About

This image is from the anime show Turning Girls. I was inspired to start this blog by that show, and thus the image is a fitting emblem of this blog.

What is “gaikoku maniakku”? I use this term to mean, “A non-Japanese person anime viewer who doesn’t completely center his identity around anime.”

In Japanese, “gaikoku” is “foreign.” I’m not Japanese, and yet I’m addicted to their anime, so it’s reasonable for me to call myself a “foreigner” with regard to anime.

Many anime fans call themselves “otaku,” but in Japan, that term can mean, “psychologically dysfunctional loser who needs to be institutionalized against his will,” so I call myself a “maniakku,” i.e., someone who is very enthusiastic but who is nonetheless capable of functioning in a normal society.