OTAKU

The Otaku Encyclopedia 
Interview with Patrick W. Galbraith
Q. How does an American kid from Alaska end up in
Tokyo, writing his doctoral thesis on otaku culture
and giving weekend tours of Akihabara?
Obsession. My brothers had anime VHS tapes when I was a
kid in Alaska and it seemed really cool, especially because
it was in a language I did not understand at all! There was a
sort of magic and mystery to the world of anime, and the
Japan I imagined must lay behind it. As I entered the sixth
grade, my family moved to the mountains of Montana. I
had trouble adjusting. I was mooning over Sailor Moon
when other guys were talking about scoring a date. I cut
myself off from everyone and started working to earn the
money to feed my accelerating obsession with anime,
manga and videogames. I went to university to double major in Japanese and Journalism,
hoping to someday make it to the land of my dreams. I finally did in 2004, and had a rude
awakening. I arrogantly thought being able to read, write and speak Japanese that I would
finally be able to communicate. But I was every bit as uncool as before. I heard about
Akihabara, a place where otaku gather and spent a year exploring it and making friends
before returning briefly to the US. I moved to Japan in 2006 to pursue my studies of
otaku at the graduate level. I cofounded the Akihabara tour in 2007, published The Otaku
Encyclopedia in 2009 and am planning to finish my doctoral dissertation on otaku in
2011.
Q. You are an admitted Otaku. Briefly describe what that means to you.
I believe otaku are people who are extremely intense about their hobbies for an extended
period of time. For otaku, hobbies become intimately connected to who we are, what we
do and where we belong. The hobby becomes a way to negotiate meaning and navigate a
place in this world. Otaku are identity seekers and world builders in that they approach
media and material as a means to craft a self and space.
 See the rest here