America's Greatest Otaku

Wikipedia defines otaku as “a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, or video games.”

In continuing the conversation from last week about anime and manga in American media, there is actually a new documentary series, called “America’s Greatest Otaku”, that will be shown on Hulu, beginning on February 24, 2011.

Here is the trailer:

According to Anime News Network,

“Each of the eight episodes will follow TOKYOPOP founder, entrepreneur, and filmmaker Stu Levy and his apprentices, the Otaku Six (six college students that are self-proclaimed die-hard otaku) as they travel across the country, searching for the one person who personifies what it means to be an otaku. The twenty-city nationwide search covers, in order of travel, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver, Dallas, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Diego, Oklahoma, Nashville, Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Chicago.

During the nationwide search for America's Greatest Otaku contenders, Levy and the Otaku Six visit over thirty "Otaku Spots"--locations that are rich with otaku style and appeal. Included in these Spots are: an innovative "maid café"; a hotel inspired by Japanese pop culture; a recreation of a 17th century Japanese house and garden; a ninja-themed restaurant; a bento box specialty shop; an Alice in Wonderland themed café; and many, many more.”

In an interview with Stu Levy by Deb Aoki, Levy says that for the show, the definition of otaku is “somebody who's really into it and that means they also have ways of expressing themselves. So that means they can be creating their own cosplay, drawing manga, singing karaoke or writing. We delve into creative activity, as well as just loving the culture and being a huge fan. There have been a couple people out there with amazing collections but these people also tend to be designers. It's kind of amazing that the more otaku somebody is, the more they actually do things in the field, too.”

What I like the idea about this show is that even though in the U.S., otakus are seen in the negative connotation, as weirdoes who waste all of their time watching anime and reading manga, Levy wants this show to not be "Hey, let's find embarrassing people and put them on display," but rather, "Let's find people who are amazing and talented and intelligent and let's show off that this is what otaku culture is all about."

For the show to be able to display “Otaku spots” and otakus is evidence that there is a high attraction of Japanese culture/anime/manga in the U.S., or at least a big enough market of interest for TokyoPop, an American manga publishing company, to produce the show. If this show is successful in reaching Levy's goals of showing off "amazing and talented and intelligent" otakus, it may increase knowledge on anime, and through that may increase public interest in anime.