Friday, June 20, 2008

Grandpa and the 50 Foot Otaku Dress of Doom

Good day dear readers!

I begin today's entry with a heavy heart. Two reasons, really...

yamamoto Firstly I feel really old. At the ripe old age of 33 (or 34 - see I can't even remember anymore!), I am already garnering comments of "Grandpa!" and "Crumbly-bum!" from the young whipper-snappers frequenting anime forums. They look at me wide-eyed with their skateboards and through shiny dental braces (which blind my aging eyes!) they announce "Yo man!! You're freakin' old!". And I feel like taking out my teeth and biting their smarmy asses!

It is therefore more than a passing curiosity of mine to notice that in anime forums, the average Otaku age appears to be around 18-20 years old. I know of only a few people above 30 years old, and even less still over 40.

Now, this could mean one of three things (that I can think of anyway):

  1. The first is that as one gets older one loses an interest in anime. The thought quite frankly shocks me, but I have seen a couple of people who have said they have no time for it anymore. And just like that, they wake up one day and simply haven't the excitement for it that they once did. I would hope that Haruhi or Faye Valentine still excite the fruits of my loins even in my twilight years.
  2. Real life intervenes. As with everything, one can only stay in la la land for only so long. As soon as one leave's the nest of home, or the comfort of college; bills must be paid, jobs must be sought, and partners must be satisfied. It is most likely possible that, even though an interest in anime is still maintained, that these people drop off of forums and out of the Otaku limelight. I find it difficult myself, for sure, managing real life with my Otaku desires. But there are those out there that can multi-task something chronic and never cease to amaze me. They can often plate spin too!
  3. Old farts can't use computers. Okay, I'm well aware that most of you probably didn't grow up in the 80's. You just caught the tail-end of it, pooped your pants, and then entered the 90's, the new dawn of the Internet Age. So while many old fogies may still be around, brought up on the old school anime, it may be likely they don't even know how to turn on a computer. And since they can't connect to the rest of the world their existence is largely unknown to us.

Another thing that interests me about the age of the Otaku, is that does this mean that in 20 years time, that the trend of the average Otaku age will still be 18-20 years old? Would it be naturally expected that most of you who would have grown up by then, will still be around the forums? Or do Otaku's age poorly, and end up losing interest and pass beyond the veil into unknown space, only to be replaced by a new batch of 18-20 year olds...

Anyway, it's just something I think about from time to time when I'm out for my daily Grandpa walk.

Okay, the second thing that depressed me was the thought that I probably generated too much anticipation with my closing comment in my previous entry as to why female Otaku don't wear dresses. And so before the anticipation becomes too much for people to bear, and reaches Lord of the Rings proportions, I figured I'd let everyone down gently.

I got nothing.

(hmmm, am I overestimating the importance and success of my blog or what? hehe)

Despite thinking about it for some time now, I thought I could come up with a reason why. However, I have since been informed by numerous sources out there, that female Otaku do indeed wear dresses! Some even look really, really good in them!!!

It's just that all the female Otaku I've talked to - and I've done intensive research on all two of them - lol - dislike wearing dresses. They would rather wear jeans and t-shirts. Does this mean that to be female and to be into anime that you must be a tom-boy too?

cosplay

On a related note, I think the number of guys who cosplay women (eg. Man-Fayes!) must somehow restore the balance in the Otaku universe somehow... by making up the numbers lost by women not wearing dresses.

And if any one out there of the female persuasion reading this blog, who do wear dresses - please don't hesitate to contact me. I would like to see photographic evidence! LOL

Right, so I've gone on for ages now, and yet parted no interesting insight and relevance to Otakudom in general. lol, and so on a closing note, doesn't the figure below look sooo cute! I don't know what anime it's from, but dang - I want that car!

kawaii

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to read, and cheers for all the comments on previous entries. I promise to write something of at least mild Otaku relevance sometime soon! hehe

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

mmm all 2 ehhh. I'll tell you that I like to wear dresses and do girl things! I can't provide pictures but I did wear a lovely summer dress to the BBQ on Saturday and everyone was complementing me :D

You shouldn't worry about age. Everyone I know that is into anime are almost in their 30s and I know quite a few 30+ ones as well.
I know a few young ones here and there but I don't interact well with most youngsters :P so i tend to avoid that as much as possible unless bored hehehe

Anonymous said...

hehe- good post. I think there are older otakus- maybe just fewer on certain anime forums. I like anime (duh, though I'm not sure if I count as an otaku) and I way fluffy skirts and cute dresses a lot- just not everyday. I do the schoolboy-ish thing a lot, though, too- but it's still cute!
that drag cosplayer is hottt- well, at least moreso than that square-assed sumo guy.
Liking the blog!

NomadicWriter said...

That figure is Rin from Fate/Stay Night! i love her hehe! well I just flicked through you blog but alas I'm too tired so i shall give it a proper read and review tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

Hey S.B.! As usual, your writing has entertained and amused me. Keep up the interesting posts. You're a great writer! ~Zoelyn

Sandbar said...

@Chii - the compliments on your summer dress were undoubtedly well deserved. I'm sure you would have looked great. :-)

Oh and LOL on not interacting well with youngsters - I'm hearing you loud and clear on that one! hehe

@Dusty_Valentine - heheh thanks for the comments on my blog! Very much appreciated. You know, I never pictured you as a fluffy skirt / cute dress wearing girl. Probably mainly cause of the forum avatars you always choose - I must have a preconceived notion of what you look like or something. lol I always pictured your persona to be something like the female villain in your club. hahaha (j/k no offence intended). :-)

Thanks again, Dusty!! :-)

@Nomad - thanks for that. I will have to see this Fate/Stay Night series. It intrigues me so. It's on my want to watch list anyway. No problems, comment (or not) whenever you like - I know you're busy with your puppy and probably lacking as much sleep as I am lately. hehe It's cool.

@Zoelyn - thank you so much for your comment. It's good to hear that my words are being read by people all over the world. hehe (and kinda a weird feeling too, since I've never written a blog before - I'm always worried whether I'll end up saying something stupid. hehe - ahh, I'm saying that like I haven't already! lol). But I'm glad you think I'm doing okay. Cheers Zoe! :-) I will definitely try and keep the interest levels up in my posts.

Unknown said...

yo are not that old

Anonymous said...

Well... Being an otaku in the old age is doesn't matter... As long you have desire to do that.. Futher more, it can increase your activities and it's equal keep your memory...^^' Hobby is hobby, whatever age you are, it your hobby... ^^

Keep up your otaku's way bro!! ^^

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean when you say you feel old around the whippersnappers on the anime "scene" at the moment - and I'm only 23! But I think rather than it being reliant on age, it's more a case of anime becoming popular at the time it did. BitTorrent's emergence in mid-2000s was only really caught by those willing to watch it, which seemed to be the teenage age range. I think you find very few 30+ year olds getting into anime now, purely because of the "it's a cartoon" mindset, whereas teenagers are much more influenced.

The few anime fans (and fansubbers for that matter) I've met who are over 30, are usually ones who have been watching anime for years - since the VHS fansubbing era, in fact. Most of them will have seen Akira when it was first released. So yeah, I think it's more because of this than anime being age-specific, if that helps ^_^

Royal Bakaness said...

I am a female otaku (not as crazy as some) and I also wear dresses. I'd send some photographic evidence, but I'm not on my computer, so the only picture I have is of me in cosplay, and I don't think you can claim to wear dresses if it's only for cosplay.
It's funny, though, I never used to be like this. I used to be a jean and T-shirt kind of girl. However, the more shoujo anime/manga that I watched/read, the more I liked dresses and skirts. Now I wear them around the house and when I'm just hanging with friends (they've finally gotten used to it). And I guess my interest in Lolita fashion helped with that, too.
Oh, and I'm sorry to say, I am a youngster (21), but my close anime friend is in her early 30's, and I enjoy her company, especially for the fact that she's into old-school anime like me and often has no idea what younger (yes, younger than me) otaku are talking about with all this new anime.