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6 This period was also a time when the “real thing” began to gain dominance over models. 6). 8 Even in the model world, attention shifted from the more free-form models that allowed for imaginative creations to kits and plastic models WHY STUDY TRAIN OTAKU? 5. Bullet train and monorail. Credit: Drawing by Sadao Kimura in Norimono Ehon (Picture Book of Vehicle) (supervised by Sekita 2007, 62). that closely mimicked existing trains. This shift was reflected in the models’ scale. During the DIY era, relatively large-scale models such as the O scale (approximately 1:45 scale) were prevalent, allowing modelers to dwell on the details of each locomotive.

If this essay can remind readers of these difficulties, I believe it has served a useful function in this collection. Hiroki Azuma 2011 OTAKU AND POSTMODERNITY The Propagation of Simulacra My claim that there is a deep relationship between the essence of otaku culture and postmodern social structure is not particularly new. The following two points have already been identified as postmodern characteristics of otaku culture. One is the existence of derivative works. Here I use the phrase “derivative works” as a general term for the largely eroticized rereading and reproduction of original manga, anime, and games sold in the form of fanzines, fan games, fan figures, and the like.

So we’ve decided to designate them as the “otaku,” and that’s what we’ll be calling them from now on. ’ ” Furthermore, phrases such as “guys with every back issue of SF Magazine and the Hayakawa science-fiction novels lining their bookshelves” and “science fair types with coke-bottle glasses who station themselves at the local computer shop” also indicate that characteristics and behaviors associated with the eras of fantasy and dreams had already been attached to the definition of otaku. ” WHY STUDY TRAIN OTAKU?