What does otaku mean?

Otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in Manga Burikko.

Otaku are often perceived as a group to be possessed of poor social skills, although, as with many other aspects of the word, this perception is shifting. In modern Japanese slang, the term otaku is mostly equivalent to "geek" or "nerd" (both in the broad sense; a technological geek would be a gijutsu otaku and an academic nerd would be a bunkakei otaku).