Most English-speaking fans use the word otaku exclusively as a label for fans of Japanese animation or comics. It’s a reasonable conclusion. It’s a Japanese word after all. But that’s not how the Japanese themselves use the word otaku.

Originally a way of referring to another’s family or house, or a really polite way of saying ‘you’ (think ‘thou’), otaku is used by the Japanese to refer to someone who is so into his or her chosen hobby or field of interest that he or she neglects things most other people would consider simple common sense.

Sometimes the normal people are right on the money (have you ever smelled the air at a Magic tourney or Level Up! event? We really could use some more attention to our hygiene, guys, seriously!) and sometimes not so much — consider the strange fact that a person who will listen exclusively to techno or polka or Gregorian chant might consider someone who listens to video game music or anime soundtracks or Korean pop ‘weird’. Taste is truly subjective.

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