7/8/2005

AFP reports that the otaku (Japanese equivalent of “nerd”, often involving more anime and manga than just computer and videogames) magazine “Elfics” will hold a national exam for its readers, on their knowledge of manga, video games and other hobbies “in a bid to smash prejudice and nurture a geek elite”.

In its upcoming issue hitting bookstores August 5, the magazine published by Biblos will come with an extra booklet carrying dozens of exam questions.

The publisher puts candidates on an honor system promising not to refer to outside materials when taking the test it bills as “a gateway for otaku elite”.

Would-be otakus will send their answer sheets to the publisher which will score them - by computer - and announce about 100 successful candidates two months later, said Biblos editor Ryota Ishizuka.

A website designed to announce the exam recorded 10,000 hits since it was launched on June 27, he said.

So far, it is nice and almost funny. But the rest of the article sounds like an episode of the Simpsons, or a Gary Larson’s Far Side comic…

“It would not be too much to say the new century is an era of otakus. Yes, it’s time for us to stand up. To this end, we must … become otaku elites” armed with correct knowledge, it said.

Ishizuka said the otaku were “treated coldly” and often put in the same class as young people who have dropped out of schools and jobs.

“We hope this exam will help raise their status even just a bit,” he said, adding otakus needed a place to flaunt their knowledge.

With Japan’s population getting older everyday, the last thing we need is the youth to get even more alienated than they already are… Being into anime and manga is fine, but getting to deep into geek fantasies can be dangerous in Japan. Next step further behind the otaku world, you get into the “hikikomori” realms. Where scary things do happen.

But of course, life is happy as long as money can be made: a study last year by Nomura Research found otakus formed a market of 290 billion yen (US$3.5bn), e.g. animation, comics, video games, pop celebrities and self-built computers.