Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan

From computer games to figurines and maid cafes, men called otaku develop intense fan relationships with cute girl characters from manga, anime, and related media and material in contemporary Japan. While much of the Japanese public considers the forms of character love associated with otaku to be weird and perverse, the Japanese government has endeavored to incorporate otaku culture into its branding of Cool Japan. In Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan, Patrick W. Galbraith explores the conflicting meanings of otaku culture and its significance to Japanese popular culture, masculinity, and the nation. Tracing the history of otaku and cute girl characters from their origins in the 1970s to his recent fieldwork in Akihabara, Tokyo (the Holy Land of Otaku), Galbraith contends that the discourse surrounding otaku reveals tensions around contested notions of gender, sexuality, and ways of imagining the nation that extend far beyond Japan. At the same time, in their relationships with characters and one another, otaku are imagining and creating alternative social worlds.