Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

[ArrowSmith]

I wonder if Hirotaka is in a sense rebelling against the idea of fitting into the traditional 'slot' for him. Like:

- marrying someone and having the requisite 2 children by the time you're 30
- working as an overworked salaryman
- dead at 50 due to job stress and a wife who really hated you the whole time
- children who couldn't care less about you

Hirotaka perhaps observes this happening around him to his father's generation and decided - no not me. Opting out of a 'raw deal'.

[Norn]

Originally Posted by ArrowSmith

I think it's a real condemnation of the Japanese education system. No doubt Hirotaka studied a lot of subjects at school like history, literature, mathematics. But nothing appealed to him but games.

Huh, how is that a condemnation of education system? Also why does Hirotaka even need to speak of the subjects he studied at school? I fail to see how that connects to him being a game otaku.

Originally Posted by ArrowSmith

I wonder if Hirotaka is in a sense rebelling against the idea of fitting into the traditional 'slot' for him. Like:

- marrying someone and having the requisite 2 children by the time you're 30
- working as an overworked salaryman
- dead at 50 due to job stress and a wife who really hated you the whole time
- children who couldn't care less about you

Hirotaka perhaps observes this happening around him to his father's generation and decided - no not me. Opting out of a 'raw deal'.

I mean, Hirotaka seems to be working fulltime. Doesn't that make him a salaryman? Also, he's actively working on his relationship with Narumi, who knows what the future will give him?

Nothing we've seen from Hirotaka suggests that he's "rebelling against the system".

[Kanon]

I think Hirotaka is just a guy who really loves video games. And there's nothing wrong with him indulging himself in his hobby. He's still a functioning member of society, who even seems damn good at his job too.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I think Hirotaka is just a guy who really loves video games. And there's nothing wrong with him indulging himself in his hobby. He's still a functioning member of society, who even seems damn good at his job too.

ITA with this.

One of the points of this story, I think, is that being interested in stuff like games or doujins isn't a character flaw, and it's not a sign that you're stuck in childhood. The problem is, being an adult is really hard - and for reasons that have nothing to do with your hobbies. It just is.

It's largely a Western myth that the declining marriage and birth rates in Japan are driven by the otaku complex - total BS, really. Otaku represent a tiny percentage of the overall population of adults of child-bearing years, but the situation is systematic and nationwide. There are many theoretical causes (the "lost decades" being the most important), but otaku are at most only slightly less than irrelevant to the issue.

[Blueknight78]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

ITA with this.

One of the points of this story, I think, is that being interested in stuff like games or doujins isn't a character flaw, and it's not a sign that you're stuck in childhood. The problem is, being an adult is really hard - and for reasons that have nothing to do with your hobbies. It just is.

It's largely a Western myth that the declining marriage and birth rates in Japan are driven by the otaku complex - total BS, really. Otaku represent a tiny percentage of the overall population of adults of child-bearing years, but the situation is systematic and nationwide. There are many theoretical causes (the "lost decades" being the most important), but otaku are at most only slightly less than irrelevant to the issue.

yeah, the most commong problem for what i keep seeying in lot of interviews and polls is the "high demanding taxes in the country, most of the peoples complain which have a family is "too expensive" and demanding, not just money but also like you must "almost double" your workforce to be able to take care of your family, also the "workaholic japanese nature also work a lot since it lead to the coupe having "little time to have babies and be present in family, overal the problem is the general problem of east asian which is high demanding society leading to peoples frustrated with they lifes. leading to the young generation don't want to have that same burden of being a crap parent.

japaneses in general they really don't work to live but they "live to work".

But for what i read things are "changing a little and at last at work many companies are finally acknowledge which they "slavery" work is not really "good as they believe" since they where "loosing workforce in speed of light(suicides and part time jobs), then for what i read and saw many companies now are trying to "re-educate they workers to be less workaholics and "forcing them go home early" instead of stay at work aslong as possible, but still a long way to improve, also another big issue which they must work is the school bullying which still accounting for a lot of deaths at young age, specially in middle school which for what i saw is the pinnacle of the "bullying" at school.

[ArrowSmith]

I looked it up. There are 1 million full time otaku in Japan. So not quite the crisis I thought.

Originally Posted by Blueknight78

But for what i read things are "changing a little and at last at work many companies are finally acknowledge which they "slavery" work is not really "good as they believe" since they where "loosing workforce in speed of light(suicides and part time jobs), then for what i read and saw many companies now are trying to "re-educate they workers to be less workaholics and "forcing them go home early" instead of stay at work aslong as possible, but still a long way to improve, also another big issue which they must work is the school bullying which still accounting for a lot of deaths at young age, specially in middle school which for what i saw is the pinnacle of the "bullying" at school.

Nonsense. Modern capitalism as it's practiced means you wring every last drop of life force from your employee and dispose of them. Very few companies truly look after their employees.

[Blueknight78]

Originally Posted by ArrowSmith

Nonsense. Modern capitalism as it's practiced means you wring every last drop of life force from your employee and dispose of them. Very few companies truly look after their employees.

Only when you have enough "spare employeers to recruit" and that is the problem, the "ammount of young peoples" at they disposal to hire is in fast decline, due to again low birth rates and suicides and also due to many japaneses choosing to work on "part time jobs" in order to have "more time to themselfs" it's leading to the country have to go strong in immigrations, specially from china and south korean", them that is why they are getting desperated because they found out which if they keep just sucking the "whole life" of they employers soon they will find themselfs without anyone to replace the dead peoples, this is why they are seeying themselfs "forced" to be more "human" it's not because they are good peoples" but because is "do that and have a future" and not do that and close the doors due to lack of human force.
this video can help about the work issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTROE-Fbls&t=

ps: he had sources in the description about what he is talking, just ignore the part where he talk about "his bad english" he point 2 japaneses issues which at last one is reflected in this anime and basically every anime which is the "lack of communication" between peoples, which happen a lot in animes specially with tsunderes.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by ArrowSmith

I think it's a real condemnation of the Japanese education system. No doubt Hirotaka studied a lot of subjects at school like history, literature, mathematics. But nothing appealed to him but games.

These things are absolutely unrelated. The job of an education system is not to grow hobbies in a person, but to - drumroll - educate them and prepare them to be a productive member of society. And despite what you may think, Hirotaka is a productive member of society. So the education system has done its job. You are really stretching for things here.

[Anh_Minh]

Adult conversations are full of teenage hobbies anyway. (Sports, TV sitcoms and dramas... The odd man out would be politics, I guess, which indeed isn't much a teenage thing.) And pretty empty of school stuff, unless they're teachers.

Otaku teenage hobbies just happen to be singled out.

[ArrowSmith]

Of course the flaming hypocrisy of criticizing a fictional anime character on an anime site. The irony is not lost on me.

[Kanon]

The focus was on Nao this week. He really sucks at games, but he's found a good partner. I'd like to see Kou introduced to the rest of the gang (you just know Hana and Narumi are going to misunderstand), but with only one episode remaining, I doubt that's going to happen.

[Marcus H.]

Talk about bad timing: Kou was introduced at the second-to-the-last episode. Now she has to compete with the two couples for screentime next week which is the series finale.

[Ulin]

And here I was sure that Kou was never going to appear because of lack of screentime...

[ID555]

Ohh I was quite looking forward to Kou's appearance. I like the voice they picked.

[ArrowSmith]

So Kou is a trap?

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by ArrowSmith

So Kou is a trap?

Reverse trap.

[nojay]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Reverse trap.

Not really, there's no intention by Kou to deceive anyone into thinking they're male. She's just a slob with low self-esteem and crippling shyness. I'd call her a tomboy but she's very unassertive and that's not very tomboyish behaviour. She'd probably tell Nao she's actually a girl if she realised he didn't already know and if she wasn't apologizing for everything all the time.

Most "reverse traps" in anime and manga aren't really trying to present as male unlike the more common representations of male traps who wear female clothing -- it's one of the features of social signalling that girls and women can wear overtly masculine clothing without censure or criticism whereas the other way round attracts attention. It's less problematic than it used to be though, at least for adults.

[ArrowSmith]

I guess it helps that Kou does have a particular feminine body. Easier to hide when you're androgynous.

[nojay]

Originally Posted by ArrowSmith

I guess it helps that Kou does have a particular feminine body. Easier to hide when you're androgynous.

I suspect that the manga writer could make Kou look quite sweet if it was thought to be necessary for the plot. See, for example, the tall tomboyish character Akari in the manga Otonari Complex who "cleans up nicely" when given the opportunity (or is forced to by her Evil Sister).

It's fun to watch Kou and Nao engage with each other and I hope their story gets more development in the manga going forward.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Simple but satisfying episode.