In Japan, there are male nerds and female nerds. And there are key differences between the two, besides their gender: The way they shop and interact with fandom are not the same, reports Excite Bit.
An individual connected to otaku (geek) goods told Excite that there's apparently a discrepancy in how much male and female otaku spend on items. The example given was that male nerds would be willing to spend up to, say, ¥9,000 (US$107) on a hug pillow cover for a cute character. What's more, male geeks in Japan are apparently very particular about quality and are willing to pony up extra cash for that quality.
Female geeks, on the other hand, are more grounded in reality with their nerd shopping and supposedly max out at ¥3,000 or ¥4,000 ($36 to $48) for an otaku CD. Things like inexpensive clear file folders apparently also do well.
Another key difference, the Excite piece adds, is that female geeks like characters and the voice actor who brings that character to life—the voice actor must "suit" the character. Male otaku, however, are more willing to embrace the character independently.
As many Kotaku readers will probably know, there are numerous kinds of otaku (train otaku, gun otaku, movie otaku, etc). In Japan, there are many female otaku who follow musicals and spend large sums of money to see them. The Excite piece is more centered on anime, manga, and video game otaku, and it didn't take into account these big spending musical otaku. Ha, musical otaku! That sounds nice.
グッズ関係者が語る「男のオタクと女のオタクの違い」 [ニコニコ via Yaron!]
(Top photo: 電車男)
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