Quick poll: How many of you have at least one of the following items? An anime wall-scroll, a figure of any kind, an anime or game related wallpaper or even a gaming poster?

If you answered yes to any of these or caught the Eva reference in the title of this article you are undesirable to Japanese women. Well at least that's the case according a FujiTV segment that aired recently. Brian Ashcroft of Kotaku reports that the segment, which aired on FujiTV's Mezamashi TV "Koko Shira" corner. The general response has been that of "yeah yeah we know no one likes otaku" and this has been the topic of many hilarious dramas (Densha Otoko) and manga (Otaku no Musume-san) but perhaps it's time for a little outrage.

In the same article, he cites that a certain Japanese tabloid once polled 800 women to rank the qualities amongst men that put them off the most. The top 4 in order of how off-putting they are were: being an otaku, never having had a steady girlfriend, being unemployed and being a woman beater. Now considering this results came from a tabloid, I'd take the with a grain of salt. Hopefully there are no women out there who seriously think a domestic abuser is better than someone who enjoys anime. I'll admit it's practically ingrained in culture to make fun of the nerds or the otaku or anyone who's really into something that isn't sports. But honestly, there has to be a place that we draw the line. If you think about it this is a bit ironic considering that just last week a survey showed that 25% of Japanese now consider themselves otaku.

So before this editorial puts you to sleep. Maybe it's time these ladies think about the declining population or perhaps they should just get over it. If that isn't reasonable enough, then they should use the same standards for everyone. For example, a sports fan is a kind of otaku in my book. They just as easily get overly excited and are always proud to show off what they're fans of. But you never see anyone refusing to date them.

Feel free to sound off in the comments below.

A recent report on the Japanese “otaku marketplace” from the Yano Research Institute has conducted a survey in Japan if a person considers their self an otaku. Out of 10, 102 people who answered to Yano’s survey, 25.5% said they considered themselves otaku or have been called otaku. This is an increase of 5.1% from last year. The most notable area that has seen increase in the market is online gaming, making 299.4 billion yen in 2010. Dating simulation games has rose to 11.1 billion yen through efforts on appealing to female audiences. Electronic comics' profits increased to 54 billion yen by the increase of content, more tablet/smartphone usage, and lower costs. The maid and general cosplay market profits grew as well, increasing to 6.3 billion yen.

You can find more information on how much each category of the otaku marketplace rose from here.

Author’s Note: The term “otaku” is quite subjective these days, so I would like to say that this is increase of more “light otaku” (casual fans) and not so much as hardcore fans.

Sources: [Anime News Network, Yano Research Institute]

Editor's Note: This article follows an average day in the life of an Egyptian Otaku. Also ThatGuy is from Egypt for those who didn't know.

It's morning, your school bus is calling for you to get downstairs and be ready in 5 minutes. You get up grab your Gameboy or DS, if you own an R4, and finally your PSP in all of its hacked glory. On the average one hour trip to school or college, you meet other Otakus if you are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood with more than just yourself. During class you slowly trudge through the boring lectures and other things you are expected to learn. Finally the school day is over and you have a lot of free time. What to do? As an Otaku you want to watch anime and game except there is a small problem. Cartoons and anime are frowned upon, so it's hardcore gaming yet again! (During my last visit to Egypt, the game of choice was StarCraft 2.)

My neighborhood in Egypt is actually full of Otakus. It's partially my fault because while I was living there I sort of started it and it became a trend. (Oops, my bad.) When I arrived there 2 days after the international release of SC2, everybody had a hacked copy and somehow there were a local multiplayer tournaments going in every net café in a 3 block radius. (That’s about 8 cafes. It used to be 15, but a major depression hit the country.)

After a long gaming binge, our Egyptian Otakus walk out of their net café broke or near broke. Now it’s around 10 pm so they go home to sharpen their gaming skills or to relax with their console games. Only older, richer Otakus can attend special occasions, such as conventions, making American Otakus much more active. Otherwise our Egyptian brothers and sisters are living a different life but very similar in a weird way.

Random Facts About Egypt and its Otakus

• Egyptians tend to shun childhood habits like watching cartoons or anything animated.
• Most Otakus can afford to go to private schools since it costs six times as own a computer in Egypt that in the United States (due to the value of Egyptian currency).
• Net cafés are one of the best ways to have a LAN party in Egypt.
• Legit computer games, along with most console games (PS3 & XBOX 360 excluded) are very rare and overpriced in Egypt. (Read As: Yo ho yo ho.)
• Piracy goes almost unpunished in Egypt since the government cannot regulate much of the country's traffic. (Read As: Shiver me timbers)
• Egyptian private schools tend to be in the heart of either the desert, newly constructed suburbs or next to military bases (like my old high school).

My old high school.

This is the neighborhood mentioned earlier. The green is a suburb being built, the blue was a military base 3 years ago but is now an officer academy and the red is the school.