What makes YOU Otaku?

[uzutake]

Well, if you count yourself as an otaku, what do you think makes you that way? Staying up late, waiting for the newest subbed episode to come out? Surrounding yourself with plushies and merchandise of your favorite character? You're the actual meaning of Otaku where you have absolutely no life and friends and everything revolves around anime? You learned to speak Japanese JUST so you can watch the RAW episodes b4 anyone can understand the subs? COSPLAYING?

Here, you can show off how otaku you are XDD

(I dont know where this should be: here or Things In The Universe?)

[Barnes]

Reading ALL the lists in here:

http://www.tapanime.com/AnimeFun/Humor/otakuif/otaku.html

[XpHoBiaX]

I was always tol dto not refer myself as 'otaku' especially in Japan...O_o lol anyways

COSPLAYING!! and battling it out with your friends over limited edition manga and stuffs... DUH! lol

[Darryl Mendoza]

What makes me otaku is that I have way to many anime posters and way waaaaaayyyyyy to much manga. I have a pretty fair amount of dvd's but my stack of burned animes is pretty high. I like to act like certain characters if I feel like it and I use soooo many quotes from favorite characters that even my other "otaku" friends get annoyed. I play alot of fighting games and am very good at many capcom and snk games that I'm practically unbeatable in Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO and apretty good at Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I play a decent amount of RPGs from time to time. I try to download as much as I can of scanslations and get fansubs from my buddy who has a faster internet. I put theme songs and music from anime on to my psp or anyother MP3 device or music player. I import things from Japan so I could get the better than the americanized version of the same thing. I tend to not care about the price when purchasing anything anime related unless I know that I don't have the money to make said purchase. I could have gotten a better laptop or even a custom job desktop computer if I only didn't spend it on anime. And my list goes on about me being a pretty big otaku. Except that I really suck at ddr unless I'm using a control, which is wierd because almost my whole family that plays it is great even with the dance pad itself that one of my cousins actually bought a metal stand for the game off ebay.


Thank you! And GOOD NIGHT!!!!!

[Jyunishinsho]

The wig
The cosplays
The figurines
The games
The Dizzy
The doujins
The mangas
The cds
The music
The wall scrolls
The Kami-sama
The Gendo
The memory-less laptop
The plushies
The Pocky
The Oolong Tea
The bishounen
The bishoujo
The bandersnatches
The oddity

However, for me, this is the most important aspects of an otaku:
The enthusiasm and the love for anime.
The friendships it creates
The relationships it generates
The happiness

[Nina Star 9]

i do not consider myself "otaku", and even if i did not see it as a derogatory term, i still would not, as i am not really that big of an anime fan. i like two anime series and maybe 3 manga series at best. :P though i do cosplay, i typically only do amano tsukiko costumes (and then i hve my one video game costume - kurosawa sae from fatal frame II)

so why do i go to cons if i do not really like anime? i like the con atmosphere (not the literal one of fanboy funk. you know what i mean. :P), i like japanese culture (and i started liking anime a little becasue i liked the culture, not the other way around as it seems to be for a lot of people, not saying any of you, per se, but certainly a lot of people i know are like that), i like japanese music (mostly freaky stuff no one has ever heard of... xD), i like japanese fashion (a con is not the BEST place for that, as a lot of it is distorted, but there are some great outfits that people put together there), and i love cosplay, and the only place wher ei can cosplay and not be seen as a freaky chick in a victorian mourning gown with a 12 foot train is at a con. then everyone will jsut think i am some freaky chick in a victorian mourning gown with a 12 foot train that is cool. :P

[Darryl Mendoza]

Let me also add that I stay up late to read or watch manga and anime, I once skipped class to read manga, making doujins as well, I hurt myself watching a Gundam marathon by giving myself the most painful "stiff" neck I could possibly ever have in my life, I couldn't move my neck and it still hurts, I'll try new things if I saw it in anime, I don't care if people see me looking at hentai in anyway, I do happen to enjoy the stories behind hentai. I drink too much tea and I also have HAD a few figurines but my damn stepdad had to "throw them away" because 1. I wasn't there at the time, and 2. He thought it was a waste of space and couldn't pack them because we were also at the time, MOVING. I really don't like it here in Colorado, but I made some good friends who like anime but wouldn't be considered otakus, except one of them having a room filled with games, anime, and posters who happens to be one badass mother *bleep*.

[mDuo13]

When you've spent as much time as I have watching anime, it's kind of hard to escape the label "otaku".

I just try to avoid the "ripe", "unwashed masses", and "smelly" epithets.

[YoureMyHiro]

I dont know if I qualify for Otaku as the term is broad but I certainly dwell in "Otakudom" from time to time, although I wouldnt mind being labeled a little now and again because everytime I go to a convention, Im usually labeled as not being a fan at all because of my general appearance.

[Moris_Dream]

:D Hm...let's see....I have a huge collection of stuff....
A DBZ Plug-n-play
YGO figures
YGO kite
YGO bedding/fleece
DBZ/YGO posters
YGO Board game
Limited 7500 Inuyasha & Sesshomaru Figure Set
DBZGT figures
Yu Yu Hakusho figures
YGO Duel Monsters cards---I'm a duelist
A beyblade---love to beyblade
YGO Hotwheels
YGO Toothbrush still in package
Dresser written all over with anime
Computer desk written all over with anime
Inuyasha Plushie
My fanfiction for anime
DICE Jet figure & trading card
Kagome figure
YGO Gumball Machine
McDonalds/BK figures& pyramids
YGO lunchboxes
YGO Deck cases
YGO card holder
Fanart
Many printed pictures of anime
Anime names on forums/message boards--- :wink:
Stuffed animals named after Inuyasha characters
Fish named Bankotsu---died  :(
Computer/Monitor covered in YGO stickers
Desktop wallpapers
Favoriting anime sites
Making anime sites
Anime Network on Favorite channels and blocked for anybody else to see it......o_O That's my channel in my house thank you very much.....
Getting friends into anime....got my friend Kristin HAHAHAHAHA!  :twisted:
And much more.....*phew*

:shock: That was alot to list, lol....

I guess yes, I am an otaku....I love anime, I'm obsessed with anime, I watch it all the time, I stay up late just to watch it.....

And I love all of this for almost 5 years now and I am 20 years old ^_^ A riot, huh?

[Sora]

Cosplay, attending cons . . . and I tend to say what some characters say at times. To name a few.

[OniCourseMusha]

Know too much about Bemani series and Megaman series (not to mention many Rockman mangas from Japan).

Watching anime series till its done. For example, watched the entire Rurounin Kenshin including the movie and OVAs in 4 days.
Figure and Plushie collecting.

Drawing addiction.

[Shinsengumi]

I don't know of I'm in the ranks of Otaku but I do own alot of good anime series and plus I do have alot of action figures and model kits, plus I go to cons and cosplay, collect hentai and h-doujins, I own about 25 or 30 PS2 games. Ohh and I do know alot about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Dynasty Warriors whatever you want to call it.

[KyraEnsui]

I prefer watching animes, reading mangas, buying only select merchandise so I won't go on a spending spree, and cosplaying my favorite character. I would catch on news and any releases coming out in Japan such as a new series. It's funny how not many people in my city know I'm an otaku, just because of the 'stereotypical otaku'. *shrugs* It has some of its perk to be a 'silent otaku'.

[ip136]

i'd prefer to call myself an 'ex-otaku' because I wouldn't see myself as one anymore.. but proof of what I used to do:

My Entire room was plastered in anime/manga posters. To the point that I had posters over posters and posters on my ceiling as well. Some posters (which shall remain nameless) were strategically placed so that when I woke up in the morning, it was the first thing I saw.

Ontop of that I had manga lining the floor. And I owned DVD series of anime before actually owning a DVD player... Same with PS2 games.

Uhm, also.. I watched and read the Ah! Megami-sama series so much that you could give me a screencap of the OVA, or a single panel from a manga and I could explain to you what happened right before, what will happen, what was happening at that moment. And in the case of the manga, tell you what issue.

[gubaba]

My obsession with Rock Howard. >.>

Maybe one day I'll grow out of it.. maybe.. ..maybe. XD

[BlackDelo]

my five and a half foot metal wolfwood cross. the one i USED to have. before someone stole it.

who steals a five and a half foot metal cross?

[zoupzuop2]

I'm not an Otaku. An anime fan to some extent, yes. Otaku? Heck no.

I may now know some of the terms, but I'm in NO way an expert on anime or the like.

[gmontem]

I'm otaku because I spend more money on anime goods than on crack.

[neko ewen]

I watch lots of anime (and have more digisubs than I'd care to admit) and read a good amount of manga.

I collect UFO catcher dolls (though there haven't been many good ones in recent years).

I've made an AMV (and some day I'll do more).

I have a B.A. in Japanese, and I started on an M.A.

My only source of income right now is doing translations for video games (which I can't talk about too much, but suffice it to say they're all anime-related).

I wrote a dystopian novella (which I intend to try to get published) about catgirls.

And designed multiple anime-inspired RPGs, including one about disturbed anime mascot girls.

I don't really wear the label "otaku" as a badge of pride, but by now there's no point trying to hide it.