Still uncertain of how to ask Galbraith to unpack more of his wealth of otaku lore, I confessed that I knew very little about anime and manga with the exception of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a seven-volume manga series created by the renowned Miyazaki Hayao and made into an animated film in 1984. As it so happens, Galbraith saw the original video as a young lad in Anchorage and was immediately hooked, and we bonded over being forever drawn to the bugs in the movie. He said by the time his family moved to Montana, he was deep into anime--Sailor Moon was his passion rather than girls or sports.
His enthusiasm is compelling, and it's easy to get caught up in his delight and fascination. Background and facts spill out in a rush. For instance, it was difficult to make movies in post-war Japan, but paper was cheap, so creativity and energy went into producing anime and manga, which dealt with adult themes like life and death, xenophobia, racism, politics. The student unrest in the '60s started in anime and manga. Otaku appeared in the late 1990s, with costumes, consumption of much media material and community orientation.
The difference between U.S. comics and manga, as Galbraith sees it: In the U.S. the characters are owned by a company, and many creators work on the stories and art. In Japan, the creator has 100% control over his creation. There is a clear story, a singular image, one vision. This artisanal approach results in a more interesting story, with characters that change over time. He says there is nothing comparable to manga's intensity, range and duration.
The Otaku Encyclopedia is obviously a treasure trove and necessary for anyone who is interested in anime and manga, but it also has much to offer anyone interested in Japanese history, society or linguistics. For instance, turn to the word "yankii," which means "bad adolescent." The word was used after World War II to describe Japanese youth who mimicked fashions and hairstyles of American youth. It re-emerged in the late '70s and early '80s when disenfranchised youth started strutting around wearing aloha shirts and baggy pants. Or the word "Goth-loli," a conflation of "Gothic" and "Lolita." It's a Japanese fashion influenced by Victorian-era children's clothes, aristocrats or porcelain dolls, and variations from the dark esthetic to the softer are myriad.
Otaku and its place in Japanese society are reflected in two common phrases. First, "Otaku gari": "Otaku hunting. The practice of finding otaku and hunting them. People target otaku for three reasons: 1) otaku have money to spare to fund shopping sprees, 2) they are considered weak and won't fight back, and 3) they are too shy to tell the police and are unpopular with authority anyway." Following that, "Otaku gar gari": "Hunting otaku hunters. Dressing like an otaku and beating the snot out of would-be predators."
There are some dark aspects to otaku, Galbraith says, but "on the whole it's a happy, bright, colorful culture" and a world that is coming up around us. With The Otaku Encyclopedia, you will at least have a clue about those waitress costumes, yaoi and glomping, and won't be a hetare.--Marilyn Dahl