Aye, a basement dwelling nerd is a basement dwelling nerd regardless of where they are located on the planet, and are looked upon the same way. Otaku are no exception.
Otaku refers to men who prefer computers, games, anime, manga over forming real relationships. It includes obsession with cartoon or fictional girls, but includes more antisocial obsessions than anime girls.
Anime features prominently in Japanese and other Asian cultures. Nothing wrong with that, but not healthy (or creepy, if you prefer) to fixate on fictional females rather than forming relationships with real people.
The problem lies in the behavior of the anime consumer, in other words.
Not a fan myself. I live in Asia and see these characters, and the anime style, everywhere. It strikes me as juvenile and sometimes fun in a marketing context. Would strike me as creepy if someone told me they were in love with an anime girl.
No, that’s not what otaku means. Otaku can be completely disconnected from Anime, and if it is about Anime then it does not have to be connected to girls. The other way around liking the detective series conan or ghibli movies doesn’t make somebody otaku, just like enjoying a Disney movie doesn’t make you a cartoon nerd.
I couldn’t care less what you think about me, but please stop equating the “Japanese people” with “grown men obsessing over anime girls”. That’s straight up racist, disrespectful and misinformed (through foreign Anime communities I assume).
Read the whole thread before calling names. I asked the OP to clarify what "kind of people" who look at female anime characters refers to. I never equated Japanese people with anything.
Interesting to see this on HN, even though it was mass-flagged by everyone here. Sure, it's not a technical project, but it's a cool curiosity to see from a bunch of tech hobbyists contributing edits of anime girls holding programming books. It's a fact that a lot of people in tech have unconventional interests. Plenty of "quirky" projects like that. My only criticism is using Git to host these images. Are they even using Git LFS?
It is creepy, and everyone thinks you are creepy.