The Project
All over the globe, they gather, eating their Pocky, flaunting their fansubs, sharing opinions on directors or OAV series. They are the otaku.

Japanese anime fans, a.k.a. otaku, have created a colorful, creative subculture. But what drove them to become otaku, and what do they gain from the experience?

That's what I hope to discover.

The Researcher      

My name is Alyce Wilson, and I'm a freelance journalist and writer in the Philadelphia area. No stranger to fandom, I was once the president of the illustrious Penn State Monty Python Society. Some of the same friends I met through that experience later introduced me to anime. I have grown very interested in both anime itself and the sub-culture that has sprung up around it, and I've even become involved in one of the biggest anime cons, Otakon.

If you're going to Otakon and want to find some great places to eat in Baltimore, visit Otaku-Chow.

My deep apologies, but due to an extended hiatus from this project, I lost all e-mail that had been written to my Lycos account. If you wrote me there to tell me about your experiences with anime fandom, please contact me again.

Ooh! A contest!
I would like to offer free e-cards on this site, so I'm seeking fan art and cosplay/convention photos. The best will be used in e-cards. All material submitted will be considered as illustrations for my book, unless you specify otherwise. For artwork, I need your name, where you're from, a title and a brief explanation of the drawing (how you drew it, what it represents). For photos, I need a title, the names of the people in the photo, what characters they're playing (or what they're doing) and where and when the picture was taken.

If a drawing is used as an e-card, the only information included on the e-card will be the name of the artist and the title of the work. If a photo is used, the only information included on the e-card will be the name of the characters portrayed, if cosplay, or a title of the photo. If used as illustrations in my book, I would use complete identifying information submitted by you, unless you specify otherwise.

E-mail all submissions (or questions) to: otakuresearch@lycos.com

The Latest, the Greatest
Coming Soon: Voting to choose the top five fan favorites in series, film, director, character and seiyuu. Stay tuned!

I just added a fun little thing: a Daily Cartoon. Check it out!

I've also added a Links page, where you can add your links for free.

New Polls are Coming Soon! In fact, there's one below!

Message Forum: Talk in depth about anime fandom