Forward

Nice to meet you. I’m Steward McOy. Thank you for reading Neo Akihabara Meipouchou.

This trilogy grew out of a joke between friends almost 6 years ago, and there were many times that I thought I would never finish, but no matter how many times I abandoned it, I always returned to it.

In this story, a group of Western anime fans form their own nation with a culture based around anime fandom. As time progresses, they begin to substitute English words for Japanese words that they learned by watching subtitled anime. It’s not really possible to learn a language this way, so they use many words incorrectly. As such, the translation notes in these books convey what the characters mean, which is not always what the Japanese words mean.

It should go without saying that you should not try to learn any Japanese from these books.

Hopefully, it is also obvious that this story is not a critique of anime or any other aspect of Japanese culture. Instead, it is a story based on observations of how some Western otaku interpret anime and related media through their own cultural lenses, the mistakes they make doing so, and how they use fandom to manipulate and hurt others.

That said, please do not use this work to belittle others for the media they do or do not enjoy. As I hope is obvious from the story, I love anime. Although the story contains some light satire of the Western anime community, I am a a part of that community. I am not trying to ostracize, bully, or make fun of anyone for liking anime. A lot of us were on the receiving end of enough of that in school. Meipouchou is first and foremost entertainment. I don’t know how large an audience a story like this has, so I will be happy if other people enjoy it, whether they like anime or not.

- Steward