost three decades, especially if we include VTuber Connect (2022), though we haven’t touched in depth this game here. The subcultural speeches have been that of seeking legitimization, being socially integrated, or being more or less an outcast of society. Because of the otaku subculture as birthing from consumption society and the capitalistic concept of the media mix, there is historical value in analyzing meta-otaku media throughout time, as well as philological (as anime is also speech with words changing through time and referring to mental conceptions, therefore having paradigmatic models) and anthropological, and social… But archiving it is just as important for the works of future researchers to be more fruitful, and capitalism with licensing is a barrier to it.
We have also attempted to break down the meta-otaku lens in a narrative artform by four criteria: characters (i.e. if the characters are otaku), plot (if the main goal of protagonists, and main opposition of antagonists is centered around otaku culture in some way), setting (if the setting is a part of the otaku lifestyle in a prominent or less prominent fashion, like if most scenes versus only a few take place in otaku-belonging spaces), or theme (if a social practice is repeated, like reading manga and discussing it, cosplaying, watching anime, making figures…). Though being inclusive in a spectrum fashion could be good for individual cases, perhaps quantifying the meta-otaku factor is interesting to separate the value or not of a work for its representativeness of otaku culture as a whole — though the train otaku has nothing to do with the military otaku or the computer geek, thus diluting the meaning of an overused word…
To avoid diluting further this meaning, we suggest to refer back to other analytical works, like Hiroki Azuma’s Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals (2001), or the more modern Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan (2015), and try to speculate on the effects of globalization and Cool Japan policies on the meta-otaku, for example with VTuber Connect. This concludes an attempt at exploring otaku media through time.
