How to spot an otaku and an otakette
Sillyness will be a day early this week, due to a more appropriate post due on Sunday and Monday! Here’s a great ranking survey from goo Ranking, one arm of the best online polling organisation in Japan, on what appearance makes a man appear like an otaku, and what makes a woman look like a otaku.
Demographics
Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample was female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score reported is the relative number of votes each choice got, not the percentage of the sample that chose each option.
Particularly for the male answers, otaku has strong connotations of being an anime or manga freak, rather than the slightly more generic use of someone who’s heavily into any hobby, judging by the answers below!
Ranking results
Q1: What characteristic in males makes you feel he looks like an otaku? (Sample size=1,101)
Rank Feature Score 1 Anime print T shirt 100 2 Anime print paper bag 92.5 3 Bum bag/fanny pack 77.4 4 Wearing a bandana around the head in a hachimaki style 77.1 5 Bag plastered with anime-related patches, stickers 74.0 6 Unnecessarily long hair 69.0 7 Rucksack hung off one shoulder 66.0 8 Big thick glasses 58.7 9 Shirt, T shirt tucked into trousers 57.0 10 Acid wash jeans 50.6 11 Slightly high-waist trousers 49.8 12 Vest jacket with lots of pockets 38.8 13 Lots of straps on mobile phone 36.5 14 Military, camouflage print clothes 35.3 15 White socks 29.0 16 Fingerless gloves 26.9 17 Double-pleated chinos 23.4 18 I *heart mark* something T shirt 21.2 19 Unshaven face 20.6 20 Techno-cut (eh?) sideburns 20.6 21 Blue checked shirt 19.7 22 Sleeveless T shirts 18.9 23 Tank top 18.1 24 Top wrapped round waist 17.2 25 High-tech shoes 16.4 26 Clothes with detailed English text all over 12.6 27 Cross pendant, choker 12.4 28 Duffle coat 11.8 29 Messenger bag 11.6 30 White, off-white trousers 10.6 Q2: What characteristic in females makes you feel she looks like an otaku? (Sample size=1,101)
Rank Feature Score 1 Anime print paper bag 100 2 Anime print T shirt 83.9 3 Gothic-lolita fashion 73.9 4 Bag plastered with anime-related patches, stickers 73.6 5 Big thick glasses 67.3 6 Messy hair, braided hair 63.4 7 Excessively long skirt 48.8 8 Pink or green hair 44.2 9 Huge black leather boots 43.1 10 Excessively long fringe 42.9 11 Bum bag/fanny pack 41.4 12 Shirt, T shirt tucked into trousers 36.4 13 Acid wash jeans 34.0 14 Rucksack hung off one shoulder 29.2 15 Lots of straps on mobile phone 28.5 16 Big cart 26.8 17 Cross pendant, choker 25.9 18 Cullotte-style skirt 25.7 19 Military, camouflage print clothes 25.1 20 Katchusha hair band 23.3 21 Walking the streets with no make-up 23.1 22 I *heart mark* something T shirt 2.4 23 Clothes with cross design print 22.0 24 Loud clothes 20.0 25 Over-knee socks 19.2 26 Sunglasses on top of head 18.3 27 High-tech shoes 17.2 28 Top wrapped round waist 15.7 29 Paisley-print item 14.8 30 Clothes with detailed English text all over 11.8
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Kel said,
January 13, 2008 @ 00:53
I feel kinda discriminated by the “long hair” and “unshaven face” ones…heh
Louis said,
January 13, 2008 @ 03:26
I remember owning a pair of acid wash jeans when I was younger. Hopefully that will be one of the retro fashion items that doesn’t make it back into mainstream.
Viet said,
January 13, 2008 @ 14:05
Funny you posted this. Earlier this week I stumbled on articles that the police are on a otaku hunt due to increase crime in Akihabara.
http://kotaku.com/342551/japanese-police-hunt-otaku-discriminate
http://kotaku.com/gaming/real-life-beat-em-up/more-on-otaku-hunting-267904.php
pm215 said,
January 13, 2008 @ 15:56
“17 Two-tack (eh?) chinos” — google suggests the literal translation would be “two-tuck”. See eg http://www18.big.or.jp/~pitty/design/pants/tuck/twotuck.html (includes picture). Googling also suggests that the English for this would be “double pleated”.
Ken Y-N said,
January 13, 2008 @ 22:51
pm215 - thanks for that! I’ll update the story.
Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Jan. 15, 2008: Transvestite maid cafe said,
January 15, 2008 @ 17:59
[…] How to spot an otaku, according to a Japanese survey translated by What Japan Thinks. (Link via Simon […]
Do You Look Like a Japanese Otaku? [Fashion] | Free Games Center Blog said,
January 16, 2008 @ 03:24
[…] Find Otaku [What Japan Thinks] […]
Do You Look Like a Japanese Otaku? [Fashion] said,
January 16, 2008 @ 07:36
[…] Find Otaku [What Japan Thinks] […]
According to Normal People: What Otaku Look Like « Face of Fact? said,
January 16, 2008 @ 11:51
[…] they thought an otaku looks like. Here is the top five results for both males and females, the source has the full […]
randomcommenter said,
January 20, 2008 @ 02:18
“Techno-cut” sideburns are an old 80’s thing, where you cut the sideburn off at the same height as the hair above the ear. That is, nowadays, even if you don’t have sideburns, the hair on the side of your head forms an arc, rising up from the nape of your neck, over the ear, and back down the other side a little. In the “techno-cut”, it rises up from the nape of the neck, to the top of the ear, and then the line just extends straight forward, without coming down on the other side.
Terry said,
January 20, 2008 @ 03:32
searching for japanise otaku ,Otaku
I’m the otaku too. thank you
Zentrum des Wahnsinns » Otaku oder was? said,
January 30, 2008 @ 17:01
[…] das Wort drin, trotzdem ein netter Blog ;)) bin ich auf eine Umfrage zum Thema auf der Webseite What Japan thinks gestossen. Hier die Top 5. was einen maennlichen Otaku der Meinung der Leute nach ausmacht: 1 […]
Dai-Cast 075 - Three of a Kind at tiltyhouse.com said,
January 31, 2008 @ 23:41
[…] How to Spot an Otaku - whatjapanthinks.com […]
Jenny said,
February 11, 2008 @ 01:21
haha that’s so me.
The One With The Emoticons « So no one told you life was gonna be this way. said,
March 8, 2008 @ 10:25
[…] offers a lot more interesting surveys. Check out “30 best-looking politicians“, “How to spot an otaku” and “Japan’s top 10 strangest […]
Cosplaytoday Forum said,
March 11, 2008 @ 06:59
Funny and easy to fall into the category.
consoleer » Blog Archive » Do You Look Like a Japanese Otaku? [Fashion] said,
May 2, 2008 @ 05:19
[…] Find Otaku [What Japan Thinks] […]