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As Wikipedia defines it, an otaku is "a Japanese pejorative term used to refer to a variety of geek, particularly one obsessed with anime and manga." Otakus have an image of being creepy social misfits who think only about their hobbies — it doesn't help that one of the first otaku to get mass-media attention was a multiple murderer of little girls.
But increasingly, otaku culture is becoming mainstream; some don't mind the label, and even go out of their way to call themselves that. After all, they are a special breed — the objects of their obsession, especially anime, video games, and toys, are some of Japan's hottest cultural exports, and no one knows more about them than they. Their meeting-place is Akihabara (Akiba for short), Tokyo's electronic shop district, which has become increasingly crowded in recent years with anime goods stores, maid cafes, costume clothiers, and other retailers catering to their tastes.
The otakus also have their own music. Akiba Net Bank is a monthly event organized by Fice, a girl duo that bills itself as an "anime visual performance unit." The first thing to know about Fice: The two aren't human, but "perfectly human-like androids." The one with red hair is called Fire, and the blue-haired android is named Ice (Fire + Ice = Fice, see?).
Fice, photo by Ken M.
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Fice are like the Motown stars of the otakus. I'd seen one of their shows on TV recently, and was captivated — Fice's fans were completely hyper, not sedate like most Tokyo live music audiences. On top of that, it was clear that their fans were true otaku, and proud of it.
Before I went to Akiba Net Bank, I thought I knew what to expect — but my first sight of it was still a shock. Opening the door of the club where the event was held, I was hit right away with the heat and sweaty aroma of a hundred or so men dancing manically. Onstage were costume-wearing girls singing to a karaoke soundtrack. But what really caught my eye was the audience: It consisted exclusively of sweat-drenched men showing off an unending series of dance moves, en masse and in sync, as if the girls on stage were their conductors. In one move, they clapped as they swung their upper torsos left to right, vigorously, at hip-displacing speeds. In another, they spun around 360 degrees as they hopped. At the start of one act, a group of true believers kowtowed toward the stage, as if worshiping the Lolita performers. I'd been to a lot of shows in Japan, but never had I seen anything like this.
Fice got their start singing and dancing on the streets of Akiba for the benefit of otaku shoppers. "A lot of people do street performances now in Akihabara," says Fire. "But when Fice began doing them five years ago, there was no one. And that continued for two or three years. Then one day a TV station showed us doing a street performance, and boom, from the next week there was a bunch of people."
Fice, photo by Ken M.
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Now Fice appears in events at regular clubs too, and they do a lot of them — around 130 a year. Akiba Net Bank is Fice's own event, where they invite a group of like-minded girl musical units to dress up in schoolgirl or maid outfits and put on shows for the wildly responsive male crowd. The basic sound is disco, and the songs (mostly original compositions) seem to be either mildly flirtatious love songs or tunes dealing with anime-hero sagas.
Like a lot of Japanese things, the music of Fice and the other girl units felt weird to an intimidating degree at first. But as I got used to it, appreciation started to set in, and in fact made me feel a bit tipsy — the boom-booms of the disco beats, the '80s synth sounds, the sugary female vocals, and the coordinated dance steps of the otaku fans…This dance, I learned, is called ota-gei (pronounced "oh-tah-gay"). The individual moves have names too, like O.A.D. — short for "over-action dolphin." Some of the guys were there since the event started at 4:00 p.m., which means they had been doing the ota-gei for five or six hours straight. They may be geeks, but they are physically fit geeks.
To be honest, there was something sad about the otakus — there were almost no girls in the audience, and I got the feeling they were similarly absent from these fans' lives. For the vast majority of Japanese girls, these events and their attendees are probably much too weird to take seriously. And as for the guys, how could they have relationships when they spend all their free time at these events? But maybe all this is a non-issue for the otakus: They're having a blast, so what else matters? In any case, if you have a chance to see Akiba Net Bank or similar events, I'd highly recommend it — there's nothing quite like it outside of Japan.
I chatted with Fire and Ice between sets, and they were the most charming robots I'd ever met.
You are androids?
Fire: Yes, we are perfectly human-like androids.
Ice: People often ask us if we can fly —
Fire: Or ask us if we can launch missiles from our bodies, but we're perfectly human-like androids, so our abilities don't exceed those of regular humans.
Fice, photo by Ken M.
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What were you made to do?
Fire: Originally, we were meant to do bank teller work. But then our creator, Dr. Elvis Kawabata, added into us an emotion function, and then we stopped listening to what he said, and he got rid of us. A lot happened, and now we're here.
What are your fans like?
Fire: They all do ota-gei.
Ice: They dance like that all the time.
Fire: Everyone's very active. When you say "otaku," there's this image of them being introverted, but they are very active, dancing five hours —
Ice: They are very fit —
Fire: I think they get much more exercise than regular people.
Ice: And they are surprisingly athletic. People think otaku or Akiba people aren't athletic, but that's not true at all. You can't dance five or six hours straight if you aren't.
Fire: There's also a tendency to think they stay home all the time, but not at all — on days off they are (always going to events), and never go home. They are always going out of their way to have fun.
Do you like Akihabara?
Both: Yes, we like it!
What do you like about it?
Fire: That anything goes there.
Ice: Yes, it's like a box of toys.
Posted December 2006
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