About Fuckin' Otaku!

Since the easiest way to explain things is to put it in a sort of FAQ format, I've done that here -- this is the general information about the Fuckin' Otaku world. :)

What is an otaku, anyway?

Otaku (oh-tah-koo) was originally an honorific way of saying 'your house' in polite Japanese, but the fan community there bastardized it into a slang for what we Americans might call a "fanboy"; however, the term "otaku" in Japanese indicates a much more severe obsession than the term "fan." Actually, the word has a very storied history and can be used to refer to a "maniac" of any hobby or interest; the association with anime and manga has always been a strong one, but the term did not become a Japanese taboo specifically until a lolicon (female pedophilic manga) otaku named Miyazaki Tsutomu (no relation to Hayao) went on a toddler murdering spree in the 80s in which he videotaped the dead bodies of the girls he killed. This horrific act caused a media frenzy which transformed the definition of the word "otaku" to emphasize obsession to the point of a dangerous or unstable persona, and it is to this day something you would not want to be called in Japanese. Leave it to American anime fans to miss all of this and start proudly calling themselves otaku, as they did with the popularization of anime and manga in the states over the last 7-10 years.

In the case of this site, when we speak of otaku, we are more often than not referring to those we have encountered in the American fandom; we are speaking of not any fan, but of the most extreme, dangerous, obnoxious, hygienically deficient, and/or unsavory ones we've encountered. Also, please note that otaku is not gender-specific, but we will usually use the term 'fangirl' to differentiate in our own accounts; force of habit, and it's easier to imagine the bumbling, scary male otaku and the shrieking, yaoi-loving fangirl.

What does [x] mean?

Most of this site will unfortunately not be very easy to understand for those who are not particularly in the anime/manga "scene." (Shudder.) For that reason I'll list a few terms commonly used throughout the site, as well as a few specific references we might use here rather often:

Terms/Subgenres

Anime: Japanese for 'animation,' a shortening of the English word. In the US it is used to refer to Japanese animation, but in Japan it can refer to any sort of animation.
Manga: Japanese for comic books. That's right, "Comic book." When some American fanartist tells you to look at the manga they're drawing, you can go "Oh, that's cute. It's called a comic book, you know."
Cosplay: Another Japanese word derived from english "costume play," which is essentially dressing up as your favorite characters. A favorite pastime at anime conventions and, unfortunately, among shameless otaku, Japanese cultural events that have nothing to do with anime. (Fuckin' otaku!)
Fanservice: "Service" for the fans; animated panty-shots, french maid outfits, costumes that can't stay on, nipple shots, and other such crap. Basically those godawful softcore pandering moments that anime is particularly well-known for. Keep in mind that male characters are quite frequently used for this purpose as well, especially when pandering to the crazy-boy-on-boy-fangirl crowd.
Fansub/Scanlation: In a great paradox of life, anime fans will spend their life savings on crappy merchandise of their favorite show in a dealer's room at a convention, but they hate paying for the actual anime they watch. Enter the fan-based piracy market, in which new shows are subtitled and new manga releases scanned and translated; they usually hit the internet a few days after first being published in Japan(!). These things are sometimes met with nervous shirt-collar pulling or cease and desist orders from the companies in the business of releasing anime domestically, but they are also good for the industry; they can provide free test-markets and build popularity and fan-bases for the launch of a new series.
Hentai: Japanese for 'perverted.' Yeah. Smut anime or manga. Also known as "H" or "ecchi" ('H' pronounced in Japanese). All of the things you've heard about with tentacles and such. =P
Yaoi: A genre of women's manga and anime that is a boy/boy variant on hentai. That's guys having sex with each other.
Lolicon (rorikon) and Shotacon (shotakon): The "con" can be dropped from both words, as well. One is the Lolita-complex, namely, severely underage girls, and the other is the Shotarou-complex, namely, severely underage boys. Both complexes refer to pornographic infatuations and subgenres of hentai and yaoi fandom. Incidentally "Shota" is the search string which gives catsonmars.com its highest level of hits.

People/Characters

Hayashibara Megumi: An utterly annoying and popular seiyuu who the otaku seem to think is attractive. She's not. She's really, really NOT. And also, she's married. Give it up, already. She's actually not that bad an actress, when she's not doing completely obnoxious roles -- she did do the voice of Faye Valentine; but lord, the woman should stop trying to sing. (She also did the voice of Ayanami Rei and Lina Inverse. That's why the otaku all think she's their dream girl.)
Kanno Yoko: A talented musician and composer who has scored for movies and anime (mostly anime) and produced some of the best scores to some of the best animated shows in Japan (Macross Plus, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and tons others). We like her very much.
Iijima Mari: The washed-up voice actress of the original Japanese Macross, who has released some terrible albums and tours the American con circuit. She's also rumored to be a terrible bitch.
Minmay: Arguably the poster-child of otaku (although this title is definitely shared with Ayanami Rei from Evangelion), Minmay is the obnoxious idol singer and "star" of the original Macross. Voiced by Mari Ijima, the character is an irresponsible, stupid bitch... and the otaku just LOVE her for some damn reason! The site mascot (courtesy Mizu) is an otaku in a Minmay costume. We call him Manmay.
Sakamoto Maaya: A voice actress and singer who's about the only seiyuu any of us can stand to listen to. Her songs are produced by Kanno Yoko, so, unlike other seiyuu albums, they're actually pleasant to listen to. Maaya has sung the theme songs (written by Kanno) to many anime that otaku are so good at butchering, such as Kiseki no Umi, Yakusoku wa Iranai, and Gravity, among many others.
Miyazaki Hayao: The undisputed master of Japanese animation, whose movies have delighted families worldwide for more than 20 years. He directed the original Lupin III TV series, the feature film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and his own creation, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind before directing, under Studio Ghibli, one landmark Japanese film after another. His films include: My Neighbor Totoro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle. 
Studio Ghibli: The legendary animation studio of Miyazaki as well as a number of other talented, big names in the animation world. More information about their works is available at nausicaa.net.
Studio Gainax: A well-known, well-established anime studio that gives us all here at FuKu rather mixed feelings, but is undeniably populated and staffed by desperate otaku. The studio is well known for a love of fanservice (bad) but also a strong sense of self-parody (good). While they've produced good works such as FLCL and Karekano they're also the studio responsible for shitting out Evangelion.
Anno Hideaki: This is the lazy bastard who gave the world Ayanami Rei and the other wonders of the fanservice-heavy, borderline-pedophilic, pretentious, unfinished, and utterly fucked-up world of Gainax's Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's not that I don't like mindfuck anime or movies (after all, I even like Lain despite its popularity with lolita fans) nor that I think the plotline is particularly bad; it's that this anime is such a pretentous, self-serving piece of shit thanks to Anno that I don't understand how anyone in their right mind can still enjoy it. I liked it until the last two episodes, just like everyone else, but after that load of self-serving crap I refused to even acknowledge the otaku theory that it was all metaphor for Anno's own personal struggles. I didn't want to watch some loser otaku metaphorically bitch about his life in anime form, if that was even the case. Actually, here's the bottom-line truth behind the "profound" sketches-thrown-together-and-voice-overs ending to Eva and the subsequent "everyone dies" movie ending that makes no sense: ANNO IS A LAZY BASTARD. He slacked off on the series, he slacked off on the movie, and passed it off as profound genius... and the fuckin' otaku TOTALLY BOUGHT IT! Actually, I have to have some respect for him; after all, he did make an entire culture of otaku believe that he was an utterly profound, tormented genius when in reality he's just a total hack.
Ikuhara Kunihiko: Director of Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena (of which he was also creator), he is the reason those shows have agonizingly repetitive patterns and scenes in every episode. A total con-whore, he grew accustomed to touring the American con circuit for several years due to the massive attention he got from fangirls. Like Anno, he masked incompetence and laziness as profound directional genius by making Utena get increasingly fucked up as it went on, which may have fooled the fuckin' otaku, but doesn't fool anyone who actually watches his shows.
Murakami Takashi: Boy, this one's obscure. I'd be hard-pressed to find a single Murakami reference in this entire site, but someone as important as Murakami is to Poku, the fusion and subsequent artistic analysis of otaku-popart culture, deserves some attention. Here's someone who turns otakudom into true artistic expression, a surreal, sublime, and genuinely inspiring artist whose work has been extremely well-received around the world. In other words, an otaku who transformed his perspective on the otaku culture since he could never be among the most trivial, annoying otaku, who has created incredible works of art in the process and made something of himself. If you're going to be an otaku, this is the way to do it, rather than going the route of the fuckin' otaku. There's an interesting interview with Murakami about all this stuff here. But of course, he still has the otaku mentality of how everything is bleak and meaningless, and his happy pieces are about despair. Amazing how little it takes to go from annoying otaku to artistic genius, isn't it?

What's the point?

The hardest part of getting a website started is figuring out exactly what the purpose of your website is. In this respect we are presented with a much more difficult challenge than, say, Otaku Ted, who is building a fansite to Rei Ayanami; his goal is to have a geocities haven of stolen official artwork and fanart culled from various Japanese fansites (he doesn't know which ones), while our goal is to (as necessary) define, address, attack, and caution against the dangers of the world of fandom. After all, it's easy enough to make fun of the obvious social deficiencies in otaku (and we do!) but if we can do something that will, perhaps, lessen the overwhelming stench of a con viewing room, then we will have made an invalable contribution to society.

Our goal is a multi-pronged assault on the scourge of otaku: public humiliation and derision of otaku, the shattering of fanboy illusions through crossdressing as their favorite characters, and, most importantly, forming a support group and outlet of rage at the most obnoxious and horrifying fans within the anime community. :)

Why do you hate anime and manga, and the fans of anime/manga?

We don't. We're huge fans of Miyazaki's movies, Cowboy Bebop, and a whole other array of delightful animation from Japan and the entire world; we go to conventions, and a few of us have even been known to indulge in the forbidden act of cosplay. (Okay, all of us.) That's why we know firsthand how downright uncultured, rude, obnoxious, unhygenic, and generally deficient many otaku are.

If this site can serve to educate the fan community and make it a little less collectively obnoxious, it will have done a great service to the world. If it pisses off a bunch of stupidass otaku, then it was worth it. :)

I should probably be able to figure this out, but I'm incredibly lazy. What is there at this site?

The Fuckin' Otaku website is divided into several sections. Most of these are self-explanatory, but just for completeness's sake we'll include a list of them here for reference:

Warning Signs: Also known as "Why Otaku Suck." Common features of otaku, and why we hate them. Don't be offended if you indulge in some of the acts listed on the page; after all, not every person who writes fanfiction is a degenerate otaku, but a whole lot of the worst otaku just happen to write fanfic or, say, cosplay. A good way to check and see if someone you love may be stepping down a path of self-destruction and 6XL lonliness. (This section is presently down.)
Anatomy: A graphical analysis of the typical otaku, with descriptive terms and the findings of cautionary research into the folds of flab known as otaku. (Warning: This section is crappy.)
Articles: Real-life encounters from various contributors. The meat-and-potatoes testament to otaku madness. Includes personal accounts, various rants, and insightful essays on both broad and specific topics related to how much otaku suck, ranging from specific encounters to why I My Me Strawberry Eggs is the worst piece of crap ever animated. This is divided into two sections (at the moment): 'Articles' on a hotchpotch (intentional misspelling) of topics, and 'Anime That Sucks!' where we dispel the otaku myth that just because it's Japanese doesn't mean it's good.
Cosplay: Some particularly legendarily bad costumes, with an especially foul costume winning the monthly Mega-Amelia Award for atrocious and inappropriate costuming. Updated monthly.
Hotch-Potch: Assorted creative offerings; anything pertaining to the universal message of Fuckin' Otaku that can't be specifically placed anywhere else, like comics or graphical submissions.
PERO: The Patronizing, Exploiting, and Repelling Otaku initiative. Adventures in crossplay, fake series recognition, and other successful and unsuccessful attempts to keep otaku down.
Store: A place to buy your own Cats on Mars and Fuckin' Otaku merchandise! We don't actually plan to make any money off the site, but, hey, if you wind up buying something, that's cool. =P
Forums: A place for the anti-fandom community to relax and engage in the usual bullshit ring of internet politics, social cliques, and utter nonsense that surrounds web messageboards. Have fun!
Otaku Mail: Hate or otherwise retaliatory email worth posting. That's right. We reserve the right to use any emails you send us against you later, particularly if you're a dumbass about it.
Contact: A means by which to submit your own horror stories, creative offerings, horrible links, or comments and questions about the site.
Links: Divided into some serious links and perhaps the crown jewel in the anti-otaku assault, an ever-growing collection of awful, awful fan links; only the worst of the worst, with a particularly terrible one added each month.

Didn't I see the guy who runs this site in a cross-dressing costume?

You sure did. I've been known on occasion to crossplay in order to better shatter fanboy illusions and scare the fuck out of them. (Sadly, this doesn't always work.) See the section on project PERO for more information. This is a tradition started when I was 16 at AX2k when a female friend brought a costume of hers for me to wear.

I think my friend may be turning into an otaku?! What can I do?!

Stay calm, don't be confrontational, and be sure to mention how cool some normal hygenic fans you know are; inspire an emulation of cool fans instead of hypersexual fangirls who want to rape mangaka or 7XL fansubbers who want to become anime producers someday. Do everything in your power to steer them away from godawful fanservice shows like I My Me Strawberry Eggs!, Battle Athletes, and Love Hina. Also, be sure to send them to this site so we can do for them what xenu.org does for brainwashed converts to the UFO Cult of Scientology.

Who's responsible for this shit?

The website is owned and operated by Tommy (Chiriko), but is largely supported with material contributions from Rin, Hank, Val, and other important people. :D Specific articles are usually credited to their author but the editorial aspect of them is also monitored by Tommy and the other Cats on Mars -- that is, deciding what goes on the website and what doesn't. None of this site would be possible without the incredible PHP talents of Louse, whose delicious webdesign inspired us to get off our lazy asses and actually do the site after 3 years; also much love goes out to Tama-neko, who helps greatly with technical and design issues. And finally, this site is made possible in part with generous grants and contributions from Viewers Like You.