http://trueotaku.com/

True Otaku provides an overview of otaku fandom, then delves in-depth, profiling an award-winning cosplayer: Iris Venturino aka Dustbunny. The goal of the film is to explore, document, and celebrate the rich diversity of America's true otaku community.

At what point did cosplay become the barometer for fandom?

Everything I'm seeing about this film tells me that it's not a documentary of otakudom, but a documentary of one specific cosplayer. Seems pretty vain. Couldn't they find several hardcore anime fans that explore different aspects of the fandom? I think they missed the point completely.

Whatever happened to fan art, fan fiction, fan sites, fan parodies, doujinshi, models, figures, etc? Sure, cosplay is one of the more visible layers of anime fandom, but it's far from the end-all be-all.

I feel like I just wasted 15 minutes of my life.

The Eva Monkey wrote:http://trueotaku.com/


At what point did cosplay become the barometer for fandom?

It is still about true otaku. It's just that the focus is PURELY on COSPLAY otaku. Perhaps they should change the domain name to better reflect that.

It's not exactly news that documentaries are only a piece of reality.

Also, you could say the same about This is Otakudom or anything else. And, yeah, cosplayers are one of the most visible parts of the community. If you want to learn about the rest,

http://realotakuheroes.com/songs/songs.html

The Eva Monkey wrote:

True Otaku provides an overview of otaku fandom, then delves in-depth, profiling an award-winning cosplayer: Iris Venturino aka Dustbunny. The goal of the film is to explore, document, and celebrate the rich diversity of America's true otaku community.

As if watching all the fat narutards decked out in their gear board the light rail at Ashley's Station every August for Otakon isn't enough

symbv wrote:It is still about true otaku. It's just that the focus is PURELY on COSPLAY otaku. Perhaps they should change the domain name to better reflect that.

It almost comes off as insulting, like I don't think the actual meaning of otaku is something that should be aspired to. But if you assume that otaku is just being used to mean "fan", then the title is more like "True Fan". And to say that a true fan is someone who is really serious about cosplay comes off as somewhat insulting to me, because I have put thousands of hours and thousands of dollars into Evangelion and the greater anime fandom by volunteering in anime clubs and conventions. But I've never cosplayed. And I really don't give a shit about cosplay. That's not my thing. I appreciate the effort, and what it means to people, but I don't think it's a requisite for being a fan. Not to mention that of the people I know, the ones who I consider true otaku, none of them are cosplayers.

It almost comes off as insulting, like I don't think the actual meaning of otaku is something that should be aspired to. But if you assume that otaku is just being used to mean "fan", then the title is more like "True Fan". And to say that a true fan is someone who is really serious about cosplay comes off as somewhat insulting to me, because I have put thousands of hours and thousands of dollars into Evangelion and the greater anime fandom by volunteering in anime clubs and conventions. But I've never cosplayed. And I really don't give a shit about cosplay. That's not my thing. I appreciate the effort, and what it means to people, but I don't think it's a requisite for being a fan. Not to mention that of the people I know, the ones who I consider true otaku, none of them are cosplayers.

I have cosplayed, evamonkey has been to acen so he knows how awe inspiring my costume is, V is cowering under the couch wracked with jealousy at how much cooler my mask is then his!

The Eva Monkey wrote:I don't think the actual meaning of otaku is something that should be aspired to.

This. This. THIS.

The Eva Monkey wrote:"True Fan".

Here is the real problem with the video and the ideology behind it. Then entire idea that you have to follow a series of set guidelines, beyond enjoying the work, to be a "real" fan of something is ludicrous. Especially with so many different forms of fandom.

If it were me, I would have followed several people to get a broader look at the fandom. I would probably follow someone from cosplay or masquerade, a panelist, someone in the artist alley, maybe a staffer, maybe someone in the AMV competition... not just one person. There's a lot more to it than that.

As it stands, I question the selection of this one cosplayer. Something about it strikes me as vain, like the cosplayer it focuses on is someone's friend or girlfriend or something.

Yeah, why only one girl? Unless this is a vanity piece of work, and I'm sure that the only people who'll like it are the vain, while the outsiders would more likely to ridicule it completely.

Cosplay is but only a part of the scene, because within the fandom there's indeed different types of fans.

Hey... Has this "pseudo-documentary" remind me of a similar, earlier docu, except that it's focused on Trekkies?

I wanna laugh at this scheme; it's a work that sounds too naive for me.

Tarnsman wrote:Here is the real problem with the video and the ideology behind it. Then entire idea that you have to follow a series of set guidelines, beyond enjoying the work, to be a "real" fan of something is ludicrous. Especially with so many different forms of fandom.

What I find more ironic is that America's concept of "otaku" has always struck me as quite a bit different from Japan's. Distilling the concept down to a documentary about another cosplayer seems to widen that gap even more. Cosplaying isn't fundamentally about garnering attention for oneself anyway, yet these videos treat it like an amateur shoot-off of modeling.

If nothing else, this is an interesting example of the US demographic devouring and mutating alien trends & concepts in a way about as bizarre as the Japanese have done with our shit.

Merridian wrote:America's concept of "otaku" has always struck me as quite a bit different from Japan's.

That's because it is. As a whole it's pretty derogatory to be called an otaku, there still are many who are proud of it, and are trying to remove the negative connotation from the term. The reason the term got so warped in America is probably because people would see the stereotypical otaku portrayed in anime and just assumed otaku meant anime/manga fan. Instead of, rabidly obsessed fan of X. Where X could literally be anything.

Symbv is actually correct. If we go by the Japanese application of the term, it is about otaku, cosplay otaku. Why Eva Monkey has a legit reason to be agitated by it, is the website clearly points out that its definition of otaku, is simply a fan of Japanese culture, i.e. the Americanized application of the term. So it is saying, "true" fans of anime are cosplayers, which is flat out stupid.

I think it's time for a rousing chorus of that old filk favourite -- "The press never listen to trufans!"

Tarnsman wrote:So it is saying, "true" fans of anime are cosplayers, which is flat out stupid.

This.

I really wish this documentary had a better foundation and focus, because it looks like the filmmaker went to the same art program at UMBC that I did.

Remember World´s Biggest Otaku?
That was a disaster.

InstrumentalityOne wrote:Remember World´s Biggest Otaku?
That was a disaster.

I read the winning entry. Not very impressed.

Ron Ferrara doesn't have shit on wah. wah is the biggest otaku/weeabo I know. So much so that there was a moment on Sunday at Otakon last year when I was talking to some people in the dealer's hall, and I was relating something about wah being a huge weeabo (without using his name) and one of the guys squinted his eyes at me, and asked very plainly "Are you talking about wah?" to which I responded something like "YES! YOU KNOW!".

I would suggest having a "World's Biggest Eva Otaku" contest, but that could get awkward with eligibility.

I don't think there would be too much awkwardness. God knows all the people who collect figurine collections, body pillows, and import boxes of H-doujin straight from Japan are probably NEET's who are too afraid to appear in front of a camera, regardless of how small an audience it's for. Worst case scenario, you'd have your Naruto cosplayers tying to fight your hand/vagina enthusiastsEvangelion fans in the final round.

I read the winning entry. Not very impressed.

Alright, you got me curious, who is this guy? I took a look to see if there's any info about this person but didn't see much. Got a link to something explaining why they chose this guy?

Give this a whirl:

http://web.archive.org/web/200108300235 ... taku1.html

The Eva Monkey wrote:It almost comes off as insulting, like I don't think the actual meaning of otaku is something that should be aspired to. But if you assume that otaku is just being used to mean "fan", then the title is more like "True Fan". And to say that a true fan is someone who is really serious about cosplay comes off as somewhat insulting to me, because I have put thousands of hours and thousands of dollars into Evangelion and the greater anime fandom by volunteering in anime clubs and conventions. But I've never cosplayed. And I really don't give a shit about cosplay. That's not my thing. I appreciate the effort, and what it means to people, but I don't think it's a requisite for being a fan. Not to mention that of the people I know, the ones who I consider true otaku, none of them are cosplayers.

Why do you think I was being insulting?? I only meant to say that there are a lot of types of otaku. And I suggest that they calling themselves as "true otaku" is very misleading but if they call themselves as "true cosplay otaku" then it would be appropriate. I said nothing about what you wrote or speculated over what you had in mind. WHY DO YOU THINK I WAS BEING INSULTING???? Seems you are just attacking your own strawman projected onto me.

And I never said that otaku just means fan. I don't know what got you that idea.

symbv wrote:Why do you think I was being insulting?? I only meant to say that there are a lot of types of otaku. And I suggest that they calling themselves as "true otaku" is very misleading but if they call themselves as "true cosplay otaku" then it would be appropriate. I said nothing about what you wrote or speculated over what you had in mind. WHY DO YOU THINK I WAS BEING INSULTING???? Seems you are just attacking your own strawman projected onto me.

And I never said that otaku just means fan. I don't know what got you that idea.

I was referring to the documentary, not you. I was just in agreement with your comments about it being about cosplay otaku, and was using that as a stepping stone.

I was saying that the documentary saying that a TRUE ANIME FAN is one who is a cosplayer is kind of insulting.