Otaku in bloom
By Marc Perton
The annual Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden always attracts a diverse crowd of Japanese expats, Japanophiles, horticulture geeks, camera freaks, families with kids, Brooklyn hipsters, Hasids and blue-haired old ladies. This year, I noticed a new contingent joining the mix: otaku. You couldn’t miss them: they were the kids in game and anime-inspired outfits, drawn to the festival not by the blossoms, but by the presence this year of an anime costume booth, sponsored by the AnimeNEXT conference. While purists might object to the inclusion of anime in the festival, and its attraction to blue-haired young ladies, I think it made a great addition. After all, in Japan, hanami, or cherry-blossom viewing parties, are a national pasttime, popular with young and old, salarymen and punks, rich and poor. It only makes sense to try to bring American otaku into the fold, since they’ve already got an interest in Japanese culture. And, from what I saw in Brooklyn, the otaku may have come for the anime costumes, but got into the taiko drummers, blossoms and Japanese food as much as the next flower geek. I expect to see more of them next year, even if AnimeNEXT doesn’t show up.
The annual Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden always attracts a diverse crowd of Japanese expats, Japanophiles, horticulture geeks, camera freaks, families with kids, Brooklyn hipsters, Hasids and blue-haired old ladies. This year, I noticed a new contingent joining the mix: otaku. You couldn’t miss them: they were the kids in game and anime-inspired outfits, drawn to the festival not by the blossoms, but by the presence this year of an anime costume booth, sponsored by the AnimeNEXT conference. While purists might object to the inclusion of anime in the festival, and its attraction to blue-haired young ladies, I think it made a great addition. After all, in Japan, hanami, or cherry-blossom viewing parties, are a national pasttime, popular with young and old, salarymen and punks, rich and poor. It only makes sense to try to bring American otaku into the fold, since they’ve already got an interest in Japanese culture. And, from what I saw in Brooklyn, the otaku may have come for the anime costumes, but got into the taiko drummers, blossoms and Japanese food as much as the next flower geek. I expect to see more of them next year, even if AnimeNEXT doesn’t show up.
