Interesting Question...

[Mari]

Ohayo Minna-san!!!!
This is my very first post
About the word OTAKU, it is actually bad, really bad in Japanese, though it was used by occidental people as a way of saying "anime fan". After some time people understood it had a negative meaning and *sota* discontinued its use (something similar happens to HENTAI, as non-English use it as "anime porn" when it's real meaning is "perverted").
Tin-Tin --> Yep! they know it in the US (and here in Argentina too!) as well as Asterix & Obelix (don't forget Idefix!!!-whom I know as Fidexis )

Besides the live movie with Gerard Depardieu, there are several animated movies "Asterix and Cleopatra", "Asterix and Caesar" (I think there're some more, but I don't remember any other titles).
Well, I think that's it (for now)

 

[thomas]

Hi Mari, welcome to the board!

Good to know that there are other Tintin and Asterix fans around, lol!

 

[moyashi]

Tintin = tantan over here. One of my students is a big fan of him.

@ Otaku
yes, Otaku is a derogatory usage. Anime fans got the term over here because well, hmmm, if you met a few, you'd find that the word fits them pretty well. Otaku also includes the meaning of "mania" so even stamp collectors can technically be Otaku.

@ Hentai
hehe, yep Hentai is that "perverted". Its association with Anime Porn is correct too. If you've seen any Japanese anime porn, the word "perverted" is pretty light for some of the scenes that go on. "The bleu Girl" or something like that is a famous series along with "Rape Man". It's hard not to find perverted anime porn in Japan.

 

[thomas]

I never quite understood the attraction of hentai.

[...] Wanted to post some more, hehe, but I guess we need an adult only board for such topics.

 

[moyashi]

Maybe it's like going to Baskin Robins 31 Flavors to get your ice cream instead of the supermarket?

 

[thomas]

Overexposure, blunt senses, you know.... mmmh, Baskin Robins.

If we accepted hentai pages to our Topsites we'd have even more visitors. Have to turn down such pages every day.

 

[moyashi]

Really!

Don't worry about the denials. Apparently Google is doing something similar in Germany and France but more along the nazi lines.

 

[thomas]

Right, Yahoo! France was forced to remove Nazi memorabilia from their auctions.

I have to delete about 75% of all pages submitted to our directory, and more than 95% of those added to the Topsites, otherwise, as Mike Cash once pointed out to me, we might descend into sleazedom.

I've already lost a few members of our banner exchange (mostly Christian and missionary sites) because other participating members of the exchange displayed "inappropriate content", so they claimed. Other J-related sites are less scrupulous and offer Japanese bikini galleries, hentai, free J-Pop mp3s, ripped videos etc. I don't want to sound overbearing, but that's not the audience japanreference.com intends to reach.

 

[moyashi]

You've definitely made the right decision!

 

[Ancella]

I agree with Thomas and all of the people who have said that anime is from english words: animation. Well I also had read about it on anime magazine here, so I don't think it will be wrong.