Cletus' First Collegiate Dictionary of Japanese Chin Music
otaku
Nerd, freak. This word is also a polite way to say "your house," but in the early 1980s, it began morphing into its current, more prevalent meaning. Journalist Akio Nakamori wrote a series of articles in 1983 entitled “The Study of Otaku” (Otaku no Kenkyuu) that talked about the qualities of hardcore anime, manga and video game fans.
The term took on a more sinister twist in 1989, when Tsutomu Miyazaki was arrested for the murder of four preteen girls. His apartment was littered with thousands of anime videos and manga, including slasher films, rape fantasies and other hardcore porn. In 1992, the term was lobbed across the Pacific with a much more positive spin with the North America release of the anime classic Otaku no Video. This animated film tells the story of disaffected youth who find joy in creating anime. Promotion of the movie included this call to arms: “Fight! OtaKing! Defend the hopes and dreams of otaku everywhere!”