Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another person's house or family (お宅, otaku). This word is often used metaphorically, as an honorific second-person pronoun. In this usage, its literal translation is "you". For example, in the animeMacross, first aired in 1982, Lynn Minmay uses the term this way.The modern slang form, which is distinguished from the older usage by being written only in hiragana (おたく), katakana (オタク or, less frequently, ヲタク) or rarely in rōmaji, first appeared in public discourse in the 1980s, through the work of humorist and essayist Akio Nakamori. His 1983 series An Investigation of "Otaku" (『おたく』の研究 "Otaku" no Kenkyū?), printed in the lolicon magazine Manga Burikko, applied the term to unpleasant fans in caricature. Animators Haruhiko Mikimoto and Shōji Kawamori had used the term among themselves as an honorific second-person pronoun since the late 1970s.Supposedly, some fans used it past the point in their relationships where others would have moved on to a less formal style. Because this misuse indicated social awkwardness, Nakamori chose the word itself to label the fans. Morikawa Kaichirō identified this as the origin of its contemporary usage.
Another claim for the origin of the term comes from the works of science fiction author Motoko Arai, who used the word in her novels as a second-person pronoun and the readers adopted the term for themselves.However, a different claim points to a 1981 Variety magazine essay.
In 1989, the case of Tsutomu Miyazaki, "The Otaku Murderer", brought the fandom, very negatively, to national attention.Miyazaki who randomly chose and murdered four girls had a collection of 5,763 videotapes, some containing anime andslasher films that were found interspersed with videos and pictures of his victims. Later that year, the contemporary knowledge magazine Bessatsu Takarajima dedicated its 104th issue to the topic of otaku. It was called Otaku no Hon (おたくの本lit. The Book of Otaku?) and delved into the subculture of otaku with 19 articles by otaku insiders, among them Akio Nakamori. This publication has been claimed by scholar Rudyard Pesimo to have popularized the term.
