How To Get Otaku Friends

I'll be honest, you people are a freaking gold mine of great ideas... and like the last article, this one is also inspired by a "Keyword" search I discovered while checking the stats here on Western Otaku. Though this one may be something of a challenge than previous other articles.

The question was pretty much a simple one. "How To Get Otaku Friends?", and though the question was simple, the answer like most things is not.

Friendship like anything always starts from one of the most important and grounded rules; to have a friend, you must first be friendly. Not really an easy thing to do these days since so many people are either not really who they seem to be, or are merely posing as a friendly person on the world wide web.

One of the biggest setbacks to most otaku in general is going to be their attitude. You will either be presented with a fan of anime and manga that has an overwhelming sense of superiority, or is still firmly wedged in their "closet otaku" phase of fandom. Either way the path of meeting other like-minded friends of the fan-base will be a difficult task.

When dealing with other otaku on the internet it is easy to find debaters and flamers, and this makes fans more out of arm's reach than merely meeting them in the public, but again finding an otaku friend in public, in real life is pretty rare.

For one; most of the people that I see, that are fans of anime and manga are pretty self-withdrawn when they are in the public; browsing through the DVDs and manga volumes, and don't openly engage in conversation, even though I myself are right there with them shoulder to shoulder browsing with them. The second thing is that even if you were by some miracle to get a fellow of the fan-base to acknowledge your presence and say something, there is a good chance that you will encounter the odd-ducks the same as me.

Those few seldom seen nerds that are so buried in the medium that they are practically non-functioning in any normal outside real world setting, and have only sneaked out into the light of day to buy anime and manga, and thus are incapable of speaking about anything except anime and manga.

Now, I like a good conversation about anime the same as anyone else; but at some point, I will eventually grow sick of hearing about the legendary super Saiyan Broly, and how his sheer existence is the stuff of supreme nerdish wet-dreams. Or how the characters in Ouran High School Host Club are so dang relatable to you.

Really? The characters in Ouran, are relatable? What a load of crap. But still, you are going to encounter that sort of thing in your travels looking for otaku friendship, and if you let minor things like that get under your skin, then chances are, you are not ready to be a friend.

Many so-called-otaku are probably going to be under the age of 18; so unless you yourself are around that age, you will most likely have little worldly commonalities between you and them. Chances are if you are a younger person, then and you want to be friends with an older otaku, then you will find little patience in them for your ignorance and over-the-top fan-gushing over every perceivable new hot anime or manga that gets released.

I'll admit, that in all honesty it is sometimes better not to have otaku friends. They seldom let you have your opinion, they chide you for your tastes in entertainment, and they get really pissy when you like something other than what they like, or worse, dislike something that they feel that you should like.

I do not believe it is possible for two people to remain friends based on their fandom. It is best to throw that out the window, and just be their friend based on themselves. The worst thing that has ever happened to the American Anime Fandom is the advent of proclaimed opinion.

I normally don't have anything against people's opinion, except for when they imagine that their opinions are paramount to mine and everyone else's, and then it just turns into a nasty grudge match of words; them trying to convince me something is good, when I clearly don't like it, and or me trying to convince them to abandon their evil ways, and walk the straight and narrow of anime and manga.

It's possible to be friendly, it's possible to be associative, but it just is not possible to be friends with other otaku, at least not based on the otaku aspect alone. To be a friend of an otaku means you are going to get crapped on, pissed on, balled out, griped to, shoveled, and shoved. You are going to have to overlook all that to be their friend, or else not at all.

Abandon your opinions, and take them, and the fandom in stride, or you will be like the thousands of other otaku in the world. Alone and lonely looking for companionship, or at least one other fan that wants to watch Bobobo Bo Bobobo.

Anime Movie: Spirited Away

          Spirited Away is one of the most seen of his movies, if u haven't seen it your one of the few. Spirited Away is another Miyazaki film, which about a child in a fantasy place, like i said in my last post pretty much all his movies involve children learning a lesson or young adult, in a alternate place may it be fantasy or nature.
           Chihiro(10) is sullen about moving away from her friends to a new place. Chihiro like most kids get fussy,  and pouts the whole trip. The father gets lost and they end up at this old gate, Chihiro wants to stay behind because shes scared but goes with them anyway through it. What they find appears to be a rundown theme park, as they go through they find a buffet with no one there. Chihiro feels like they could get inn trouble and walks off as her family pigs down thinking they will pay after the meal.
          As it turns night the spirits come, because it turns out this place is a bridge to the spirit world, Chihiro runs to her parents finding out their turned into pigs. The owner of the place; a witch, makes Chihiro runs into a boy named Haku he decides to help her, he sneaks Chihiro into the bath house and up into the bosses office, she asks for job, because Haku tells her about the creed they cannot turn anyone down a job. The witch makes a contract with her, and takes away her name and give Chihiro a new one, Haku tells her to remember her name its how the witch keeps you from going home.
         Chihiro goes on the journey of working at the bath house and finding a way to free her parents, she grows up and learns about true love and that change can be an adventure to. Most of Miyazaki films are great for the family and young at heart, a definite classic and a must watch. I suggest adding this to your Miyazaki collection.

Anime Movie: My Neighbor Totoro

              Howdy all; next week or so i'm going to talk about Miyazaki films. The first one i'm Talking about is My Neighbor Totoro, like in most Miyazaki films he doesn't use computers through 98% percent of it, and draws about ancient forest gods or nature in general. in all the films I notice he uses children to teens as the main characters.
            In this film the main characters are Satsuki(10) and Mei(4), the children with their father moved to rural japan to closer to there mother of long term illness. Right from the start when dads working at home and Satsuki is at school, Mei goes off into this forest thicket, where she meets Totoro a forest god, and starts playing on top his belly when he tries to sleep. You may have seen this scene from southpark with Cartman and kuthulu, I usually like southpark but that episode annoyed making fun of a great movie like this.
         Throughout the movie her and her sister meet up with Totoro. Satsuki First meeting is when  shes holding Mei waiting at the bus for her father in the rain. Totoro takes them into a cat bus and have an adventurous ride, until they meet up with father. As you see in the above picture, they meet up again late one night while Mei is impatiently waiting for there garden to grow, Totoro takes the girls to dance around the garden and make them magically grow. The very next day they weren't huge like last night but they finally sprouted.
        This movie takes you back to your childhood, with beautiful art, funny situations and even back to a child's love of their mom when there in the hospital. If you have seen spirited away, or Ponyo, or even Valley of the Wind you will love this, i'll be talking about those other movies soon, I definitely suggest collecting all of Miyazaki's movies.

Anime: Fruits Basket

                 Fruits basket is a great series for who love Shojo. There are quite a bit of characters in this anime but I'm going to talk about the three main characters. This anime has two parts of a story that makes one, this anime will make you laugh and cry.
                One part of the story is mainly about the zodiac animals. There is this family called the Sohma family, they are cursed when hugged by the opposite sex they turn into the animal they represent in the zodiac calender. The 2 main ones are Yuki and  Kyo. Yuki turns into the mouse of the zodiac, he is very proper in the family because the leader use to abuse him physically and emotionally; like most in the family they believe they can never be accepted by anyone. Kyo is the outcast of the family because he is the cat, and if you know the zodiac calender there is no cat, he isn't even accepted by his family, through out he thinks if he beats Yuki he will be accepted. Kyo is pretty much an outcast from outcasts, and has a very sad story i won't say to much more.
                The second part of the story is about Tohru Honda, a girl whose mother died when she was young, never scene her father and lives with her grandfather. Her grandfather is getting the house renovated and asks her if she can live with one of her friends for a few months. Tohru being the very selfless type didn't want to bother her friends Arisa and Saki. Tohru decides to live in a tent and do all her homework, and work hard on her job with no help. Tohru Honda let me explain; she is very selfless she wanted to finish school for her mom, she works very hard, and doesn't want to be handed anything, she also finds the best in anyone, one flaw is she has little common sense.
              How the stories come together;  Tohru's  tent she lives in for one night, finds out she accidentally lived on Sohma land. Kyo, Yuki, and Shigure the owner of the house and is the dog zodiac; let her stay with them but she wont let herself stay for free so they agreed to have her clean and cook. Later on she finds out there secret; and most that do get there memories wiped. Tohru didn't because they felt she was special. The Sohma family was very right; every member she meets her; her natural goodness helps each member get over a mental issue they have because the family there in. there is a quote im going to say to end this blog, i suggest to definitely watch this series and read the manga to go further in this wonderful story.
                  QOUTE: "My mom told me, it’s better to trust people than to doubt them. She said that people aren’t born with kind hearts. When we’re born, all we have are desires for food and material things. Selfish instincts, I guess. But she said that kindness is something that grows inside of each person’s body, but it’s up to us to nurture that kindness in our hearts. That’s why kindness is different for every person.
“We’re all born with selfish desires, so we can all relate to those feelings in others. But kindness is something made individually by each person, so it’s easy to misunderstand when others are trying to be kind to you.”"

Tohru Honda

Anime: Lucky Star

Tsukasa, Konata, Kagami, and Miyuki.

            Howdy folk, I wanted to talk about this anime after Azumanga Diaoh because they have closely related plots, but are very different indeed. First of all how there the same, both Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh are about young high school girls going through everyday life within 3 years, they even both have a weird pervert that likes teen girls.
           How Lucky Star is different, these girl are very random I mean random; there conversations will have you going wtf. Also Lucky Star has quite of  references to anime, manga, and video games. The main anime they reference is "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". Some of the random conversations are; how you eat your food, why isn't real life like video games or anime, why does your hair dry out after swimming and etc... now that i said what most of the anime is about ill explain each characters personality.
          Tsukasa: younger twin sister of Kagami; she is a airhead, shy, sweet, loves to cook and sow, doesn't study well.
          Konata: shortest of the group and hates it. Konata is a lot like me; she loves gaming, reading manga, watching anime, loves anime conventions. Konata is very lazy and crams for exams in a night, and loves copying work from Kagami.
         Kagami: elder twin sister of Tsukasa; shes is the opposite Tsukasa. Kagami works hard, gets good grades, argues with Konata, likes games but more of a shooter genre, Konata is more of RPG and Sim dates gamer. Kagami doesn't like manga and Konata doesn't understand how she doesn't fall asleep while reading without pictures.
        Miyuki: is the smartest and most adult looking. Miyuki knows pretty much everything all of them call her for all the answers, she is also very clumsy, forgetful when she concentrates on other things, and has that girl with glasses thing going for her. Konata always calling her molle(probably didn't spell it right.) Which means cute by your faults.
       This anime has quite a few other characters like parents and family of the main characters, even teachers; but I felt the main characters are more important to explain. If you love Azumanga Diaoh i definitely suggest this anime.