An article proclaiming that most otaku settle for 2D only after failing to get 3D has predictably ignited a storm of controversy amongst otaku.
The article as published in business rag Nikkei BP:
The government is trying to reverse the decline in the birth rate to no avail. Because half of all men aged 30-34 are unmarried. In Japanese society, those who are unmarried rarely have children. So, to stop the decline in the birth rate, making marriage easier is necessary.
And the group furthest away from marriage is that of the otaku. I don’t think most otaku are in love with 2D characters. I think if they could, they would go with 3D, that is to say a human woman.
But to court a human woman, a certain amount of technique and experience is required. In particular there are men who become profoundly hurt through dating rejection, or who are possessed of introverted personalities, and who thus have no other option but to flee to 2D for their romantic needs.
And once they have stepped into the world of 2D, it is a very comforting place. 2D characters aren’t fickle, they don’t lie or betray you like real women. Consequently drawing otaku back into the world of 3D is exceedingly difficult.
However, if we cannot do this Japanese society has no future.
He can perhaps be excused for the ridiculous hyperbole at the end – even stretching the definition of otaku to its limits is unlikely to yield more than a few million such souls in Japan; Japan’s marriage and birth rate problems are indisputably mainstream social issues, and otaku are but a fringe element of that.
It should also be noted that similar drastic declines in birth rate are well in evidence in a number of developed and developing nations, so clearly Japan is merely an advanced case of a trend linked to profound social changes the world over – fretting over otaku is unlikely to be addressing anything other than an outlying symptom of these changes.
It is also notable that he is unwilling to incorporate the exceedingly hostile attitude of women to otaku or poor men into his explanation.
Naturally, 2ch has something to say about all this:
Right!
No way!
They just run to 2D because no one’ll have them.
Why is he saying something so obvious so pompously?
Men and women’s expectations of the opposite sex have just become way too high, and they can no longer have children as a result – so they flee to 2D.
Bringing out your pet theories is all very well, but quit mixing it up with a “consensus of opinion.”
Have sex with 3D, live with 2D?
With guts you can date the opposite sex. But marrying and having children takes more. You need money above all else, and not many people have it.
There’s nothing to gain from facing up to an ugly reality.
Stick to economics and stop pretending to understand this stuff.
What’s up with this creepy old guy pretending to be the representative of all otaku?
With artificial ova on the horizon, progress in 2D and ona-holes, who needs women?
It’s not that they compromise with 2D after failing to get 3D. They compromise by going with 3D as they can’t go with 2D.
Of course he’s right. How can you love 2D? You can’t even have a conversation.
Go with the sex trade for 3D. To satisfy the heart go with 2D.
Saying you’ve no interest in 3D is just a defence mechanism. Just an excuse to make yourself seem less wretched.
2D and 3D are both just electrical signals in the brain. Thus there is no essential difference between the two.
I like both 2D and 3D; saying only one or the other is good is just intolerance.
2D 3D Cost: Purchase + electricity 99% of your wages Food: Will eat with you Is asleep when you get back from work Holidays: Always with you Forces you to visit parents Memory: Can freely save and load Only remembers husband’s weaknesses Warmth: Depends on monitor “Don’t touch me” Soothing: Will soothe you Will complain if not soothed Appearance: Beautiful, no degradation (depends on artist) Depends on makeup, degradation apparent Virginity?: Depends on preference Essentially not Land mines: Mental damage only Can take financial and mental damage Husband’s income: Doesn’t care “That’s the barometer of a man, isn’t it?” Duration: Depends on preference Until death or divorce
Agreed, most otakus would get a 3D girl if they could but that is ONLY because 2D girls are literally unattainable. 3D have the advantage of actually being real and therefore can stimulate nerves that 2D can’t.
Ironically, even if 2D girls were real they wouldn’t want you anyways. Even 2D girls have standards and considering that most main characters are actually pretty damn handsome and have deal with the “event flags”, their standards are likely pretty damn high.
I’d prefer to die solo than to marry one of those fugly biatchez @_@
in this day and age is there really such a thing as a human woman?..sluts, whores and feminists dont count as women
Can we get a new picture please?! Don’t Japanese women know how to blow their noses?!!!
I get it now. The people in this comments section are mostly extreme cases of otaku, hence the opinion of 2D > 3D. This is because the sampling does not come from a completely randomized population, hence most comments are logical arguments in favor of imagination and the realization of the ideal that is within one’s hand in the form of 2D waifus.
In the real world, however, there are people who have absolutely no problems with 3D. Many of them. And since they have a normal social life and non-otaku interests, they do not flock to websites such as these.