The Geek Hierarchy

A friend told me this at one point and I thought it was too humorous not to pass on. What's the difference between a dork, nerd or geek? Well according to him, a geek is someone who creates cool stuff, a nerd is someone who collects cool stuff, and a dork attempts and fails at being a nerd or geek because s/he doesn't understand cool stuff.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, "otaku" is a Japanese word which literally translates into "nerd". So western fans of manga/anime, Japanese games and Japanese culture have adopted this word as a sort of slang term to identify themselves.

When the typical non-fan thinks of anime, he or she likely thinks of Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh! or Dragon Ball Z. It makes me cringe to admit it, because those are the types of shows with which people automatically associate me. Those dorks otaku who enjoy common Americanized shows like that tend to embarrass "geeks" like myself, who enjoy quality anime that tends to get tucked under the sheets in the west. That is the reason I've decided to name this blog "Otaku Underground"; it's both a way to explain myself and a place for the geeks of otaku to relate.