Koenji Look

I get like, interviewed, and OTAKU USA gets covered in the perilously sexy new Wired article "US Fans of the Japanese Web."

Comments

[Benu]

"We can't dress up and do the Haruhi dance in the US because we'll get in trouble."

Get in trouble since when? What the hell does that mean! I saw a group of girls doing the Haruhi dance at the TV show I was a guest on just last saturday. I saw no one get in any sort of trouble. XD

[Patrick Macias]

Try it in a shopping mall or some other supposedly "public space" besides "at the TV show." The Man is not especially friendly to flash mobs.

[Em]

bullshit. First off, the MALL is a very poor choice for a flash mob as it's not public space, and your Akiba brats wouldn't go apeshit in Sunshine City either.

Flashmobs happen all over the US and are not relegated to the last stronghold of safety for a group of pathetic otaku who would rather memorize dance routines for an anime than go talk to a real woman. The real issue is about district niche creating which due to the sheer volume of traffic dispersement in the US due to cars being our main form of transportation and not nearly as prevalent as in major Japanese cities. Otaku have carved a "safe space" in Akihabara just the same as Americans have carved them at anime conventions.

You CAN, and people with more balls do, have flashmobs in public spaces in the US and risk getting into just as much trouble as they do in Japan. But otaku in akihabara are in a mistakenly false sense of security that lets them think they can do it without risk of police action.