How Otaku R U?!
I was puttering around the blog-o-sphere and I happened upon a fun little quiz to test how much of an Otaku people are. It was on one of my favorited blogs that I read often. If you like quizzes or just want to try something fun for a few minutes, you can find it at the website My Anime Room by DarkdaemonPk2. It only takes about 5 minutes. I was delighted to find that I’m quite the Otaku (nodding in approval) but I was also a little disappointed that the quiz only seemed to ask questions about recent shounen anime or what I would call neutral anime like there was a question about Spirited Away. There was no questions about shoujo anime, golden era anime, classic anime, anime movies, or so many other metrics to measure an Otaku.
In that light of lacking, I decided to put it on myself to build a more perfect quiz of Otaku-dom! Or at least come up with a better list of questions that better measure the breadth and depth of an Otaku. Not just if they are keeping up with the latest shounen anime, but do they understand the wide and varied world of all that anime has to offer? Do they understand the culture that anime comes from? The historical relevance of elements found in anime? Can they recognize common Japanese words, and the unspoken mood of those terms?
So for the first question, I thought it would be important to ask about more artistic anime. Not something too obscure, but a widely known anime that still isn’t mass market shounen. So maybe a question like this?
Next I think there should be a question about Golden Era anime. You know, the really big anime that came out in the early 2000’s. A question something like this.
There should also be a question about classic anime. I would define classic anime as anything before the 1990’s. Again, I would avoid anything too obscure that only a small group of fans that were laser focused on older anime would know about. So maybe a question like this.
Next we need to include a question about shoujo anime. It doesn’t matter what gender a fan is, they should be aware of at least the basics of the most common genres. And for all the guys that are groaning out there, keep in mind Onna no Otaku are expected to be well versed in all things shounen anime, so this is only fair.
Now we need to check and make sure our challenging Otaku is not just a passive viewer of anime, but knows how to deep dive into the world of the anime characters! Let’s start with something easy that just about everyone should know.
The more advanced Otaku should also be able to recognized the standard types of anime character and understand how they should react in a given situation. It’s this understanding of standard character tropes that helps with the expression of the story as a whole. So probably a question like this.
The Otaku should also understand the historic elements of an anime, to better understand the story of important samurai, ninja, or feudal japan anime. Understanding historical elements could also be important for understanding some paranormal anime too.
Just to cover all the bases, it would probably be important to also have a question about manga. I’m thinking a story element that would almost only come up in manga, and not in Western style comic books, and rarely in anime. Something like this.
Next we have to include a question about cosplaying. Though I believe you can still be a great Otaku even if you don’t get to a cosplay regularly, it is still important to be aware of such things. So maybe an anime leaning cosplay question like this.
And of course, last but not least there should be a question about Con etiquette. Though not everyone can get to a Con regularly, and some unfortunate communities don’t even have their own anime Con, it is important to know how to act once an fan has the opportunity to go. And a true Otaku knows how to act when they are there!
Okay, that’s my try at making a well balanced Otaku quiz. What do you think? What questions would you add? Do you think it should be longer? Shorter? Should there be questions about anime merch? If you could write a 10 question anime quiz, what would your questions be? Leave a comment below!
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