An Asylum Culture’s Heart: Two Sides of Otaku

Abstract

Otaku were once the subject of contempt in the 1980s in Japan. However, societal turmoil in the 1990s drove deluded adults into the otaku culture, forming the core of avoidance, indulgence, and fear of reality that lasted until now, and otaku culture became the asylum placed between reality and virtuality. From the beginning, the purpose of the culture is to let otakus return to the reality, whose famous exemplification is Evangelion. Defined backward, anime culture refers to the consumptive side of otaku culture that originated from Evangelion, which offers a stimulation on otakus that drives them into field of creation. The “anime” referred here, therefore, can even include doujin works. Doujin culture, on the other hand, is where those. With the case study of Rayson, a musician, this essay demonstrates how doujin creators are able to walk out of their distress. However, just like any other cure, it may not be effective to every people and may have some side effects that is not yet fully understood, but one should not ignore that doujin is a prominent phenomenon where people are rescuing themselves (or being rescued) using creativity.