if there was ever a single book that i think everyone who likes anime and manga should read it would be asma hiroki's book otaku the database animals sometimes the book has galaxy brained takes but at its strongest it gives us a framework to understand anime and otaku that's both highly intuitive and incredibly useful let's not worry about what those galaxy brain takes are for today as i want to jump right into the book's best idea that being database consumption and its relation to otaku and otaku media one quick note before we get into it the
description will have notes sources and left out information in case any part confuses you or if you want a more in-depth answer there'll also be a pdf of otaku database animals if you want to read it further so azuma concerns that the otaku is a postmodern consumer one which seeks to consume and classify characters from anime manga and visual novels according to their traits by anonymously creating databases that catalog store and display their results this database that azuma talks about doesn't refer to any specific database online asmr is referring to a non-hierarchical collection of various
media elements that define a family relation amongst the media we consume instead of seeing otaku as uniquely japanese uzuma sees the rise of otaku culture as marking a new global trend in consumption he mentions trekkies as a western example the reason for why he links these features to post-modernity is for two reasons the first is the omni presence of simulacra and the second the dysfunctionality of a grand narrative two things that sound pretty complicated but will make more sense when we look at a show like digi karat digi karat's main character digikor appeared around 1997
to 1998 originally as a mascot for an anime and gaming store and at this point there existed no narratives or stories behind the mascot at this time as the character gained attention anime novels and games with the character were produced because of this process the narrative world around the character came can be formed anonymously and collectively for example usarahiraku or and petite kurat are characters associated with digicol but were released only in 1999. on top of this petit karat's name was also decided by a fan paul while stigiko is now known to be cocky and
carefree these character traits did not exist in her originally and were added in the anime version as a form of self-parody digikarat's development was not managed by any particular author or production company but instead was an assemblage of various corporate ad campaigns it doesn't make much sense to ask what the original digikarat is who the author is or what kind of message is implied the entire project is an assemblage of various productions digicrap flipped the normal order in which the story of a work is followed by its character merchandise and said digicarat's narrative is a
subordinate element within the whole media makes strategy projects such as the anime or novel usually seen as independent works are merely related products on the same level as character mugs figurines or keychains the narrative is a surplus item added to the settings and illustrations that surround the series but this idea of a database also extends to the production of characters in their visual design and their personalities when we look at digicore we can see here composed of various elements faded by otaku which asma calls moe elements each mo [Music] are visual but they can also
manifest as a particular way of speaking setting character arcs and so on digicor for instance has antennae-like hair a maid costume cat ears and a collection of various other moe features as if to downplay the authorship of the designer as much as possible otaku already have an intuitive knowledge of this which is why borotype search engines exist to catalog art by their moa elements as soon as a character is consumed they are broken down into elements categorized and registered into a database if there is no appropriate classification a new element or category will be created
in this sense the originality of an original character can only exist as a simulacrum or a copy without an original this is why i hear people naively calling anime and manga incestuous because the visual designer character seems to endlessly reiterate inside the otaku database in the example of the digical we should grant the show's characters as a kind of output generated from a collection of pre-registered elements based on various moa elements that are in fashion looking outside of digital we can also investigate the various characters resembling ionami rey in the 1990s to 2000s rey looked
likes being produced and consumed on a massive scale in manga anime and novels both for the commercial market and dojinshi markets according to azuma the proliferation of these characters shouldn't be seen as a direct influence of evangelion as a father text instead we should look at it from the standpoint of the database according to azimuth the emergence of ayahuaya did not influence authors as much as she changed the rules of the maui elements sustaining otaku culture because of this even those authors who were not deliberately thinking of evangelion began to unconsciously produce characters closely resembling
rey from newly registered moe elements such as a quiet personality blue hair pale skin and a mysterious nature or power each time a popular character emerges the moe element database changes accordingly and as a result the following seasons will find a new generation of characters featuring new mower elements derived from previous ones that have proven successful when otaku consume works such as digikrat they are not simply consuming an independent work nor are they consuming characters and settings by themselves rather otaku are consuming the database of otaku culture and participating in a media mix that is
non-hierarchical it's worth noting here that azuma isn't trying to attack otaku his ultimate aim is to elevate them so people can properly understand or research their media azimuth has a lot of appreciation for otaku works even if this description may seem quite negative on the surface so summing up azuma argues that in otaku culture each individual work appears on the surface to be understood as an expression of a database like depth in two ways in one way the narrative based work is a subordinate element of a media mixed strategy without coherent order in another way
each character is an output of a database of moe features accumulated within the whole of otaku culture by consuming each individual work and merchandise the otaku consumes the database-like structure underneath where each element in the media mix relates to the whole database of otaku culture and its signifiers
