/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Any good touhou fan-game starring Flan as main character?

Just... what is an otaku?

I mean, I've always considered myself as an occasional otaku: I watch some anime, I read some manga, and I'm quite interested in other jap forms of entertainment, but I'm not a fanatic, let alone an hikikomori...

Now, I have some friends who claim to be "true otaku", but they just watch quite a large number of anime, and read a lot of manga, but they haven't ever watched a drama, or played jap games such as Touhou, and they are not very much into jap music (except for anime OPs)...

So, what is an otaku? (I'm referring to the meaning it has outside of japan)