Re: How commercialized is otakudom in Japan

In article <JPmdnUNzl6l6SnXXnZ2dnUVZ_umdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Doug Jacobs <djacobs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Lee Ratner <lbratner@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Slate.com had an article on dating sims today in their Double X
blog. This got me thinking about a major difference between Japanese
otakudom and Western fendom. Japanese otakudom seems to be much more
commercialized than Western fendom in that there are lots more
businesses dedicated to making money by catering to the tastes of
otaku than businesses dedicated to making money from the tastes of
Western fen.

Well, the market in Japan is a lot larger as well. I'm also not sure
what you'd call an otaku item, since anime and manga are merchandised a
lot more agressively than here. For instance when I was in Japan, the
stationary department in the local department store was clogged with
Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z stuff. Pens, pencisl, erasers, notebooks,
etc. But this wasn't stuff considered for otakus. Even visiting an
actual "anime store" in Osaka mainly carried stuff you could get at any
department store of book store.

Of course you had the garage model and figure kit companies selling their
wares out of a house somewhere. I'm not even sure why they're called
"garage models" as most places don't have a garage - attached or otherwise.

Except for Sanrio, how many companies in Japan monitor all those
different products? I had the impression that garage kits fall into
that "gray area" that doujinshi are in, unofficial but ignored as
long as it promotes the main product, and hence other more official
merchandise.


Now take the breadth and depth of the Disney merchandising market and
imagine if it were applied to anime. That's what you have (soemwhat) in
Japan. Characters get printed on t-shirts, hats, stationary goods,
pressed into service selling items on TV, video games, collectible
figures, toys - you name it, there's probably an anime series or character
who has sold it at one point. Yet the majority of people buying this
stuff aren't otakus. Heck, they don't even consider themselves to be fans
at all. It'd be like saying everyone who liked Shrek is an otaku.

I think the point about Disney merchandise may be close to it,
although part of it is Disney's absolute power in pursuing any
trace of unofficial use of Disney trademarks. I don't know if
the Japanese companies have the equivalent of US "trademark" on
their characters and images, but it seems they are less aggressive
in pursuing protection, and that may leave the door open to more
companies and individuals riding their coattails. Lowering the
barriers to entry tends to make markets more crowded.

Also, the culture of manga there makes it more likely that people
will be exposed to characters for further into their adulthoods,
and there is (slightly) less stigma associated with reading manga.
Although I have to say, I rode the rails and Metro for 5 weeks a
couple years ago, and I didn't see many people reading, much
less reading manga. It could be the time of day I usually was on
there, but the passengers were mostly standing, sleeping, or
(if they were young) texting or gaming.

Oh, and I have to disagree with whoever said that Akiba was more
"closed" than Shibuya et. al., because "you can't see what's
going on in the buildings". Every building in Japan that I saw
had large columns of signage outside that advertised the company
and the floor they were on, and Akihabara was no different. Just
thought I'd throw that out.

Cap.

--
Since 1989, recycling old jokes, cliches, and bad puns, one Usenet
post at a time!
Operation: Nerdwatch http://www.nerdwatch.com
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