http://mahoro.levtex.net/mahoro4.swf
http://yoga.at.infoseek.co.jp/flash/kimishine_plus.htm
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Brown-dyed hair as a metaphor
Hair dying becomes popular in Japan in the 90’s. Although the fashion called for unusual shades of brown, many people followed it. Strong shades of brown or red, however, become associated with fashion extremes and the term “Yankee” was coined to refer to those donning them.
At the beginning of the economic ‘bubble burst’ the hair-dying trend spread to all ages and all groups. The popular and a little eccentric movie director Takeshi Kitano adopted this fashion in its movie “Zatouichi’ by having a male blond star performer. Today, Mr. Kitano himself can be seen in TV sporting dyed hair.
Although unusual for a traditionally somber and elegant society, this fashion cannot, in itself, be associated with the popularization of deviance. Colored hair appears to have been introduced in the Japanese culture following the popularity of many characters developed by the animation industry. This prototypical Japanese industry is generally seen as responsible for the creation of post-war new esthetic values. Humanoid anime often sported wild green, blue or pink hair, a gambit of colors sometime taken up even by actors in TV performances. Anime, of course, introduced brown hair, the color that gradually becomes fashionable in the land of black hair. It must be noted that the models of physical beauty proposed by anime characters induced even skin deep alterations of the physical appearances of Japanese, cosmetic surgery flourished in the 90’s to allow the most daring form of enhancement or modifications.
Kojin Karatani, a literary critic, addresses it in his “ Architecture as a Metaphor” as follows: “The changes observed in literature and many other arts in the 20th century, for example, abstraction, dodecaphonic music, etc., can be related to the evolution that occurred in the fields of physics, mathematics, even logic, more than to an interrelations of the changes in the arts alone. This change is generally called ‘formalization’.. . It is a characteristic of formalization that the arts and knowledge have begun to shape an autonomous world by estrangement（or independence） from nature, reality and experience.”
In other words, the new models of physical beauty have become estranged from the traditional Japanese reality in favor of the ‘fantastic’ created by the world of animation.
I list here four examples of the embodiment of this new esthetic (an important reference is the date of birth of the individuals, as well the fact that Gackt is a male performer).
》Aya Matuura（born in 1986, named “Ayaya”.）
》Maki Goto（born in 1985, named “Gomaki”.）
》Yuko Ogura（born in 1983, named “Yuko-rin”.）
》Gackt（Age is unlisted）
Today, in particular in the world of entertainment, cosmetic surgery and make up strongly reference the esthetic creations of the anime world, as it can be seen in the the site
. In addition to the entertainment world, the Japanese land of toys (referenced here in a rather broad sense) produces three-dimensional figures of anime heroines and heroes. For example HP of Kaiyo-Do is a major production company of figure dolｌ.
.
The evolution of the Otaku culture.
The word “otaku”derives from “your home” and “nerd, geek”and is a term that in this context is basically untranslatable. It best identifies a very peculiar Japanese subculture based on the obsession with the “fantastic”primarily developed and associated with fictional anime characters. This “unreal” world is an autonomous space where mostly young people feel comfortably cocooned in. These personal spaces are interrelated and a strong cultural exchange takes place and gives rise to an esthetic evolution so remarkable that the 2004 Venice Art Biennale
introduced it to the official art world.
One of the main elements of the otaku world is the collection of objects based on idiosyncratic taxonomies. In many cases this characteristic reached obsessive proportions, thus giving the culture an aura of social estrangement.
Within the broad Japanese system, the word itself became popular following the 1989 multiple murder of little girls by Tsutomu Miyazaki, a reclusive psychopath that collected a large amount of animation videotapes. The media speculated that this apparent obsession could have been at the root of his murderous behavior. Miyazaki had been labeled an“otaku”, thus giving the term a strongly negative initial connotation.
》Tsutomu Miyazaki’s room （This hotograph is unrelated to this text.）
The electronic revolution of the 90’s (starting with the introduction of Windows 95) saw a further development in the otaku culture. The “circulation” of information and group interaction in cyberspace enhanced the world of the fantastic with the introduction of videogames and the popularization of animation characters. A gradual shift from ‘collection’ to’circulation’ was taking place in the otaku world.
The art system (museums and institutions).
The 20th century western art world has been characterized by the expansion of contemporary art museums and the emergence of collecting investors.
Great 20th century artists like Pablo Picasso in the visual arts and Igor Stravinsky in music, believed that their production was essentially manual labor raised to the level of art by a process of creativity based on western art concepts. Their art was just a commodity available to the educated bourgeoisie.
Other great artists, like Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, gradually introduced “anti-art” concepts that challenged the old aesthetic notions of artistic production. A new aesthetic sensibility addressed the exchange of intent and response associated with the creative process. This perspective had resonance in Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis, where the relation of a patient and its therapist gained a new status. However, the various declarations that ‘art is dead’ ultimately only reinforced the notion that the art object is indeed a commodity, even if it is a cultural entity. The artifact did not succeed in transcending the notion of ‘authorship’and the art collections kept growing at a faster pace.
Otaku’s city space.
As the cultural otaku space defined itself via communication, a language developed to uniquely identify its characteristics. One of the key new words introduced was “moe”, an attribute that identifies “sexual attraction based on charm”(for example describing a cute girl in an anime). ‘Ayaya”, the women in the first image listed in part 1, would be described as “moe”. On the opposite scale of value, “kimoi” and “uzai” were new words introduced to address the particularly distasteful.
Another important aspect of the otaku culture is the “creation” of a physical space that ultimately has no substantive presence but that it has, nevertheless, a recognized presence in the cityscape.
This is a very important aspect that appears to be often misunderstood even by people sensitive to cultural matters. The presentation at the Venice Biennale of an installation composed of figures, animation images and dolls neatly arranged in rooms could not have been further from the reality of the otaku world. It represented a ‘folly’not unlike the recording of some of John Cage music. A computer with a monitor set up somewhere in Venice could have been a far more appropriate way to enable an investigation of the otaku world.
The creative and aesthetic elements of the otaku world deserve a deep scrutiny because within that space the interrelation of the creator and the viewer is transcending the object; it makes ‘authorship’ irrelevant because a response is not the purpose of the creation but an accessory to its definition.
In other words, the otaku world seems to have achieved what Duchamp and Cage merely attempted. The famous Kobo Abe, in “Woman of the dunes”
, to propose a concept of simulated irrationality, set the beginning of the mediocre life of its main character in the landscaped nothingness of the dunes. The otaku has invalidated the need for simulation by formally creating communication in a vacuum.
Another great Japanese artist, Shuji Terayama, experimented with ‘city plays’
, a type fantastic performances, based on a satire of daily life, within the civic life itself. Those seminal performances remained experimental works, the otaku culture, however, succeeded in establishing a fantastic social space inside the normal civic space, a cyberspace accessible to all who wish to enter it.
OTAKU and the body.
Earlier on I referenced homepages of animation pictures and of dolls of beautiful girls.
Kojin Karatani has said that for an otaku, bodies are “the forms representing an autonomous world estranged from nature, reality and experience". Often the body, particularly that of female characters, have exaggerated sexual attributes and even abnormal ones, the link of such representations with reality is tenuous at best. This aspect can evolve to reach surprising formalization, as seen in the set of photos of dressed life-size dolls.
Since the three-dimensional representations are based on animations characters, the prominent elements of the anime form the key elements of the plastic entities. And, as to be expected, the costume play “cos ple”is the current last step of the otaku ephemeral creations. Special gathering are organized for the parading of sophisticated and fantastic costumes and, at times, the same costume-clad individuals can be seen intermingled with the city crowd in a live, improvised, performance act.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the ‘cos ple’ is the prevalence of transgender characters
. The role-reversal costumes are by no mean intended to point to a sexual deviation, they are merely utilized to enhance the element of the ‘fantastic’ embodied in the ‘cos ple’ process.
Akihabara, the central Tokyo ‘electronic city’, offers an important scenario to the otaku culture. Street musicians and entertainers, known only locally because they refuse to perform on media stages, perform to adoring crowds and are called “Akiba-kei- idols”（.wmｖ）
.
Entertainment production companies often plan their activities on the street of Akihabara and the performances are characterized by the use of extravagant costumes dear to anime fans. The relationship of the Akiba-kei-idols and otaku cos-ple players is, not surprisingly, tightly intertwined.
》Akihabara 1 （These photographs ware composed, are unrelated to this text.）
Cultural perception
The images provided in this text may help form an understanding of a complex otaku phenomenon but, in general, its perception by the Japanese public is less than positive. Rather derogatory terms are often used to define its members, like “wota” “kimowota（It meens kimoi-otaku）”
. Many of these very negative attributes were created to expressly address otaku individuals and character.
This is particularly interesting because the social group being criticized is, at its core, vibrant and culturally extroverted, while a large portion of the general public is rather disillusioned and dissatisfied on account of current social and economic stresses. The strongest point of differentiation between the otaku and the rest of Japanese society is likely associated with the value that sexuality has obtained in the new subculture.
While otaku members randomly group and disperse (only to re-group somewhere else), in a seemingly fluid and completely free form of association, the rest of society has to strive to create and maintain social relations.
The forceful need to establish contacts has pushed the incredible evolution of ‘electronic pals’, the “mel-friends”(from e-mail, the vehicle of choice). Friendship develops via the electronic media, dating may ensue, many life relationship are created, all uncharacteristically outside the traditional means of social intercourse. The new virtual milieu is also replacing other traditional social spheres, leading to the proliferation of "deai-kei sites", sites set up to facilitate friendship but turning into springboards for extramarital affairs and prostitution (of any type).
It can be said that the general public is indeed struggling to operate with the serenity that it came to expect at the time of its struggle to create the Japanese economic miracle. A sense of bitterness and resentment is today perceivable in the broad social arena, feelings that likely are at the base of negativity toward the otaku.
Although the word ‘otaku’can express a sense of estrangement from the social“otherness”, it is the engagement in new practices of participation and communication that ultimately becomes its most distinctive characteristic a presage of a brighter future.
