■Name Pepe
■Occupation Freeter (living away from home, trying to save money)
■Otaku History 4-5 years
■Girlfriend - Y/N? No
■If no, for how long? 3 years
■Favorite genre All (but particularly fast paced anime like Tiger & Bunny)
■Character you'd take for a wife? Shiino Kirari from Kira Kira, or Ichigo Wakaoji from K-On!
■Reason for becoming otaku? I first really started getting into anime when I was in middle school when I began watching late night anime like “Da Capo” and “Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.” But I had already begun to lay the foundations of my transition into otakudom when I was in my third year of elementary school thanks to Card Captor Sakura.
■What are your thoughts on the latest otaku boom? I think it’s a good thing that anime is really taking off, but “otaku boom”…I dunno if you could call it that, or how I feel about it. I guess there are a lot more people professing to be otaku these days but it’s not something I’d go declaring openly in public…
■Site you frequent most Yaraon and kakaku.com
■Word or phrase of the moment “Azassu” (short for “arigato gozaimasu,” or thank you)
■What are you hooked on at the moment?
“Mayo Chiki!” – I think it’s important to have at least one anime every season that you can just tune-out to and not have to think too hard about.
“Usagi Drop” – I wasn’t specifically aiming for the “moe” type anime, but Rin-chan is amazingly cute. All the characters have their own appeal.
“Kizu Monogatari”
And for the record, my favorite anime, which got me into watching anime, is “Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.”

■The next thing you want to buy?
●Ame no Kisaki Girl’s School summer uniform
●Suiginto or Suiseiseki (from Rozen Maiden) costume
●Captain Ace Shimizu’s outfit from Seikimatsu’s (Japanese heavy metal band) “final black mass” performance and His Excellency Demon Kogure’s full court dress (which isn’t sold anywhere so would have to be order made and would not be cheap…)
■How much have you invested so far? If I put a sum on it it probably won’t seem like much. About 500,000 Yen ($5,000) or thereabouts I guess. But the period I was most obsessed with anime was during high school when I had no money to go out and splurge on otaku goods with…
■What does being an otaku mean to you? No idea (lol). I got into watching anime and as a result was categorized as an otaku, so I’m really not sure what it means to be otaku.
■How do you budget your monthly earnings?
●Rent, food, electricity, gas: 50%
●Entertainment expenses: Not needed
●Clothes: Don’t buy any
●Otaku goods: It changes every month but I guess about 10~20%
In theory I should have money left over after I make the necessary deductions, but for some reason I’m never left with a cent to spare… Where or what the leftover money gets spent on is a complete mystery to me.