Courtesy of FEG Inc

Fanboys are wearing skirts — and gaining strength

By Patrick W Galbraith

TOKYO —

Yuichiro “Jienotsu” Nagashima is a “moe otaku.” When at home in rural Hyogo Prefecture, he watches anime featuring beautiful girls and surfs the internet for more information about them. He also cosplays as his favorite female characters. You’d think that this guy wearing a schoolgirl uniform would be bullied — that is, until you put some boxing gloves on the New Japan Kick-Boxing Federation’s super welterweight champion.

“My occupation is cosplaying and watching anime,” Nagashima explains. “I consider my appearances in K-1 matches just a way to make money, so once I enter the ring, it’s hobby time to me.”

Nagashima is an otaku who strengthens his body and steps out into society with pride. The mild-mannered 25-year-old says he doesn’t want to be seen as an example for other otaku. He just happens to fight as a hobby and isn’t out to tell people how to live.

Others see progress in otaku with a balanced interest in both the physical and virtual. Toru Honda, an otaku philosopher who advocates a “two-dimensional love revolution” in his book “Moeru Otoko” (The Budding Man), writes that otaku who can balance the physical and emotional are the next stage of human evolution. Punning on the double meaning of “moe,” he suggests that “moe men” have the potential to both “burn” with masculine physical vitality and “bud” with feminine emotions for characters in anime, manga and video games.

Recent visitors to Akihabara will be familiar with the spectacle of otaku in skirts dancing in public. Similarly, Nagashima says he wears cosplay into the ring to grab the attention of spectators and get them interested in his favorite series and characters.

Not everyone is happy with this “crossplay.” In Akihabara, the police responded by increasing their patrols to curb public disturbance, and thugs thinking otaku had become easy targets started to converge on the area.

An older school of otaku also disapprove. Toshio Okada, 51, an anime producer and critic dubbed the “king of otaku,” is so repulsed by those interested in “moe” that he declared them to be “culturally dead.”

After otaku hunters, or otaku-gari, took to ganging up on “moe” men, local hobby enthusiasts started arming themselves. This drew even more negative attention from the police, who began searching the bags of passersby. Otaku are turning to new ways of fighting back, including group shopping and martial arts training.

K-1 and professional wrestling have been a consistent source of inspiration for fanboys, and the fighters themselves are getting increasingly more otaku. Josh Barnett, 32, an MMA fighter from Seattle, is popularly known as the “strongest otaku in the world.” He idolizes the character Kenshiro from ultra-macho series Fist of the North Star and uses its theme tune when he enters the ring.

For his part, Nagashima was inspired by prolific voice actress Megumi Hayashibara. While he isn’t interested in telling anyone how to live, he does have a message for would-be predators.

“I want to say, ‘You think that people who watch anime can’t do anything and are weak, but there are people like me out there. Don’t underestimate us.’ Otaku can be strong.”

This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).

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Latest 15 of 51 Total Comments Show All

Klein2 at 07:55 AM JST - 26th October

Shinjukuboy

I have tried to say something about your post a couple of times, but whenever I mention Kirk Douglass or Jamie Lee Curtis' father, it gets yanked. So let's talk about Bernard Schwartz.

Let me just say that the ancient Greeks, Celts and Romans all wore skirts, it is true, but they did not also wear blue wigs, as the young man in the picture is doing. Saying that the skirt is the main problem here might be ignoring the obvious. One might consider context and motive.

Just for instance, Bernard Schwartz DID wear a wig, mascara and lipstick in Some Like it Hot, and did so for very different reasons. The skirt Bernard Schwartz wore in Spartacus and the one he wore to get Marilyn Monroe were different skirts with different purposes. Context, and what a young man chooses to wear along with the skirt, are at least as important as the skirt.
HonestDictator at 08:34 AM JST - 26th October

Well, he's ruined my image of Dokuro chan lots... I'm in touch with my feminine side too, but it helps me to understand women more not inspire me to dress up as one.
inakaRob at 08:56 AM JST - 26th October

Good for him being who he wants to be. He is also the reason the novelty of Japan has completely worn off.
ritalynn at 09:32 AM JST - 26th October

Says you. I still like many thing about Japan and want to visit. Guys dressing in drag doesn't bother me in the least.
yokomoc at 10:17 AM JST - 26th October

I like this guy purely for the amount of people he's peed off in this thread. Nice work dude(tte).
Altria at 10:19 AM JST - 26th October

You just got KTFO by a dude wearing a skirt! Burnnnn (moe)!
Good_Jorb at 12:02 AM JST - 27th October

I am not sure what the big deal is here? He's employed, he obviously does alot training(he's pysically healthy), his obsession with Anime is probably not healthy, and if he wants to dress like a girl then so be it. I can think of a lot worse things that he could be doing. He's not even the frist althete to do drag, Dennis Rodman was notorious for going out in drag.

As for the effeminate thing in Japan, it would seem that Japan is slightly ahead of the trend. Rail thin bodies, skinny/girl jeans and longish hair and general looking androgynous seems to becoming the trend among the younger generation.
ratpack at 09:55 AM JST - 27th October

And it was great seeing him getting knocked out last night....OMG what is this country becoming??? Guys wear make up / guys dressed as girls are tv talents / and now a K1 fighter dresses up as a girl!!!!!
namabiru4me at 11:27 AM JST - 27th October

It was great to see him beat down!
Altria at 11:30 AM JST - 27th October

I saw a couple of Japanese dudes getting hammered on the news last night - was skirt boy one of them?!
Yelnats at 03:37 PM JST - 27th October

He better be careful of the cops here. One of them might try to take an up skirt of him and be surprised at the results.
womanforwomen at 04:02 PM JST - 27th October

He is living in a tiny little world and seems to be stuck in it. He just needs to get out more, get real feel of what it feels like to be living in a real world. Does he know what it is like if a real girl kisses him?
space_monkey at 07:33 PM JST - 29th October

He needs to get sponsored by Chanel or the like to ice the cake
sctaber56 at 03:03 PM JST - 30th October

@sfjp330: Being gay is not at all synonymous with being sexually perverted. Please try to understand there is a difference. And why do you assume women are so violent and abusive? You appear to have some serious issues which you need to work out.

Moderator: Back on topic please.
sundoor at 03:09 PM JST - 30th October

Albert Kraus destroyed Nagashima recently...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep1RaFUNl-8