Taking a Decade Old Anime Otakuness Test

If I didn’t think it looked horribly wordy I would have subtitled this post “Stepping into a past decade before exiting the current one” or something similar. Thanks to Shance I rediscovered the Anime Otaku-ness Test 200, a 200 question assessment of one’s otaku power-level. The test is terribly out-of-date but I think it is a good primer for letting people get to know me a little better. I’ve taken a few of the more interesting questions for me and explained my answers right here. I hope this will be a pleasant insight into who I am.

3. Do you commonly use words like ‘nani’ and ‘baka’ even though you can’t speak Japanese?
4. If yes, do you know what ‘nani’ and ‘baka’ mean?
5. Have you learned all the Japanese you know from watching anime?

These questions make me sad. I spent my first two years at the University of Virginia learning actual Japanese instead of pretending like I knew any from anime. I don’t take Japanese classes anymore but I still study it in my free time.

8. Have you ever participated in an anime-related RPG session? (Role Playing Game)

I haven’t actually done this. The closest to it I have come is creating a character for Maid RPG for fun. Surprisingly enough her traits and attributes turned out pretty close to what I would have made if I didn’t have to rely on random rolls. I have a picture of her but I don’t think she’s in any of the sketchbooks I brought home for winter break. Her are her stats:

Attributes:
Athletics – 3 (3)
Affection – 3 (2)
Skill – 1 (2)
Cunning – 3 (3)
Luck – 3 (2)
Will – 1 (2)

Maid Types:
Heroine – Will+1, Luck-1, Composed, expressionless, unflappable, doll-like.
Cool – Skill+1, Affection-1, Earnest, single-minded, tries her very best.

Maid Color:
Uniform – Silver, Black
Eye Color – Vermilion
Hair Color – Navy

Special Qualities:
Shy – You’re very shy. Don’t forget to remain silent when encountering NPCs you haven’t met before.
Elf Ears – You have long, pointed ears.

Etcetera:
Maid Roots – Debts – Your family wound up with massive debts, and you found yourself coming to work at the mansion as repayment.
Stress Explosion – Seclusion – You go into your room and won’t come out, not even for food
Maid Weapon – Stun Gun – You keep a stun gun ready to attack enemies.

Maid Power:
Punishment – When other maids make mistakes, you can gain the right to punish them, without them having a chance to make an opposed roll.

Favor: 4
Spirit: 20

9. Did you name your computer after an anime character?

No but I did name my computers with a Touhou theme. My desktop is named Alice and my tablet PC is named Grimoire of Alice. Furthermore I also named my desktop’s harddrives after Touhous related to Alice. I tried to make sure the purpose of the drives matched the traits of the Touhou I named it after.

Internal HDs
Marisa (C:) – This is where the Windows 7 OS is installed since Marisa is what makes Alice tick.
Nitori (D:) – Where the vast majority of my programs are installed.
Patchouli (E:) – Hikikomori Patchy takes care of my main library drive which is home to my artwork, Japanese learning materials, manga, music, pictures and installers.
Medicine (F:) – My current anime drive. Name has a double meaning since I bought this as a cure to replace my external Hourai.

External HDs
Shanghai (G:) – My default download destination before I sort the files.
Hourai (X:) – My old anime drive. Has some bad sectors and I don’t trust using it anymore so it’s currently retired.
Both are named after Alice’s main dolls since they are accessories attached via external wires.

I use this image cropped for my cellphone

I just got a new cellphone yesterday too and the first thing I did when I got home was transfer an image of Alice to use as my background. I still need to decide on a name for her and to figure out what to use as a ringtone.

13. Have you ever sat and watched anime for twelve or more hours, straight? (bathroom breaks OK, eating away from the TV or sleeping are not OK)

I get a little overexcited about anime at times so often I’ll marathon a whole series if it is all out. Some examples include Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Hitohira, iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia, Mai-HiME, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Mnemosyne, Shigofumi, Shuffle! and Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito to name a few. The only time one of my sessions broke twelve hours though was when I spent a Thanksgiving weekend watching all of Full Moon wo Sagashite. It’s still one of my favorites anime and I cried really hard at the end.

14. Have you ever gone to Japan with the sole intention of buying anime-related goods?
15. Have you ever considered moving to Japan to make it easier to obtain anime-related goods?
16. Did you move to Japan to make it easier to obtain anime-related goods?

No X3. I actually lived in Japan for several years when I was little and that’s the reason I turned out like I did. I may not have learned Japanese but I grew really attached to Japanese culture as a whole and I would really like to go back one day (maybe after graduation?). I can trace many of my interests including anime, gaming and drawing to the time I spent there. I’m not sure how different I would be if I did not have that experience.

21. Do you own any imported, original form anime?

The only imported anime I own is the first anime adaptation of Mahou Sensei Negima. I didn’t particularly like the anime except for the episode with Konoka’s date and the one that focused on Sayo but I bought it anyway in hopes of a better second season. Unfortunately my hopes were not answered until the recent OVAs that were packed-in with the manga releases.

24. Do you own any anime models?
25. Have you ever constructed an anime model?

I have a decent number of figures. My favorite one though is my Alter Unison Vita which I received for my birthday a lot earlier this year. I also like my GoodSmile Nanoha and Alter Fate and Max Factory Hoshii Miki. I’m really protective about them so I keep them safe and dust-free behind glass in my curio at home. It’s also the reason I never keep any with me when at school.

A fun fact: I also used to build Gundam model kits in middle school. I haven’t done any in forever but I’d love to build Hasegawa’s F-22A Amami Haruka, my preferred aircraft in Ace Combat 6, but I’m already stretching my budget as it is.

29. Do you own any stuffed toys of anime characters?
30. Do you have an anime-related calendar hanging up near your desk?
31. Do you have any anime-related posters?

I own a ton of plushies. My favorites are my 6 Fumofumo Touhous and I have 3 more of those on the way next month from AmiAmi. Too bad Flan escapes me yet again so I still don’t have a full set. Currently I have a Higurashi calender hanging in my room at school but I still haven’t found a new one yet. I have a few anime posters but I prefer to hang up my own artwork instead.

38. Do you own any Ani-Mayhem cards?
39. Do you play Ani-Mayhem?

I honestly have no clue what these are. The closest things that come to mind are the Lycee and Weiss Schwarz crossover trading card games. I’ve thought of buying some before but I realized I wouldn’t actually have anyone to play with.

43. Have you ever designed an anime T-shirt?

In fact I have. For the past two years I’ve designed UVA’s anime club T-shirts. More accurately I started the tradition of making club shirts. I’ll most likely make next year’s T-shirt as well.

69. Do you own any anime music CD’s?
70. Have you memorized the lyrics to your favorite anime theme song even though you don’t understand Japanese?
71. Do you own more anime music CD’s than any other kind of CD’s
72. Do you find yourself humming/singing anime songs while in public?

I do own more anisong CDs than other kinds since I only own like 5 CDs total. I’d like to buy all the music I listen to honestly but there’s no way I can currently afford to. One day when I’m a millionaire doctor I’ll do it. I always end up memorizing songs after a few times listening and end up singing or humming subconsciously in public. I remember doing it a few times on the walk to Japanese and I think Sensei heard it a few times.

85. Have you ever done karaoke to anime music?

I do it more than anyone else I know. My karaoke-love is a minor meme among my friends since I get really enthusiastic about it singing randomly and even suggested karaoke night as an event. I’ve sung Do-Dai (iM@S), i (iM@S), melt (Vocaloid) and Rainbow Girl (Vocaloid) for my club’s karaoke night before but next time I want to do Romeo and Cinderella (Vocaloid), I Want (iM@S) and Precious Memories (Kimi ga Nozomu Eien) the next time we do it.

93. Do you know what the “Anipike” is?

I used to use Anipike during elementary and middle school back when the internet really didn’t have much to offer. I didn’t have much access to anime at the time so I surfed a bunch of the anime shrine sites to learn about anime that I never saw. This is the reason I surprise some of my friends with my old anime-recognition capabilities despite not actually watching most of them.

114. Do you use the name of an anime character as your nickname/handle?

It’s written on my about page but I’ll just retype it here. My name comes from “Honya-chan” the nickname of my favorite character ever Miyazaki Nodoka (Mahou Sensei Negima). I really admire every part of her and I wish I was a little more like her.

118. Have you ever been to an anime club meeting?
119. Are you a member of an anime club?
120. Are you an officer of an anime club?

Yes to all of the above. I’ve been a member of my University’s anime club since my first semester. I’ve also been an officer for basically the same amount of time. Currently I serve as the Director and acting Vice-President with my main responsibilities being organizing and administering showings and planning regular club meetings.

149. Can you recognize any seiyuu visually?
150. Can you immediately identify any seiyuu by the sound of their voice?
151. Do you own any seiyuu paraphenilia? (posters, CD’s, etc…)
152. Have you ever met your favorite seiyuu?

For my favorite seiyuu such as Noto Mamiko, Kugimiya Rie, Tamura Yukari, etc. it’s easy for me to identify them solely by looks or the sound of their voice. Despite my love of seiyuu I don’t actually own any specialized merchandise. My favorite seiyuu is Noto Mamiko but I never met her. Worst part is that I was planning to meet her at Otakon 2007 but in the end I wasn’t able to go to the con. To this day not meeting her when I had the chance is my one otaku regret.

161. Have you ever had an anime-related dream?

This happens every now and then. Usually it’s never about a single series but rather my dream world is an amalgamation of several anime and my real-life experiences. I find it fun to share my weird dreams with my friends. After I told them about one in which we all died the standard response whenever someone brings up the topic of dreams is “Did we all die?” It’s kind of embarrassing to tell them now but it’s still enjoyable.

168. Have you ever drawn any anime fanart?
169. Have you created a doujinshi featuring anime characters?
170. Have you ever written any anime fanfic?

[Original Post Here]

I sometimes draw anime fanart and I once thought of drawing a Touhou doujin (I have a partial script done at least). However I much prefer to work on original content. As such I’ll be spending much of my winter break writing and coloring graphics for my kinetic novel. I’d rather not reveal anything about it to the public until I have something significant to show but I really want to share it with the world one day.

189. Have you studied Japanese just so you will be able to watch untranslated anime and/or read untranslated manga?

No. My main reason for studying Japanese is translating songs which I now do as a hobby. I mean I do watch/read untranslated stuff on occasion but that’s a byproduct of learning Japanese, not the reason.

190. Have you ever answered a question with “hai”?

I’ve been teased about this a few times but I have answered with “hai” when not speaking Japanese. For some reason I sometimes accidentally answer “hai” at restaurants without me realizing until someone tells me. Then I get all flustered and embarrassed.

194. Do native Japanese people walk into your room and go “sugoi!”?

I don’t even know how this is a question. It would be cool to be on a crazy Japanese TV show but I’ve never had a random Japanese person walk into my room and say that.

Finally the result:

You answered “yes” to 84 of 200 questions, making you 58.0% otaku pure (42.0% otaku corrupt).
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 18%, based on a comparison of your test results with 91823 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 66.4%.
The first submission for this test was received August 5, 1998.

I bet I would have scored higher if the test was redone for modern purposes. I mean how was I supposed to know what GRIT and Son May were? Oh well. It was fun to redo this test after roughly a decade since last seeing it. At the very least it was a fun excuse to introduce a little bit more about me and dig up some old posts.