Where Do Waifus Come From? - A Taste of Database Animals by Hiroki Azuma

N.B.: Translating Japan made their own video on Otaku: Database Animals that approaches it from a much more "straight-on" perspective than me, and thus is probably better as an actual informative video distilling the ideas of the book—I highly recommend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zJ70lLITsc

Contemporary artist Murakami Takashi is well known for using "otaku" imagery in his works. However, very rarely do they get high praise from otaku themselves. Taking a look at one of his projects, Second Mission Project Ko2 (NSFW: https://meowzas.typepad.com/meowzascom/smpko2_wf_99_1.jpg), might let us know why. Here, inspired by otaku culture, Murakami is in essence creating a sort-of space ship out of an anime girl. But, most otaku can't help but immediately parse the individual elements rather than the whole that is a spaceship. We see the hair, the body—the *girl* first.

This tendency to see the surface parts rather than the underlying message of the whole has been described in Hiroki Azuma's Database Animals, where this example comes from. Here, I'd like to see if I can apply it to one of the most philosophical questions of our time... how waifu?

Thanks to Urban the Myth (https://www.youtube.com/user/UrbanMythXXXX) for editing this video, it wouldn't look anywhere as slick without them. I know some of you just said you prefer my usual style of editing, don't worry they won't all look like this from now on.

References and additional reading:

Human version of AI generator (https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/)
First waifu version (https://www.thiswaifudoesnotexist.net/), wall variant (https://www.obormot.net/demos/these-waifus-do-not-exist-v2-alt)
Waifu labs (https://waifulabs.com/)

Pause and select's channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfpDNSkMPnmMwZHhUyplbZg)

Azuma, Hiroki. Otaku: Japan's database animals, translated by Jonathan E. Abel and Shion Kono, the University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

One of the articles quoting Hideaki Anno - https://kotaku.com/evangelion-creator-predicts-the-death-of-anime-1706738732

Tezuka is Dead by Itō Gō. Some of the ideas specific to characters in the video can fall under his idea of kyara vs. kyarakuta. Need access for this link but I'm sure you could find it in full somewhere - https://muse.jhu.edu/article/454416

Ninouh's Anime Editorial: Anime Was a Mistake. Miyazaki's comments are very similar to the sentiment in Database Animals, the idea that anime is being created by otaku for otaku rather than creators with their own visions they wish to bring to it. Ninouh does a good job of explaining that viewpoint and supplementing with his own commentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtTBYMvLBbw

Pause and Select's Netoyome and Humanizing the Database. This video basically explains how Netoyome uses the concept of the database to its advantage, harnessing the mode of consumption many otaku subconsciously exhibit and turns it on its head. One of the first times I've seen discussion of Database Animals - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH4swT4_bak

Zeria's Is All Anime Postmodern? Pretty much goes over the ideas of Database Animals, but focusing more on the Lyotardian elements and comments on the grand narrative - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x3vtgsZADE

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