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The Strange and Startling World of Japanese Otaku
In Japan, obsessive collectors of comic books and anime have a name — Otaku. Their lifelong devotion to their collections can result in some startling life changes in the fictional worlds they inhabit.
Mariru Harada is a model, singer, tarento and a member of the idol unit Nakano Fojoshi sisters. In their place are 13,000 manga (enough to earn her the title “manga sommelier”), 1,000 limited edition anime DVDs, and 7,000 videogames, including dating simulator games of the sort popular among lonely men.
Androniki Christodoulou
In Japanese the word Otaku literally means "your home," but it's also come to describe someone who is deeply interested in comics, manga, video games or something similar.
Sometimes these collectors go to extremes and dress up like their favorite character.
In Japan this is called cos-play.
Author Patrick Galbraith met many die-hard fans of Otaku in Japan.
The result are these images taken from his book "Otaku Spaces."
(Slideshow Photos: Androniki Christodoulou)