/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>16777456
>What are they up to? Are they simply engaged with modern trends?
Right before Kio wrapped up Genshiken Nidaime, he kicked off one of the last chapters with a pub scene where all of the original Genshiken club members meet up over drinks.

Their conversation, up to and including where Madarame excoriates them for turning into riajuu, is in my opinion a good portrait of what the earlier generations of otaku are like now. They're no longer undergrads with the free time required for holding endless meetings about Kujibiki Unbalance or planning for Comiket. They're adults - most of what they're talking about is finances, work or their girlfriends.

But they're still otaku. The original Genshiken crew aren't taking selfies to show how they're #adulting like a boss. They're dealing with the responsibilities of life and finding opportunities to weave in their old interests wherever possible. Kugayama is going to a hostess bar because one of their girls on staff is an otaku who does cosplay. Tanaka happily indulges Kugayama's request for a cosplay outfit for this hostess. Sasahara and Kousaka both work in otaku industries. Madarame's cheaper apartment is also a 15 minute Metro ride to Akiba station. And excepting Kousaka and Kugayama, they all wind up dating fellow otaku.

The idea of the otaku as a socially retarded, filthy and possibly obese kimo-ota is the extreme. People like that do exist - Kuchiki remains a combative autist right up until he graduates - but for most people, otaku shit is at most an ongoing hobby. This is not a behaviour that's particularly unique in the first world: trekkies have been mentioned in this thread and you have elderly greasers who stole cars for joyrides in the 50s that still turn over the motor of their immaculate '59 Hudson every summer. Likewise, I can't spend literal days obsessively saving and tagging pictures from Pixiv anymore, but I still dip my toes back into dojin culture when I'm on holiday.

tl;dr in the end, we all learn how to find opportunities to graze amidst the bullet hell that is modern life in late capitalism.

>>16779307
>Most are probably selling insurance or pushing add-on packages to cell plans at the strip mall.
I've personally never met an anime/manga otaku that thrived in sales or customer service.

Gamers, sure. But my experience is that we all tend to go into CS, chemistry, armed forces or civil/mechanical engineering.