I think probably the first point is this:
Japanese "Anime Otaku" are a
subset of the customer base, defined mostly by their strong devotion to this particular hobby. (For the sake of this discussion, we'll say primarily their financial devotion, because that's the biggest relevant impact.)
Forgive my lazy chart:
( Fringe Customers ( Regular Customers ( Core Customers/"Otaku" ) ) )
(Think of this as concentric circles.)
When you have an anime that sells in the 10s of thousands of copies, it's not usually just because you've appealed to the "Otaku" base, it's because the show expands beyond that core group. Because, just like we see on this very forum, there are a lot of "casual anime viewers" who watch shows with supposed "otaku themes", but don't usually buy.
If your "Otaku" customer buys, let's say, 12-15 anime series a year on Blu-Ray. Your "Regular Customers" may buy 2 or 3. Your "Fringe Customers" may only buy one series in a blue moon when it's a
really important show to them. And that's what you see with something like a Madoka, or a Haruhi, or a Bakemonogatari. These are shows that get people who
aren't even "otaku" (people who aren't already core customers) to buy them. Heck, I know a lot of people on this Forum and others who imported those shows even though they rarely import anything else.
There may be an overlap of the interests of the "otaku fans" but there doesn't have to be. There's nothing really defining them as a group other than "they like a lot of anime". You put three "anime otaku" in a room (by that definition alone), and they'll probably argue bitterly about what anime are good or bad, even if there may be a few shows that they've all watched because they're considered almost "required viewing". They're really no different than any other group of anime fan, except for the amount invested in the hobby. This can no doubt be a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle (their interest is maintained by having shows that regularly appeal to their tastes), but every serious "otaku" has bought their share of unpopular shows that appeal to them but not broadly even among the hardcore base.
People often blame elements they don't like in shows on "otaku-pandering". But really, it's just about the "other-audience-who-isn't-me". You'll see people dismiss a popular show that has lots of "element X" (let's say fanservice), but then there's another show that
also has "element X" that doesn't sell well at all. So contrary to the barbs often thrown, the "otaku audience" doesn't just buy anything and everything that has certain elements with no discrimination or sense of taste, and increasing that "element X" isn't necessarily going to increase the show's marketability "to otaku". It's just that different people have different tastes, and when those tastes happen to coincide with a show that appeals broadly, you have a hit. And when you have people whose tastes don't coincide with that popular trend, you have bitterness seeking to find someone or something to blame.
At the end of the day, I think the only reason people treat "otaku" differently than "hardcore gamers" (or any other group of core fandom) is because there's an unfriendly image/stereotype perpetuated in the media of basically loser NEETs sitting in their parents' basements doing nothing but watching anime all day. It's always easy to pick on the anti-social losers. But these people are not your core customers because they have no money. The core customers are going to typically be singles in their 20s and 30s with good-paying jobs, no large financial responsibilities, and enough money to spare to spend generously. So when people do the sort of stereotypical "blame the otaku" thing, it's really just "blame the industry's best customers". That serves their interests ("it's *their* fault I'm not more satisfied"), but it should be completely obvious why the industry isn't going to do that.
Should also say that there isn't necessarily a huge overlap between the people you hear doing the "big talking" on message boards and the ones who often buy. The people who can afford to buy presumably have to work. So you also have this other group of people who are "otaku" on forums (they live and breathe anime discussion all day), but aren't actually part of the "core customers". There is no doubt a group of core customers who don't make their presence known on message boards and just continue to buy what interests them. That all may further tilt the impression people have.
At the end of the day, I totally agree with this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Midonin
On some level, these niches probably do exist - the anime fandom is a wide and varied collection of subfandoms begrudgingly working together. But even those niches are more varied than surface impressions might give, and I think, out of a story, we're all looking for the same resonance in the end.
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Wide-brushed stereotypes can't possibly capture the subtleties of each person's individual tastes, and even when tastes appear to overlap, you don't even know how much of this is due to "otaku" and how much of this is due to going beyond the "otaku walls". Anime can appeal to anyone who might watch and, when people put aside the labels, can often appeal to anyone regardless of whether they'd consider themselves "otaku" or not. It seems to me that the labels are just a crutch people use to hold on to their bitterness and explain why things either a) aren't as good as they used to be, or b) aren't as good as they think they should be, mostly because they themselves aren't happy that other people are apparently being "catered to" and not them.