Genshiken’s relevance to the fandom has been well-noted for some time. Given the truth of its piercing observations and all, you could practically call it a sociological study (participant and non-participant observation as means of methodology, obviously) in otaku, all entertainment purposes aside. No stone’s left unturned: everyone, from gamer to erogamer, cosplayer to fujoshi, manga-ka to doujinshi group — they’re all there. In this we see glimpses of the people behind the passion and fanaticism, and we see reflections of ourselves waving back at us.

The difference between the otaku of the motherland and those of the wide internet expanse don’t go amiss, though. I’d like to think that we’re better off for lacking the very physical presence we’re wont to judge others by; what matters here isn’t how you look or dress or talk, but merely how much anime you’ve watched or manga you’ve read. In other words, it’s easier to reach out and connect with others, and forge a sense of community as a result.

This leads me to my tangential digression, of which I hope you’ll excuse this once. Having the privilege of obtaining not one but two detractors in the short span of 24 hours, I thought I’d deign a little time breaking their arguments into little pieces with the power of logic before heading into the meat of the post, so feel free to skip about two paragraphs down if you’re reading this from the comfort of your feedreader or an incoming link. For the rest of you, gory details after the cut.