[JAPAN] Through Otaku Eyes / Otaku no longer equated with criminals

In a recent column by Fukuda Makoto for the Daily Yomiuri, Fukuda writes about the comparisons of the Miyazaki murders when media bashed on otaku versus the recent Akihabara slayings and how media handled that.

Fukuda wrote, “I was a high school student who loved anime and manga at the time of Miyazaki’s crimes, and the cruelty and abnormality of his acts is not the only thing I cannot forget about them. I also was struck by a storm of otaku-bashing following wide media coverage that emphasized that Miyazaki was an otaku who owned an enormous collection of anime and horror videotapes.”

“I well remember being annoyed by widespread and sensationalistic headlines that looked as if they were trying to identify the abnormality of his crimes and the causes of his acts only with the fact that he was an otaku. There were also calls to abolish “harmful comics,” and shops dealing with dojinshi self-published manga comic books, including some with sexual content geared for adults, became the targets of harsh criticism.”

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Tags: Fukuda Makoto, Through Otaku Eyes