Japanese popular culture has many devoted fans, or otaku. People who spend hours gaming, reading and watching, and are fanatical collectors. Many fans not only consume cultural products, however, they also help produce them, subtitling Japanese films, drawing their own manga, and working for months on costumes that resemble their favourite character in every detail.
At first otaku was a term of abuse, but nowadays it is embraced as a nickname, just like ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ in the west. Otaku meet up at conventions, or ‘cons’. In this gallery you can try out on a small scale some of the activities available at a con. Go for it – release your inner fan!
For Cool Japan we asked 7 people from Amsterdam about their fascination for Japan. Meet Dotoro Cosplay in the video below, while we accompany her to Comic Con.
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