Japan Station: A Podcast About Japanese Culture & the Japanese Language 30 Understanding "Otaku" and Akihabara w. Dr. Patrick W. Galbraith
On this episode of the Japan Station podcast, we're talking about "otaku," the history of the anime "holy land" of Akihabara, and a whole lot more.
About KoichiDr. Patrick W. Galbraith is an lecturer at Senshu University in Tokyo. He is one of the world's leading expert on the topic of Akihabara and the related subcultures that are often associated with this famous district of Tokyo. Galbraith is the author of man y books and articles, including Tokyo Realtime (2010), The Otaku Encyclopedia: An Insider's Guide to the Subculture of Cool Japan (2014), The Moe Manifesto: An Insider's Look at the Worlds of Manga, Anime, and Gaming (2017), and others. His most recent book, published by Duke University Press Books in 2019, is Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan.u,
Topics Discussed- Dr. Galbraith's first visit to Akihabara
- Hayao Miyazaki's complicated relationship with fandom during the early part of his career
- The character Clarisse de Cagliostro from the 1979 film Lupin Third: The Castle of Calgiostro
- The different waves of anime fandom in Japan
- The lolicon/rorikon Boom of the first half of the 1980s
- The word lolicon/rorikon and its various meanings
- The connection of the character Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura and her connection to the cocept of lolicon/rorikon
- How computers and adult computer games (eroge or erogē) helped transform Akihabara into what it is today
- The ongoing struggle between the "otaku" of Akihabara and the Japanese government
- What the future holds for Akihabara
- What the current status of maid cafes in Akihabara is
- The tendency of trying to link anime and manga back to ukiyo-e woodblock prints from the Edo period
- The problematic idea that tentacles are a uniquely "Japanese" thing
- And much more!