And so ends the long journey of the Otaku Diaries. When this project fully launched back in January 2009 we had high hopes but the response has exceeded everything we could have imagined. Although we had done several experiments on the blog, nothing we had been as ambitious or as far-reaching as this. The purpose of this last post is to put a conclusion on the project as a whole. This is a moment of reflection before we move on to what we do next. I want to learn from what we did here to have out next major project be even better.

Personally, I’m proud that we were able to see this project through to its conclusion almost a year and a half after it came into existence. It wasn’t always what we expected it to be, and it certainly wasn’t flawless, but I’m glad we were able to follow through with it which will hopefully set a standard for any upcoming projects.

I must say overall I think the project was a huge success. We got a great response from people all through out the anime and manga community. We received tons of help from blogs and podcasts who got the word out about the project when it was starting up and needed the most help. We got great responses from the wonderful people who filled out the numerous extremely personal questions. As the posts came out, I saw several posts where people picked up ideas we had presented in the Otaku Dairies and either built on what we said or presented intriguing alternate ideas. We even got some constructive criticism which is often more important than praise. I think no matter what we got people thinking about anime fandom. We got them to question the way they looked at their fellow fans and maybe even themselves. I have seen other people trying similar experiments outside of academia and look forward to the results.

What was really successful for the project was our overall goal, we wanted to see and show others how diverse yet how connected fandom was and we wanted to do this through more than just a percentage and a cookie-cutter answer for questions. I think by going in with a positive goal, it really helped to keep us in the spirit of the project and enthusiastic about the posts. And I have to agree it was really rewarding to see people mentioning Otaku Diaries on their own blogs or podcasts or even just talking about it on Twitter. I think certain sections of the survey were clearly more popular reads, but that also stems from asking the right questions, in the right way, and getting wonderful, thoughtful, and revealing answers. And in this way making it anonymous was certainly the right decision.

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This is the last bit part of the Otaku Diaries with no major rhyme or reason to this post. This is just interesting tidbits or odd patterns that were not solid enough for their own post but fascinating none the less. There were also odd facts that came up in some people’s surveys that were awesome but really only related to them but we wanted to mention them anyway. These pieces aren’t leftovers as much as diamonds in the rough.

• 8 people mentioned Gurren Lagann or characters from it as inspirations, characters they admire or are like. It was the most mentioned show by name. 1 has a Gurren Lagann tattoo.
• 1 person is a twin.
• 3 people work in libraries.
• 1 man noted that he can have multiple orgasms and has had as many as 8.
• Many people didn’t know the term “shipper.”
• 1 person suffers from cluster headaches.
• The most mentioned anime directors in order of most popular are: Satoshi Kon, Hayao Miyazaki, and Akiyuki Shinbo.
• 1 girl said she had a huge crush on Dave Riley (from Fast Karate for the Gentlemen). Likewise 1 guy said he had a man-crush on Daryl Surat (from AWO).
• 1 person takes their lunch to work in an Neon Genesis Evangelion tin.
• 3 people named AMV Hell 0 as something they had watched in a group for laughs or otherwise.
• 1 person ended up breaking up with his girlfriend after he canceled a date to watch Yu Yu Hakusho.
• 3 people mentioned owning anime character body pillows.
• 1 person’s mother said she was “too older for cartoons,” but watches Pixar movies.
• 1 man’s fiance broke off the engagement because he wouldn’t have sex with her before the marriage.
• 2 people were army brats.
• 1 girl has a great love for Germany and plans to move there.
• 2 people mentioned they are most like Madarame (from Genshiken).
• 1 person’s father is bi-sexual, married but has a long-term boyfriend in another state.
• 2 people describe themselves as weeaboo.
• 1 person is home-schooled.
• 2 people are in open-relationships.
• 13 were/are officers in an anime club.

We hope everyone enjoyed the unique flavor of this post. Next month will be the last post in the Otaku Diaries. We will be looking our of experiences and feelings on the project as a whole. What did we learn? What preconceived notions did we have that were validated and which were overturned? What would we do differently and what would we expand upon in another similar experiment? Also expect requisite thank yous to everyone who made this possible and maybe even some insight into future plans. See you then.