Hige vs. Otaku

My biggest regret about this blog is naming it ‘Hige vs. Otaku’. The title came from a five-minute brainstorm on how my fledgling Blogger site would differentiate itself from the rest of the blogosphere circa 2005. I wanted to communicate my general distaste for most anime fandom and make my intentions as contentiously clear as possible. Mission blatantly accomplished, then.

But it isn’t necessarily the clumsy, puerile sentiment that bothers me the most about it; it’s that my alias features so prominently. Even to this day I facepalm about how egotistical that seems. Granted I wanted to make a statement in all its obstinate-teen glory but god how I wish I hadn’t put my name on it. The fact that it isn’t my real name is some consolation — it isn’t so insufferably self-promoting — but the fact remains that it does sort of suggest I masturbate in front of the mirror, staring intently into my own eyes, rewarding myself with a sly grin at the point of climax. Rest assured: my ego is grounded in a reality where only the brown M&Ms must be removed and I wipe my own backside (assuming it’s at least 3 ply toilet roll and Consuela the maid in on holiday).

My only excuse is that the name ‘Hige’, at the time, meant nothing to me beyond being a character in an anime I recently watched/enjoyed as well as being a Japanese word loosely meaning beard (which I had and still have). I didn’t identify with it in the same way I do now, it being chosen literally the minute I applied text to my first header image, and I honestly didn’t expect to keep this thing going for as long as I have. It must be a testament to what a NOT FAN of anime I am and how much I DESPISE ITS FANDOM.

Still, you’re here and obviously interested enough to want to know stuff about me and my site. The best I can offer is that I live in Glasgow, though I’m not a native (originally from the south east of England), and I’m in my early twenties. I like weird shit in my pop-culture. Literally: floating around in the top like a jobby that refuses to be flushed away. Anything left-field, unconventional, cripplingly bleak is generally my cup of tea. I also think Honey & Clover and Revolutionary Girl Utena are just about the greatest things ever. How’s that for subversive contradictory statements? I make those a lot. Incongruity is the name of the game in this house.

Boogiepop Phantom and FLCL are my favourite animated things (GAINAX being my favourite purveyor of animated things); MPD Psycho appears to my favourite drawn thing (though I cling to Naruto’s manga with a pathetic desperation). But I’m pretty much down with anything interesting and I hope this blog will communicate such in a more decompressed fashion. Ultimately I just want to talk about Japanese stuff in a reasonable and intelligent manner. I also want to improve my writing, as you can probably imagine.

I have a MAL profile if you want some filthy chart action. Disgusting.