الخطاب والتواصل
Volume 1, Numéro 2, Pages 130-137
2018-12-13

The Otaku Community In Algeria And In The World

Authors : Cheraifia Djihed . Bouhassoun Azzeddine .

Abstract

Manga and anime attract many Japanese and non-Japanese fans. This attraction is not only the result of its “eastern mystical sense of harmony with nature” but also the outcome of what Jean Marie Bouissou has called anime’s “…aesthetic of excess, conflict, imbalance, and overt sensuality”. Anime is especially appealing because it has the power of expression of people’s hopes and fears and it can be considered as “medias capes of dreams capes” that must be explored (MacWilliams 5). The best demonstration of this attraction to the world of anime, manga and Japanese culture is the anime fandom or what is known as the Otaku community. The Otaku community constructs one of the pillars that supports and furthers of the success of anime and the cultural influence of the Japanese culture across the globe. The existence of the Otaku community in Algeria is yet another acknowledgment of the success of anime and its ability to cross the borders of Japan to become a globalized product that is internationally appreciated. This paper aims to investigate the existence of the Otaku community in Algeria and to explore how active it is through conducting an online survey that is created through an online survey website called Smart Survey. The questions were directed to the Algerian population with two major aims. The first is to investigate whether the Otaku community is present within the Algerian population. The second aim is to examine its involvement in fandom related activities.

Keywords

Otaku community, Algeria, Anime, Japan, Manga, Japanese culture