Now, I'm sure you've all heard me say that I "gained my Otaku status through Gundam Wing." Let me explain. In 6th grade I had a friend named Audrey Davis(she hates me now, I'm actually not sure why...) who was an avid anime fan, and an Otaku long before me. During one of our dusk-til-dawn phone conversations over the summer, we got to talking of what really sets an Otaku apart from a fanboy, a simple fan, and a regular person who's seen a couple of eps of one anime and sort of liked it. Now, we concluded right off that Otaku is a title, like "Sir"(as in "Sir Cameron") or "General", and must be earned. Now, before I go any further, I'll tell you what an Otaku is. In America, it is, as I said, a title which commands respect from lesser anime fans. It is not an excuse to look down on people, but simply a way of letting them know that you are something more than the 5th-grade Dragonball Z watchers;a coniseur of anime,so to speak. In Japan, "Otaku" is more derragatory,closer to the American "Fanboy". There, it is used to mean someone who is so obsessive about an anime(or really any hobby) that they forsake human contact and/or personal hygiene to become more involved with it. Now, back to the story. The requirements for Otaku status that we drew out are:
*You must know all that one can reasonably know about one particular anime(Pokemon DOES NOT count!) such as having seen all the episodes, knowing the characters' backgrounds,knowing what each character's name means,having some knowledge of differences between the manga and TV series,and owning some of the merchandise.
I have done all of the above with Gundam Wing, and so am now a "Gundam Wing Otaku".
Well, I think that just about wraps up this "Random Anime-Thing". See ya round!
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