Cartoon characters

When I arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography the other Sunday, I thought it was early enough to avoid the crowds. But a long queue had already formed at the entrance to the particular exhibition hall I was heading for. Thirty minutes of waiting later, I was guided to another long queue - to gain access to the otaku section.

The term otaku refers to Japan's unique subculture, and the crowds had gathered for the homecoming of an otaku show, which wowed art lovers at the International Architecture Exhibition during the Venice Biennale last autumn.

Inside the exhibition, I found a makeshift market featuring a variety of manga and anime - Japanese comics and the film version of the same - as well as posters and computer-game graphics. There were also tiny monsters and dolls, gifts of sweets and chewing gum, as well as hi-tech toys and artefacts.

The display area, with hundreds of colourful posters hanging from the ceiling, featured hundreds of glass display cases where individuals had displayed their collections, and a model of Akihabara (the area of Tokyo which sells everything electrical - and has now become the otaku capital).

Previously, the term meant 'you' in conversational Japanese. Over time, it came to mean 'manic fans'. Most recently, it refers to real obsessives, usually male, who are preoccupied with manga, videos and games. They tend to focus on their own subculture, shunning mass-market anime films or commercially successful characters.

Their antisocial lives revolve around their illusory world, and their collections and hobbies, with some even taking part in 'plays' (where they masquerade as their favourite character). Many Japanese only learned of the term through the media, when people who fit the category committed gruesome crimes.