This weekend I joined an Otaku demonstration, probably the first Otaku demo ever. It was in Akihabara were around 1.000 otakus joined the march against otaku discrimination. They claimed respect from traditional media that sometimes treats otakus people in general as “criminals” and also the “liberation of Akihabara and otaku emancipation”. Lately many big department stores are conquering Akihabara, little shops are disappearing, and with them the “authentic Akihabara spirit” is also being destroyed.
Danny Choo joined the demo as Stormtrooper, try to find him in the pictures:
Check Dannychoo’s entry for more pictures and videos. Ueda-san from Jabro.jp was also with me taking pictures all the time, check his point of view.
22 replies on “Otaku demonstration”
A very positive demo, but it’s still a little negative. You can’t fight the big enterprises buying the aura you’ve built around a town. Just sell it and move to Nakano Broadway.
Agree with Pepino… but I cannot avoid to be mesmerized by the main idea of a “demonstration” in Japan…
Japanese society always seems so lame to “demonstrate” what they care about… and then a group of social outcasts go and show their opinion!
Do they change anything? probably no, but in comparison to their countrymen (even in disguise) they seem to have guts!
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I find this demo quite ironic. Akihabara was never about otaku in the first place and all those anime related shops just started showing up about 10 years ago changing it from an electronics district to a otaku area. If they want to preserve the true Akiba they should get outta there themselves!!
Very cool pics, I especially love the darth vardar businessmen and the gaijin goku ^-^.
LOL Darth Vader businessmen. Proof that, no, you have not seen everything. Based on my perspective of the photos, it would seem fitting that Haruhi leads the march.
Who else but Haruhi could lead such insanity?
[…] This weekend, before the Otaku demonstration, I helped Dannychoo to make a new Stormtrooper video . This is the result: […]
[…] According to Hector who joined the demo… They claimed respect from traditional media that sometimes treats otakus people in general as “criminals” and also the “liberation of Akihabara and otaku emancipation”. Lately many big department stores are conquering Akihabara, little shops are disappearing, and with them the “authentic Akihabara spirit” is also being destroyed. […]
It is a nice blog.Thanks.
[…] I missed this one, on July 2nd 2007 1,000 Japanese Otakus (Japanese for ‘geek’ effectively) marched in support of their geekdom. The drive behind the march was to grab positive attention from national media which often depicts them as bums and hoodlums. Covered by kiranet.com. Lately many big department stores are conquering Akihabara, little shops are disappearing, and with them the “authentic Akihabara spirit” is also being destroyed. – kirainet.com/english/otaku-demonstration/ […]
[…] Yesterday the Japanese prime minister resigned. Abe will not be anymore the prime minister and will probably be substituted by Aso, a man who declares himself as a manga and anime fan. He reads around 10-20 weekly manga magazines, he did political speeches in Akihabara and he is a Rozen Maiden otaku. He likes so much Rozen Maiden that his nickname is “Rozen Aso”. […]
[…] Yesterday the Japanese prime minister resigned. Abe will not be anymore the prime minister and will probably be substituted by Aso, a man who declares himself as a manga and anime fan. He reads around 10-20 weekly manga magazines, he did political speeches in Akihabara and he is a Rozen Maiden otaku. He likes so much Rozen Maiden that his nickname is
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http://www.zeta.be/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2594
Wow, cool man, big thanks! http://ihnqbvhhts.com
LMAO. wow. just wow. geeks demanding respect….well I’m sure the media had a field day w/ this! Seriously, did they reall think this would prove something??
If this is going to be the face of Japan, then I guess Japan is doom. Seriously, personal indulgences and fetishes aren’t anything worthy of respect but in fact it will become major public concerns over the young falling to such pathetic habits like poor communication skills, lack of self-confidence, narrow-mindsets, inability to socialize around etc. In my opinion, I don’t see the need to take such personal fetishes or otakuism to extreme level as extremism always ruin an image of any movements. With animes these days full of fetishes elements like senseless violences, pedophile, necrophilia and homosexual which are virtually bane and not promoting values to the young, what these so-called otaku movement is no different than those islamists violent protest marches.
Spotted a hidden stormtrooper. The old man holding the stick with a camera on it. If you zoom into the screen of that camera you will see danny choo posing for a photo ;p
Being an Otaku is a blessing from above (^V^*)!
XP people see otakus to have bad communication skills… social inept and alot of other stuff… thing is otaku friends are the best ones to have. the friendship between otakus are awesome. If otakus are social outcast then how did someone organize this, get the people together … did he post something on the internet and hope that this LARGE number of people would just show up… i doubt it. and if this is japans tomorrow im glad. people who fight for what they believe for is a good thing in my opinion. people who stand by and let something they like be attacked are cowards and we dont need cowards in this world…