what goes around...
I totally meant to post about this yesterday when it happened, but I got sidetracked scanning things for the Otaku Archive project and adding stuff to the Doujinshi DB.
It's strangely fitting and sobering that not long after the stabbing incident in Akihabara, Tsutomu Miyazaki was executed. It was a long time in coming--he committed his crimes in 1988-89, and was finally sentenced in 1997.
I don't know how many anime fans are familiar with this Miyazaki, as opposed to that one over in Ghibli. The Otaku Killer's murder, necrophilia and cannibalism of grade school children was linked in the public's mind with otaku for a long time, and was responsible for a good bit of the negative connotation to the word.
But I think that however awful the AKB Massacre was, however much it might impact traffic in Akihabara, Kato can't be like Miyazaki. Matt Alt does a pretty good job breaking down some of the reasons, and Patrick's also touched on it before. Anime and manga are global now, these "otaku" things are a way Japan is choosing to market itself even to outsiders. We've had Densha Otoko and Akihabara@DEEP. Then there's the fact that there's been a wave of spree incidents like this lately, not even connected to otaku issues at all, which keeps in people's minds that it's not really about the subculture. So sure, there are news stories about Kato's moe collection and a few things about his knife being linked to the Dragon Quest video games, but not nearly what happened after Miyazaki.
It feels like a balm, somehow. As Akihabara mourns and the police swarm in, we're finally rid of Miyazaki. AKB might not be fun anymore, the people might relocate elsewhere or not, but shitbags like that have no power over the otaku.
It might not be exactly what the Otaking had in mind, but it's a different world now.
It's strangely fitting and sobering that not long after the stabbing incident in Akihabara, Tsutomu Miyazaki was executed. It was a long time in coming--he committed his crimes in 1988-89, and was finally sentenced in 1997.
I don't know how many anime fans are familiar with this Miyazaki, as opposed to that one over in Ghibli. The Otaku Killer's murder, necrophilia and cannibalism of grade school children was linked in the public's mind with otaku for a long time, and was responsible for a good bit of the negative connotation to the word.
But I think that however awful the AKB Massacre was, however much it might impact traffic in Akihabara, Kato can't be like Miyazaki. Matt Alt does a pretty good job breaking down some of the reasons, and Patrick's also touched on it before. Anime and manga are global now, these "otaku" things are a way Japan is choosing to market itself even to outsiders. We've had Densha Otoko and Akihabara@DEEP. Then there's the fact that there's been a wave of spree incidents like this lately, not even connected to otaku issues at all, which keeps in people's minds that it's not really about the subculture. So sure, there are news stories about Kato's moe collection and a few things about his knife being linked to the Dragon Quest video games, but not nearly what happened after Miyazaki.
It feels like a balm, somehow. As Akihabara mourns and the police swarm in, we're finally rid of Miyazaki. AKB might not be fun anymore, the people might relocate elsewhere or not, but shitbags like that have no power over the otaku.
It might not be exactly what the Otaking had in mind, but it's a different world now.