Otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in Manga Burikko.
Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Favorite sources include anime, cartoons, comic books, manga, television series, rock music performances, video games and in some cases, original characters. The term has been adopted as a slang, often in a critical context in politics, pretending to play a role or take on a personality.
Otakon is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The convention focuses on East Asian popular culture and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku.
Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first weekend of July, spanning the course of four days. Anime Expo is regularly hosted at the Los Angeles Convention Center but has also been held in other cities such as Anaheim, San Jose, New York, and Tokyo.
In Japan, doujin is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle". Self-published creative works produced by these groups are also called doujin, including manga, magazines, novels, music, anime, merch, and video games. Print doujin works are collectively called doujinshi.
Comic Market, more commonly known as Comiket or Comike, is a semiannual doujinshi convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of doujin (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-run Comic Market Preparatory Committee (ComiketPC). Inaugurated on 21 December 1975 with an estimated 700 attendees, Comiket has since grown to become the largest fan convention in the world, with an estimated turnstile attendance of 750,000 in 2019. Comiket is typically held at Tokyo Big Sight in August and December, with the two events distinguished as Summer Comic Market and Winter Comic Market, respectively.
Nico Robin, otherwise known as "Devil Child", is a fictional character in the One Piece franchise created by Eiichiro Oda. The character made her first appearance in the 114th chapter of the series, which was first published in Japan in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on November 22, 1999.
An anime and manga convention is a fan convention with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Anime conventions are commonly multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels, with a larger number of attendees participating in cosplay than most other types of fan conventions. Anime conventions are also used as a vehicle for industry, in which studios, distributors, and publishers represent their anime related releases. They also take place in multiple different countries, such as Japan, South Korea, China, India, Indonesia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Spain and Finland.
Otome Road is a name given to an area of Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan that is a major shopping and cultural center for anime and manga aimed at women. The area is sometimes referred to as Fujoshi Street, referencing the name given to fans of yaoi.
The World Cosplay Summit is an annual international cosplay event, which promotes global interaction through Japanese pop culture. It developed from a cosplay exhibition held at the Aichi Expo in 2005.
Kiss is a monthly Japanese josei manga magazine published by Kodansha, with a circulation reported at 81,870 in 2015. The magazine is headquartered in Tokyo.
Dance in the Vampire Bund is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nozomu Tamaki. The manga was serialized in Media Factory's seinen manga magazine Monthly Comic Flapper between 2005 and 2012, and is licensed for publication in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
The anime and manga fandom traces back to the 1970s and has an international reach. Anime includes animated series, films and videos, while manga includes manga, graphic novels, drawings, and related artworks.
Yoshihiro Yonezawa was a Japanese manga critic and author. He is also known for being Comiket's co-founder and president. He died of lung cancer at 53. He won the 2007 Seiun Award in the special category and 2010 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Special Award.
AnimeJapan is a Japanese anime consumer show held annually at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center in Tokyo since March 2014. It was created from the merger of the Tokyo International Anime Fair with the Anime Contents Expo.
A doujinshi convention is a type of event dedicated to the sale of doujinshi, or self-published books. These events are known in Japanese as doujin sokubaikai or doujinshi sokubaikai. Thousands of doujinshi conventions take place in Japan every year. Doujinshi conventions can also be found in some other countries.
Doujinshi (同人誌), also romanized as dōjinshi, is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of doujin (self-published) works, doujinshi are often derivative of existing works and created by amateurs, though some professional artists participate in order to publish material outside the regular industry.
My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nico Nicholson. It was serialized in Kodansha's josei manga magazine Kiss from June 2021 to February 2023, with its chapters collected in four tankōbon volumes.
Keekihime, formerly known as Keekihime Yuumi, is an Austrian online streamer, YouTuber, singer, and cosplayer. In 2010, Keekihime began posting dance covers and live streaming on the Japanese video website Niconico. She was also a member of the Japanese girl group Tone Jewel from 2012 to 2013.
I'm Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? is a Japanese web manga series storyboarded by Yakitomato and illustrated by Kotatsu. Kotatsu started publishing the manga on his Twitter account in January 2020, and started publishing it on Niconico Seiga's No. 9 Comic in February of that same year. ASCII Media Works started publishing the volumes in print in August 2021. An anime television series adaptation produced by Quad premiered in January 2025.
