I just started reading manga again, if only a little bit, and yeah, this is fun.
'My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku, Vol. 1' is about Megumi Sato, age forty-two, who is divorced and has a sixteen-year-old daughter, Sakura Sato. Utterly bewildered by how things have changed since she was young (inconceivable I tell you!), she thinks back to her life as a high school otaku in the nineties - a closeted otaku, since back then they were stigmatised, ostracised, marginalised, stereotyped, treated as gross, creepy shut-ins and weirdos, or worse.Not like today. Otakudom, geekdom and nerd-dom are so popular and mainstream, and it's super weird not to know anything about anime, manga, movies, TV shows, games of every kind, fanfiction, and fanart.
How times have changed, and pop culture-obsessed people are certainly not loveless and starved for romantic relationships. Not like they were widely perceived to be in the nineties.
Megumi, the awkward, neurotic teenage otaku, tries to hide her loves and who she is (hint: she doesn't do a good job at it) in her new school, when she was ostracised and ridiculed in her old school, and wants to impress the class president Masamune Kaji, who claims to despise otaku. Amidst all the typical manga/anime high school drama (all intentional), like the rival mean girl, there's also pen pal drama, and a reluctant relationship and gravitation towards the class's only open otaku.
A love triangle is on the horizon. For now, I don't care, for 'My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku' is a very fun, funny, and not to mention nostalgic manga.
The references! They're everywhere! Manga and anime magazines are referenced, as well as games, and everything else. The dojinshi! The accessories! The manga artists! The pop singers! It should have been all over the place and obnoxious, but it manages not to be. There is a five-page index explaining the references and in-jokes in the translation notes at the end.
What an amusing, entertaining, cute little blast (to the past) it is.
I sort of wish it would have at least mentioned how different female otaku were - and are - perceived in society, as opposed to male otaku, and that certain side characters, like the aforementioned rival girl and pen pal, are given more page time and development; seriously, it's like they were forgotten about completely towards the end. It's all about the high school love story, and exploring otakudom. At least the male love interest is shown to have a multilayered personality, and depth, especially at the end of the volume...
Message: What is considered weird, abnormal, and an anomaly belonging to the sidelines of what is socially and culturally acceptable, can and will change in ten, to twenty to thirty years time, when they will become mainstream and accepted, even revered and celebrated. "Normal" is relative; it is a fickle, fragile social construct and means nothing, and can change overtime.
'My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku, Vol. 1' - what silly yet meaningful fun! What manga is about!
It's true: what is wrong with loving what you love? Loving something fiercely, even obsessing over it, is a good thing, so long as you are not hurting anyone, including yourself. It can be a life saver.
'The error lies not with us, the otaku. It lies with the world that spurns us. [...] In ten years' time, our positions will be reversed. Mark my words.'
Final Score: 3.5/5
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