Read the title? You have? Good, cause when I say "one tiny detail" I really do mean "one tiny detail".

 

I understand the video was posted a little more than a week ago. Please forgive me if I aren't up to date on the latest MLP stuff - a lot of the people I know won't take well if they found out I'm a brony so I'm having to kinda "stay in the closet" if you will.

 

If you haven't seen MangaKamen's video, well I'll have it here, though I will warn you.

 

SPOILER ALERT

 

The video does contain some content that discusses a little bit about a future episode of MLP that was apparently leaked. Now I don't think it's a big spoiler, but it is nonetheless a spoiler. If you want to go into this not knowing anything about it, I recommend you not watch the video.

 

I've even put it in three spoiler tags to make sure that someone doesn't accidentally click on the video and play it.

 

 

Now, for those of you who chose not to watch the video, you'll notice that MangaKamen used the word "otaku" several times, including in the title of the video. Many of you will be familiar with the word "otaku" as a word originating in the Japanese language, and you probably think it means "anime fan" as MangaKamen does.

 

I will acknowledge right now that in the west, that is what the word has come to mean. However, in Japanese that's not exactly true.

 

The Japanese word "otaku" actually is something like this:

オタク [otakɯᵝ] - Noun; Geek, nerd.

Sidenote, while I didn't copy-past that from a dictionary, I did use a website called jisho.org for reference. Also, that stuff in the brackets is IPA, you'll know what that is if you're in to linguistics but otherwise it doesn't matter.

 

Now, that is the literal definition of the word otaku, but that doesn't capture the full meaning of that word.

 

First off, in Japanese the word otaku is not just restricted to anime/manga fans. Anyone can be an otaku of anything. There are train otaku's, car otaku's, toy otaku's, computer otaku's, if there is something that people are a fan of chances are you can find an otaku of that.

 

Secondly, in Japanese the word otaku has a strong negative connotation. When you use it in Japanese, you don't use it to mean someone who is simply a fan of something, you are talking about someone who is obsessed with something. Usually obsessed with that something to the point where they won't leave their home (hence the dfact that it's derived from お宅 meaning "your home") or to an otherwise unusual degree.

 

There is a reason why when you ask the average Japanese person what their image of an Otaku is they'll usually shoot back with an image like this one: Click here if you're sure you want to see it.

 

Now, chances are this stereotype is blatantly false, but the point is that this is what many people in Japan think of when they hear the word "otaku".

 

I'm not going to say "stop using the word otaku in the wrong way", because first off that's none of my freaking business, and secondly when one language borrows a word form another language the meaning is usually tweaked a little bit.

 

That said, I will ask that if you actually made it through this massive wall of text you at least be aware of the original meaning of the word.

 

Made it past the wall of text? Congradulations! You get a muffin! Click the spoiler for it!