Changing otaku culture

It never became mainstream. One can say that weeabooism (even in Japan by Japanese people) is what became popular. This isn't inherently a good or bad thing, but it seems to have happened.

>>15649929
You could say otaku culture became "mainstream" around 2005, but that's not quite what happened though.

Otaku subcultures were a somewhat big part of 2channel originally, much more so than any of its predecessors (various incarnations of ayashii world). The subcultures I'm referring to here includes anime and manga but also games, computers, visual novels, eroge, idols, trains, essentially a lot of the things we think of as akiba-kei now. When 2channel gained prominence in Japanese societal discourse from the early to late 00s, those subcultures were taken along for the ride and came under public scrutiny.

In the process they gained widespread recognition but not acceptance. A tiny bit of portrayal of otakus as not complete freaks seeped into actual mainstream (with live action series of questionable quality such as Densha Otoko and Akihabara@Deep), but overall otakus are still seen as undesirables and outcasts.

Simply owning a desktop PC makes you a nerd, with all the negative implications. Showing too much interest in games (especially western games) is seen as weird and childish. Visual novels and eroge perception did not change one bit. Idols and train otaku antics are the butt of jokes and a source of revulsion even among other otaku subcultures.

Anime and manga did boom in popularity... but mostly not the kind of anime and manga that otakus liked. Mobile games are now extremely common... but the kind of games otakus like are for freaks. Certain aspects of otaku culture did become mainstream, but only as far as they could leave the dirty otakus behind.

What actually happened is that otaku culture itself grew even without gaining mainstream acceptance. Comiket numbers are way up from what they were at the turn of the century. Some sizable subcultures like touhou were formed from nothing. A ton of self referential shit was created along the way (anime, manga or visual novels about making anime, manga or visual novels, about attending comiket or being set in akiba for no goddamn reason etc). Essentially, otaku culture is (probably) healthier than it ever was but it's still full of freaks.

>>15650342
>weeabooism (even in Japan by Japanese people)
Why did you bother posting when your whole post was just "Disregard my opinion I don't know what I'm talking about?"

>>15651503
I was trying to decide if he actually understands what he's saying or not. Maybe he means that modern Japan is quite westernized and there are some people who feel they need to put in an extra amount of effort to assure themselves of their japanese-ness? Make a conscious decision to wear traditional clothing, have tatami floors, sliding paper doors, eat traditional foods etc as often as possible for the sake of wanting to be extra japanese? Maybe I'm just retarded for even thinking about it to this extent?

>>15651583
I think that's thinking too far, he's probably just a retard

>>15649929
I miss those foreheads.

>>15651503
it's literally impossible to be a weeaboo and be japanese because weeabooing is literally a cultural thing that involves being completely fucking culturally retarded which is different than just being an otaku. i think you might be retarded. yeah, i definitely think that's it.

>>15651454
>especially western games) is seen as weird
That's how it should be. Only school shooters play that trash.

>>15653071
Don't you have to shoot up a school to be a school shooter?

I think many, many more people bought DOOM than the total amount of school shooters in the history of time.

>>15653112
Of course not. It's like saying that watching gay porn doesn't make you a homosexual and you actually have to fuck men to be one. School shooter is a state of mind.

>>15651454
>You could say otaku culture became "mainstream" around 2005

lmao wrong

>>15651454
>but mostly not the kind of anime and manga that otakus liked.

It feels like anime is only targeted to otaku nowadays, if anything. Everything is so niche and specifically aimed at certain subgroups of anime fans.

I'm sure there are probably older examples, but it's like how since around the time Lyrical Nanoha came out, it started becoming popular to have magical girls shows aimed at adult males that weren't parodies and weren't shows for little girls that the makers accepted certain adults also liked.

>>15653179
There is a lot more anime targeted at niche otakus and a lot of more merchandise to go with them too (figures etc). But late night anime isn't exactly normal.

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>>15649929
I can't talk for the USA, but here at Uruguay back in the day we have to record from the TV to give it or sell it to other fans, this created a community of links with real people, for example some body would know of this guy who knows about this girl that have this show called Hokuto no Ken and this other fag would have this new show Sailor Moon, X fag would sell/change his VHS video if someone had a good show, it felt like some sort of Illuminati club.
This shit kept going until right around the 2000 when cable was more common, thanks to that and stuff like Locomotion and Toonami in Cartoon Network it helped to growth the fandom toward chinese cartoons, now days fans bitch about quality in animation and all that stuff but back in the day you where just thankful to watch whatever anime it was, not matter if was shit or aimed towards kid, you where happy because OMG CHINESE CARTOONS.

A couple days ago there was a thread at /a/ about the old fandom which made me fucking nostalgic, enjoy:
https://boards.fireden.net/a/last/50/144889761/

>>15654517
That's a really good thread. If /a/ was like that more often I'd find myself visiting more.