Entry #4

Earth in my Window is an essay piece written by Takashi Murakami and translated by Linda Hoaglund; this is more or less a bit of a reflection piece for one of my first articles for my analysis; the essay in itself is comprised of smaller chapters, some more relevant to my research than others especially when Murakami compares the aesthetic and visual compositions presented in Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (as opposed to Tezuka's more dynamic style) and the result of Japan's downfall post second World War.

The most important part of the essay however and this is something I'll have to remind myself repeatedly to mention in my analysis is the difference between Otaku and what the West simply categorizes as 'nerdy'. It is not a simple case of Otaku being a Japanese term to describe a cultural body comprised of nerds. There is the air of obsession, their constant reference to a 'humiliated self' and of course the purely 'homegrown' aspect of what being Otaku actually means.

Subcultures being fashionable to some degree in the West (zoku), Otaku on the other hand the unfashionable indigenous black mark on the nation's map. 

"Otaku are mercurial, and embrace the internal contradiction of considering such definitions “un-otaku”"