social commentary

Otaku, a very commonly known term derived from Japan, refers to people that are obsessed with computer gaming or addicted to watching anime to the point that they rarely engage in outdoor activities and usually prefer to stay indoors within the boundaries of their home. It is very common to see such people around us since the advance of technology has brought about much enjoyment and leisure in the forms of many applications and computer games. However, what would your reaction be if you ever heard of anybody that is actually obsessed with anime characters to such an extent that they actually regard anime character as their own girlfriend and start a relationship with them? Well I was shocked that such people do exist and they even form some sort of community within their own circle of ‘otaku’. These people date their supposed anime character in the form of a 2-D platform most commonly pillows and the more disturbing fact is that they actually bring the pillows around in public area and imagine that these ‘pillows’ are actually animate object that could respond to them. Now why would there be such situation arising in the societies especially in developed countries such as Japan. The problem more probably lies with the society rather than the person themselves. I shall explore the possible factors that actually lead to these otaku having to turn to 2-D love.

Firstly we need to understand the overpowering pressure that these people usually face from various aspects of their life and the society itself. Many young people who just steps out into society and enter the world of jobs are unable to withstand pressure faced in workplace especially when they are new and not accustomed to coping with the continuous non-stopping flow of work. From an early adopter of 2-D love, Okayama he said that he was facing many troubles to the fact that he was new to work and he was feeling suicidal. This shows us the fact that work pressure is indeed immense and it can even lead to suicidal thoughts. Now that is where the love pillows come into place. These otaku who are facing troubles in work get their pleasure and relaxation from these love pillows, where they are able to soothe the people and lift them into a fantasy world away from the troubles and misery from the reality world giving them a sensual and temporal satisfaction. The difference from the dependence on anime love pillows rather than real person is that anime pillow is unable to converse with the person and thus would not be able to hurt the person with words unlike what a real person would do and this would reduce the uncertainty these people feel and make them feel more relaxed. And in some way we can these love pillows are forms of salvation for them from social factors they face.

And also many of these otaku face relationship failures that cause them to lose hope in real relationship with people as taken from a 2-D lover, Nisan said that not long ago he had a real girlfriend, but that she dumped him and when asked if the anime character on the pillow was his girlfriend, he replied rather seriously that the anime character ‘Nemutan’ is his girlfriend and he said that he is serious about this kind of relationship. From here we see that these people seeks a more peaceful relationship, one that would not involve the dumping of either side of the party and this is basically contributed to trauma that they face after experiencing many relationship failures and they feel the cruelty of real relationships and hence turning to relationship with anime character on 2-D platforms as a form of escape from torment and also serve as a form of way for them to recover from the ‘wounds’ the receive from a failed relationship.

We may say that these people must be crazy or mental to actually start a relationship with something that is inanimate and is unable to feel their feeling. To many people these people are weirdoes who give so much of their feeling and love toward such absurd love pillow, but to them it is not only a one-sided relationship but also a pathway, a protection from the various negative impacts that society brings to them. Allow me to emphasis my point that it is the society that brings about such actions not the person themselves. With the society bringing about so much pressure and impact on them to such a point that they withdraw themselves from reality and this we have to accept them on the basis that they are all victim of social impacts.

Well to end off I would just like to say that society is a very powerful influence that can bring about many radical changes to people and bend to such ways that it seems inappropriate to normal people like us, we would all think twice before we start rejecting such people who take pride in relationships with love pillows.