Hiroki Azuma is one of the pioneering anime scholars, and his book, Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, offers a fas- cinating, if not sobering, account of the modern state of otaku culture. His thesis is interesting, controversial, and very important for fans trying to find perspective in their views on anime fandom. This panel seeks to discuss the contents of Azuma’s work and its implications for both the culture as a whole and our own identities as otaku.