The title of the book is Otaku Yogo Jiten Daigenkai, or The Dictionary of Otaku Terms, and it started out as a university project by Yoshiko Koide’s students. It came about as she had observed how her students normally would say nothing during class, but when she met them outside, they were brimming with excitement to talk about their interests.
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So, she had her 2022 class compile the words that they used within their fandoms into a dictionary, and the students self-published their work and sold it at the college festival.
Due to the success of the project, Koide had her 2023 class do the same. Then, Sanseido, the Japanese publishing company known for their textbooks and dictionaries approached them to publish the two volumes of otaku terms into a book, which had just been launched a week ago.
When Sanseido released sample pages of the book, the internet unleashed a firestorm. Dedicated fans from different fandoms lambasted the work, first, accusing it of gatekeeping, then, nitpicking the different terms included in the dictionary, and even threatening the women who had compiled the words. Because of this negative reaction, the publisher removed the names of the contributors from the book, leaving only Koide credited, and revised entries to reflect the sentiments of the slighted fans.
What started out as a fun project became a horrendous affair. The fact that Sanseido picked up the project and decided to publish it added such weight to the work, that people took offense and felt as though their identity had been attacked. It just goes to show how strongly fans feel for the things they love and how protective they are of them.
(Image credit: CDJapan)
Source: neatorama