Otakufest 2013 in photos

Otaku is a derogatory term in Japanese to refer to people who follow hobbies with obsessive fevour, often to the detriment of school, relationships or work. But English, being the beast that it is, swallows foreign terms and rebrands it as its own, often twisting the meaning or context of the original text. In this case it’s now taken to refer to anime and manga fans, and often worn as a badge of pride, much as ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ is now taken these days. Cosplay is another term that has been taken over by English usage. It used to be that it solely described costuming from Japanese pop culture source (ironically coined when Japanese witnessed Western SF costuming), but now it encompasses costuming from all parts of fandom, from general SF to super heroes to Western cartoons. (Yup, even Barcham’s Doctor Who costume 🙂

I have photos from last Friday, but I am busy preparing to go to Britain next week.

Yeah I was led to believe that was the meaning of the term as well.

The day had a manga sale and the night was spent watching anime on a big screen so it seems apt to me. However I don’t speak Japanese and I’m getting my definition via pop culture, so I could well be wrong.

Otaku (???/????) is a Japanese term that refers to people with obsessive interests, commonly the anime and manga fandom. (from wikipedia).

great picture, looks like alot of people having a great time.

I believe on Aus day weekend Cancon is holding a cosplay thingy as well.

Not sure they know the meaning of otaku, but whatevs, good on them. Great to see it go well.