Ever since I was little, I’ve been bad at expressing myself. I know exactly what I want to say in my head, but I just can’t put it into words. And when I finally do manage to speak up, I’m so nervous I end up stuttering. Nobody can understand what I’m trying to say anyway, so it seems pointless.
Even now in high school, it’s still the same old story. High school—that time of your life that manga and anime love to show as some glorious era of youth, where characters are always chatting and laughing with their friends. I totally believed I’d have friends like that, and that my high school days would be just as glorious.
I didn’t need to have some big romantic story. It was okay if I never had a boyfriend. I just wanted to make friends who I could reminisce with later on, with smiles on our faces. To look back on those days and say we’d had fun was all I wanted...
So why did reality have to be so harsh? Once again, I was forced into a new environment against my will. I found myself still wishing to be around others, even though I always ended up hurt. Even though being with others scared me.
Another new place. Would this be the one where things finally changed?
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A long time ago, there was a clear-cut caste system within the schools. The cool kids, both boys and girls, were always surrounded by friends and had fun both inside and outside of school. They stood tall at the top. At the bottom were the loners, the kids who couldn’t make friends, and the otaku who were just in their own little worlds.
The ones at the top looked down on those at the bottom and called them losers. The ones at the bottom looked up at the kids at the top and wished they’d go to hell.
But that antagonistic social structure had been turned on its head in just a few years. There were several reasons for this change.
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Otaku culture swept throughout the whole world thanks to the rising popularity of anime. Previously, anime movies surpassing Hollywood movies in box office sales was a phenomenon unique to Japan, but it began to happen all over the world.
Anime directors, once backed by a small group of enthusiastic fans, were now experiencing widespread success. 3D anime produced overseas broadened the scope of anime viewers beyond just otaku. Otaku culture didn’t just belong to them anymore; it wasn’t enough to label someone an otaku based only on whether they watched anime or not.
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Thanks to the rise of otaku culture, their general social status began to rise as well. For example, some people used to use video games as a scapegoat by saying things like, “Playing video games makes you less intelligent” or “XYZ video game was found in the criminal’s room” and so on.
But nowadays, there are people streaming or competing in esports who make more money than corporate employees. Anyone who says something against video games would probably be the ones attacked instead, being told they’re too old-fashioned and need to get with the times.
There’s no reason for otaku to languish in the shadows anymore.
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There were many stories in anime depicting conflicts between the popular and unpopular groups, and the rise of otaku culture exposed even more of those conflicts. In other words, anime began reflecting how unpopular kids viewed popular kids. Within these stories, the cool kids were shown suffering under the demands of peer pressure. They would deny parts of themselves in order to fit in with the crowd, be constantly worried about what others thought of them, and go along with everyone else despite their true feelings. They were depicted as people who couldn’t survive unless they were part of a group.
Popular kids knew this was all true, but they had tried to turn a blind eye to it. Once the tropes had become popular, it constantly stared them in the face.
And then they discovered that the unpopular kids didn’t experience the same peer pressure they did. They were living lives free of the torture they’d experienced. The popular kids discovered what life was like for those people. And how did they view the unpopular kids after that? They saw those loners as tough people who could survive on their own. They saw otaku as tough people too, with a strong sense of individuality.
On the other hand, the unpopular kids could now see how rough the popular kids had it, and no longer felt jealous of them.