A writer who opines that otaku cannot write romances as they are sad and lonely creatures with no experience of such has predictably stirred up a storm of controversy amongst sad and lonely otaku.
He holds forth:
“Previously I told otaku to get real and have relationships with real girls, and received a great many dissenting opinions.
They said ‘Real girls cry and moan all the time and betray you on a whim, and are totally spoiled. 2D girls are sweet and lovely, far more so than any real girl.’
Indeed, the girls in those games are idealised.
But what if we look at this from a creator’s perspective? There’s no way a creator who inhabits a virtual world can make these kinds of games, as the games include the creator’s experience of real romance.
Even if they could make a decent game without such experience, they’d never be able to make anything new.”
2ch is unimpressed:
“If you know the real thing you can’t make games and the like.”
“He’s underestimating the imaginative power of virgins.”
“Are there still idiots saying that? I suppose you can’t make an RPG if you haven’t been an adventurer.”
“A commoner has no qualifications to talk about otaku.”
“So only a porn star can become an ero-mangaka?”
“Real romance is no good anyway – it needs to be fantastic.”
“Eating a bento on a school roof with a girl isn’t exactly a realistic event.”
“Otaku writing romances results in impossible fantasies. Romance may be a fantasy to begin with, but their version is even further removed from reality.”
“So Konami must employ world class lovers…”
“Lucky Star: There aren’t any high school girls like this. The conversation is totally unrealistic.
Haruhi: There aren’t any school clubs like this. The characters are totally unrealistic.
K-ON!: The conversations are based on convenience and so are totally unrealistic.”
“Most of you people can’t become creators anyway, so it’s got nothing to do with you.”
“Quoting Hayao Miyazaki: ‘Most Japanese animation isn’t really based on observation, as the guys doing it don’t like observing people. As a result, the industry is nothing but otaku.’”
“A product intended for virgins might as well be made by virgins.”
It’s been long “Western Wisdom” that:
1. Virgins write the best “Sex Scenes”.
2. Soldiers write terrible (and I mean unsellable) war stories.
To write a good story it has more to do with your writing skill than life experience, anybody with good enough writing skills can write a book. Even if you’re stuck in a cage your whole life, you can still write about how it sucks to be stuck in a cage.
It’s true that with more life experience you can appeal better to your readers, but if you are writing for otokus you can just write with your otaku knowledge.
This writer seems to have never been in a cult book store, do you how creative those people are and how much worse than otakus they are?
No offense to anyone, but I am otaku. I am also happily married with a great sex life. My wife is also otaku to some extent. Just because people enjoy anime doesn’t mean they’re lonely or sexless or anything else. 🙂 Sometimes this site is as silly as 2chan in it’s insularity.
Mind the possible gap between what otaku means to you and what it means in Japanese.
A married otaku would be someone who happens to share an apartment and bed with a person of opposite sex and not derive much from this fact, too much occupied with dedicating his life with work and anime/manga/videogames. Don’t go arguing with me on this, it’s what the word freaking *means*.
yep, that,s my to,do list!
“But what if we look at this from a creator’s perspective? There’s no way a creator who inhabits a virtual world can make these kinds of games, as the games include the creator’s experience of real romance.”
Does anybody else remember that time when ZAFT stole all of those GUNDAMs and some teenager ruined all of their plans? I mean, someone must have experienced that to write it.