Anyone else hide their Otaku?

[Otaku Guy]

I used to hide it like 2 years ago, but thats when I cared what people thought.
Over time I started to care less and less but I'm not one of those people who just yell out their an otaku to strangers. I have manga/anime in my room and I tend to think like an otaku but I wont bring it up unless someone else does first.

[Olivia_688]

I have a good set of friends who have a bit of otaku-ish traits in them so I can be myself whenever im with them

[Kotohono]

I don't really advertise it [though majority of my friends are aware or watch it too], but I do go to anime club on campus, and have worn my Haruhi Suzumiya shirt a number of times to school as well, so I don't really hide it I suppose.

[tyranuus]

What can I say, it's smaller in the UK/Europe than in the US, and thus I tend to not mention it as there's a bit of stereotypical stigma attached to it, especially as the most common anime here is stuff like Pokemon and Naruto, which kinda skews perspective a bit.

As soon as you go into my room it's fairly obvious I have a level of interest in the stuff, as I've a shelf of DVDs and a Holo canvas (nice and arty) on my wall. When I first started looking at the stuff I found it quite embarrassing to even talk about because of the stigma, and less common aspect of it, but I'm becoming less so about it. Both my younger brother and one of my older friends have been watching it longer though which helped.

I will tend to stop/hide shows I'm watching if a family member walks in though, because I'm still a bit self conscious about it. I've since discovered a few coworkers who have a slight interest here as well (one of them is borrowing my Elfen Lied set as I write this), but all of us have felt the stereotype-based stigma at some point or another. Luckily in my case I tend to enjoy shows aimed at the older age group than the younger one, so this does make it a little easier to talk about once the subject is broached, because if I need to I can point out the age group the material is aimed at. Or in Elfen Lied's case just point out the amount of blood and misplaced heads in the first episode.

Needless to say, I'll probably become more open about it as I get older/stop caring, but it'll still probably not be something I mention unless I've known someone for a while, simply because there is a stigma, and the last thing you need is to give the wrong impression to people who don't know you well yet, especially when it comes to dating and the likes.

[Genten]

I never really hid my anime/manga love. When I first got into the stuff I gladly told anyone who was interested. I was really obsessed with it and brought manga with me everywhere. Whenever someone showed the slightest interest in the stuff I would look for manga that they might like. Generally I got them a little interested in it (or at least enjoyed the series) and I made a few friends this way. Unfortunately, my excitement scared away a lot of people.

Eventually I scaled back and came to the point where I am now. I still wear anime t-shirts/other merch, I carry manga around with me, and I am glad to share my interest with anyone who asks. However, I don't force manga and people and shout about my hobby from the rooftops. This way I can chat about anime/manga with people without them getting overwhelmend by my excitement. So I don't hide it, per se, but I don't advertise it either.

[RandySyler]

Originally Posted by Olivia_688

I have a good set of friends who have a bit of otaku-ish traits in them so I can be myself whenever im with them

Ain't you lucky

[Bri]

Originally Posted by tyranuus

What can I say, it's smaller in the UK/Europe than in the US, and thus I tend to not mention it as there's a bit of stereotypical stigma attached to it, especially as the most common anime here is stuff like Pokemon and Naruto, which kinda skews perspective a bit.

[...]

Needless to say, I'll probably become more open about it as I get older/stop caring, but it'll still probably not be something I mention unless I've known someone for a while, simply because there is a stigma, and the last thing you need is to give the wrong impression to people who don't know you well yet, especially when it comes to dating and the likes.

Yeah, that stigma in Europe is a pain and getting older doesn't change much. I have an advisory position in government and work for a university, but I would never consider discussing my anime hobby with colleagues. It's a pretty narrow-minded and competitive environment. A socially not-so-accepted hobby would only leave me wide open to office politics. When conversations do steer toward hobbies I try to avoid the topic and if pressed generally leave it at an interest in Japanese literature, music and cinema.

From my experience it starts with recruiters for business and government. Words like gaming, anime, comics, cosplay and a more then a general interest in sci-fi/fantasy are pretty lethal for employment chances over here. If they do by any chance pop up, your going to be spending quite some time trying to explain that your not some anti-social recluse... Maybe it's different for people with a background in arts or ICT, I don't know. I'm also quite careful with social media when it comes to my private life. I also keep my anime out of my home office, in a separate hobby room in the house.

My girlfriend off course knows and she uses our hobby room as well to stash her Transformers (don't ask) and fantasy collection. Good friends and parents also know. It's not that I care what people think about me but the disadvantages of being open about it are not worth the cost.

[tyranuus]

disadvantages of being open about it are not worth the cost

I completely feel your pain Bri, I only discovered my workmates with coinciding interests by sheer accident, not to mention, there's enough office politics going on already where I work without it getting even more competetive.

I've gamed, read fantasy/sci-fi etc since I was young, and enjoy rock and metal, so I'm pretty doomed, despite the fact that work have rang me out of hours several times and caught me round out/about with friends, they know I'm not a complete recluse. Despite knowing that side of me, and knowing it for over 10 years, one of my other old mates who's not into this stuff was still taken aback when I let him know, simply because all he knows is the stereotype. He's since warmed up to it, since I guess he believes what I've told him about the more adult nature of the hobby that isn't so well known, but it still hurt to get that initial reaction from someone I've known since I was 10.

Seriously though, its something I don't even go near in general terms on the CV, its not something they need, or want to know, and is one of the reasons despite my age I've put some decent years with several companies already (in the UK at least, most people below 23/24 haven't held down a fulltime/partime job with a single company for very long), to prove I'm not some no lifer who can't hold down a job.

For people in the US, it sounds like the average person has adapted a little more or is a little more familiar with anime and manga, even extending down to college/uni where you hear about anime clubs and the like...in general, the UK and Europe seem like a whole different ball game, as we don't see anywhere near the same level of the stuff.

[Garigari-kun]

Did some of you watch OreImo?

I have a bunch of friends that I force to watch some anime. And they starting to have some interest in Anime and Manga also. So, I can free to discuss about anime, manga, and game.

Anyway back to OreImo.

Spoiler for OreImo:

During the beginning of the episode Kirino overhears a group of otaku talking about some game. Kirino is genuinely interested but she can’t really bring herself to go talk. Her friend puts it bluntly by saying that stupid otaku should just shut up. Kirino consults her brother about the situation. She has no friends with the same hobby as her. Even though she wants someone to discuss her hobbies with she doesn’t want to make otaku friends. She doesn’t want to be associated with such people due to the various societal consequences. The world looks down on otaku so she can’t let people know.

I understand how it is for Kirino to not have any otaku friends. If you're really didn’t have anyone with whom you could truly express yourself. Just go in this forum and find some interesting people like you..

[Neat Hedgehog]

Well, I don't particularly care about what people think about me, so while I don't exactly flaunt it, I don't exactly change out the 1000+ image slide show on my laptop while I'm out in public, either, so people tend to catch on fast.

I figure the worst that will normally happen is that people will shun me for being a weirdo or a geek, both of which I am in earnest. Fortunately, I'm not particularly interested in people who aren't in some way geeky or weird themselves, so I wouldn't want to associate with them in the first place because they're generally quite boring.

Actually, come to think of it, the aforementioned backgrounds seemed to make me rather unpopular with my ethics class last semester. I'd hear some of the people talking behind my back about those "weird" or "creepy pictures that guy had on him computer." Don't really know why. All the images were perfectly SFW.

[starrysky77]

Oh, I tell everyone I know I'm an otaku!!

Most of my friends and even my family members love anime, manga and video games too! ^_^

[FireChick]

I'm EXTREMELY sensitive about people knowing about the otaku in me, mostly because I've had some bad experiences with it in the past. Now I only share my hobbies with people whom I'm very close to (and with people who already know about anime beforehand).

[tyranuus]

Originally Posted by Garigari-kun

Did some of you watch OreImo?

Yep, I've seen it, in some ways it parallels my own relationship with my younger brother. Not a great series, but it does highlight this whole stigma issue well, and pokes fun at it.

Genshiken I think did it better though

[IronWarrior]

Originally Posted by tyranuus

Yep, I've seen it, in some ways it parallels my own relationship with my younger brother. Not a great series, but it does highlight this whole stigma issue well, and pokes fun at it.

Genshiken I think did it better though

So you have a brother complex then?

It was a great series.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by IronWarrior

So you have a brother complex then?

It was a great series.

If it runs parallel then it's very likely that was what tyranuus was implying

[Vestus]

Never seen Orelmo, I'm interested in seeing it now since someone said that I reminded them of Kirino. =/

[tyranuus]

Originally Posted by IronWarrior

So you have a brother complex then?

It was a great series.

Um no

More as in at one point I had no interest in this subject at all, whilst my brother had a rather rampant habit, and there are similarities/parallels in the situation.
And sorry, I wouldn't class it as a great series. Reasonable one, but by no means great.

If you read my and vexx's posts in the ore no imouto reviews thread you'll see what I meant in a bit more detail

[Langknow]

I'm an otaku, but it doesn't consume my whole life... so I guess It comes up in conversation , and I don't really argue with ppl about it...

[felix]

Never seen Orelmo, I'm interested in seeing it now since someone said that I reminded them of Kirino. =/

Kirino is closet otaku basically. She likes sister-themed ero games or something like that. The series itself tries to be a comedy, though it's more of a drama...

Originally Posted by Vexx

I suppose this is sort of the region I operate in. I've always been 'eccentric' to most people: former NASA engineer, SCA member, shoulder-length hair, works out, goes to sci-fi conventions, goes to anime conventions, dresses up for Halloween but not for conventions, gamer, etc. I display my anime/figure/manga collection in the main party room of the house. The rest of the house has "things Japanese"... well, because my wife is Japanese-American and we *have* a lot of those things.

I do have a lot of t-shirts of anime/sci-fi/thinkgeekery ... but I tend to avoid wearing the ones with 'young schoolgirls' in the print because of the brains-filled-with-pedo witchburners (though I have a few, just don't feel comfortable wearing them, like a cute one with Kannagi and her two co-stars jumping... yeah, just not going to wear that near our national brand of idiot soccer moms).

I laughed and laughed...

[IronWarrior]

Originally Posted by Vexx

like a cute one with Kannagi and her two co-stars jumping... yeah, just not going to wear that near our national brand of idiot soccer moms).

You should wear one or something even worst for the lolz.