"so many otaku -- calling them 'sick' loses all meaning"
Topic: Japanese life
Otaku proud of it
Japan's 'otaku' have been branded just about everything from geeks to anoraks, but they couldn't care less
The Japan Times: April 6, 2004
....Last December's Comic Market convention at Tokyo Big Site attracted a staggering 420,000 people: per day, more visitors than the Tokyo Motor Show. ...As counterculture gatherings, otaku conventions dwarf mere "political" events. The anti-Iraq war demonstrations in Tokyo, despite being the largest of their kind for decades, only had tens of thousands of participants, whereas large otaku gatherings regularly attract hundreds of thousands.....
"When we reach the present situation -- where there are so many otaku -- calling them 'sick' loses all meaning," says Hiroki Azuma. "There are just too many."