Larp 101
Iāve pretended to like things before. Sometimes itās easier to. I feel like most people can relate to that in one way or another. There's levels to this sort of thing, however. The top of which is to ālarpā it. Larping has become such a prolific issue in some circles, otaku ones in particular, that I canāt even go a day without seeing the word. Itās frustrating, really. Not so much the larp itself, but having to hear about it constantly, the discourse it spreads, and the cycle of reassuring oneās own level of ācoolā. Itās made gatekeeping a more prominent topic, not that it wasnāt already. I get it, I don't want the things I like to change either. Gatekeeping always seemed like a huge cope to me though. People will always find the stuff you like, that's just the nature of it. Personally, I only talk about the stuff I like with my friends. I might make a tweet about something once in a while, but I never really cared for the clout associated with that. I don't feel the need to show the world I'm doing
To begin, Larp, or live action roleplay, used to have a very different meaning. Quite literally, it wasā¦ live-action roleplay, usually involving roleplay in person with props and the like. Thereās plenty of videos of star wars mock battles or medieval erotic whatever the hell online as examples. Currently, mostly in the zoomer/gen-A circles, itās being used more as a slang term for pretending to be something you're not. In particular, it seems to be associated with niche appealing genres such as eroge and visual novels/(some) anime. I assume anyone reading this is already aware. I saw its usage pick up in early 2025, and continue on through 2026, although I couldnāt really pinpoint what started the entire thing. I would point fingers at the post covid anime boom, but it's possible this started even earlier. Maybe around like 2015. Not so much the label as the pretending part, I mean.
Otaku stuff doesnāt mean all anime and japanese games, to clarify. Rather, it's content that clearly caters to a more niche āotakuā audience. Few would argue against the target audience changing for anime as a whole, with seasonal shonen and highly specific rom-com plots dominating the scene. Of course, isekai and fantasy have remained a staple since the mid 2010s, but I would argue those among other genres are still pretty targeted towards otaku. A more modern version perhaps. I don't think any sort of visual novel is really marketed towards a non-otaku audience, at least, not the popular japanese ones. I just wanted to clarify that distinction before I continued.
The larping tends to happen on social media rather than in person, and from what I've seen, it's concentrated mostly on TikTok and Instagram. If I had to guess, that's tied to the younger demographics those platforms attract. I generally associate somewhere like Twitter with an older audience, although that's probably just how my algorithm curated itself. The posts themselves usually consist of screenshots or clips pulled from edgy eroge titles or Japanese RPG-m porn games, paired with captions that gesture toward some kind of aesthetic or whimsical... quality. I assume the intention is to evoke a quote or idea from whatever game they're referencing, but in context it often comes across as completely nonsensical. It's pretty clear these people haven't actually engaged with the medium they're pretending to. That said, it doesn't actually matter. People who haven't seen or played whatever content is, or people who just aren't thinking too hard about it, will simply boost it anyway. It looks cool, and it's one of the most effortless engagement farms. There's no real thought or time investment involved, and it can pull in thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of interactions.
Aside from sort of disrespecting the work, there's a problem with this. It has to do with otaku being a subculture. Subcultures always disrespect the posers, those who pretend to look the look the look, but donāt talk the talk. Those who donāt hold the ideals of the community, and contribute to it in a meaningful way. Due to the hierarchies subcultures can develop, itās a big deal. For those unaware, sociology of deviance is the study of people who ādeviateā from society. Deviance can also mean those who break the law, however, Iām more concerned with people who aren't necessarily breaking the law. Deviance can always refer to actions that society would deem weird or un-useful. Iām more concerned with that aspect. This can too lead to crime, as some theories explicitly describe, but it doesnāt have to. There's many intersecting theories within the field, and no singular answer for everything. Humans are complicated and different. Iāll mostly be cherrypicking ideas as they're relevant to my argument.
Pretty much every subculture has two things they share in common. One of those things is a genre of music. You can't have a subculture without a genre of music that pulls the group together. Often the music is political, but not always. The second thing subcultures all share in common is a resistance to modern society or mainstream trends. Much like the music, subcultures often have strict political ideologies that many dedicated members hold true. Now, subcultures generally serve as an aesthetic and form of resistance that the younger generation engages with. Thatās not to say that older members canāt exist within a subculture, but often these people lose the will to resist as they age. Ultimately, people need to make money, and sometimes the only way to do that is to engage with society. Even then, these people can and do still hold their deviant ideals. Rather, they learn to put up with societal norms, even if it violates what they believe is better or true.
With that out of the way, I will use the punk hierarchy as a model for how I choose to believe otaku are structured. For punks, the āspectatorsā are those who simply enjoy the music. They probably don't dress up, or hold the strict ideals of the group, but they may enjoy the message and appreciate the music as an art regardless. For otaku, the analog would be those who know and understand anime, and maybe other mediums of otaku culture. Theyāve probably engaged with a couple shows, games, music, or art (most likely anime) and probably don't consider themselves a fan. I would also throw those āI want to watch anime without any of the tropesā types in this category. The āpreppy punksā are more in it for the aesthetic, but are a tier higher than the spectators. They may have punk costumes that they take off after the show, but they don't hold any of the political ideals of the group. They are often mocked by more hardcore members for their non-committance or fake committal. Finally, their commitment to the subculture is short term lest they become a more devout member. The otaku equivalent of this would be an individual whoās engaged with more than a handful of anime, is made aware of all the other mediums for the most part, and are very much in it for the aesthetic. To me, this is the tier that spawns all the ālarpā or posers within the community. Anime, and all otaku things, are simply a costume to be worn. It looks cool, and other people of the same league generally eat it up. They, too, are mocked by more hardcore otaku. And I doubt that they hold otaku politics/ideals very close to heart. Beyond that, there's the āsoftcoreā and the āhardcoreā punks. The hardcore punks truly love the culture. These are often the gutter/street punks or anarchists. The politics may as well be their entire meaning of existence, and they look the part. The softcore punk is much like the hardcore, but less so. That's basically the only distinction. Whether someone was a softcore or hardcore punk was mostly just how much they contributed to the subculture, and how people chose to perceive their rank internally. I think a āsoftcoreā and āhardcoreā otaku exists with a similar distinction. The hardcore may learn the language, if not directly contribute back to the subculture through means of creation. They will engage with multiple otaku mediums extremely often, as well as have collected plenty of otaku paraphernalia and fashion. The otaku ideals of free speech, creation, and uncensored artistic expression is paramount to their core, and generally they are left leaning. The softcore I would define exactly the same as the softcore punk, just that but less so.
If you choose to accept my bullshit structure, it probably becomes pretty apparent why larping would be an issue in the space. Both the softcore and the hardcore otaku are perceivably cooler. Why wouldnāt you want to pretend to be cool? Itās a whole lot easier than actually working up the ladder of the hierarchy. Otaku paraphernalia is expensive, media takes time to parse, creation is difficult and time consuming, exploring different mediums and genres is draining; the list goes on. A lot of people undermine the otaku room, which is an important staple of the hardcore otaku. Not only is it a degenerate amalgamation of otaku things, but it's a physical depiction of one's dedication to the subculture. All that money was funneled into aesthetics from the subculture, and it would be a huge waste of money to collect so much without some sort of dedication. Not only that, but they choose to live and breathe aesthetics in the real world. And it's definitely cool because people DO make these sorts of rooms without that dedication. With girls in particular, there's been a huge rise of non-otaku buying anime figures for the aesthetic alone. Itās led to situations where someone points out the type of content the figure originates from, and the purchaser suddenly denouncing the original medium. Most often this occurs on platforms like tiktok with younger audiences, from what Iāve seen at least. Subcultures are almost always perceived as cool eventually. They begin to diffuse into the mainstream, lacking the core ideals that made it what it is. Weāre seeing that happen right now, in real time. It's fascinating, horrifying, and really puts into perspective what the mainstream vs the otaku like about it.
This only happens because of the desire to be treated as higher in the hierarchy. Especially with anime being essentially mainstream, the barrier to entry for this sort of thing is through the floor. You can walk into an american mall, find their ali express ai generated anime flipping store, buy a couple demon slayer posters, go fishing on ami ami, and $500 later you too can make your bedroom look like an authentic otaku. At least, to the eyes of non otaku. The dirty secret is that otaku has never been about what you show the world, Itās more about.. obsession. Itās about being willing to tackle the social rejection that comes with being as such, the dedication to the subculture, and the desire to feel connected with people like you. The real softcore and hardcore otaku can pretty much always spot someone pretending to be something they're not. A real otaku says things and does things differently, in a way only other otaku can appreciate.
A strange result of the larping, along with the culture going mainstream to an extent, has been a recession into more obscure things. This can either be much older (~20 years) otaku works, as well as modern things that most people just aren't going to engage with. Now, it's cool to be as niche as humanly possible. Personally, I think too much focus is being put on the obscurity. Even hardcore otaku can only engage with super popular stuff, there's nothing wrong with that. The obscurity of the media isnāt what makes it cool inherently. If it's cool, it's cool. I probably see this sort of thing the most in the visual novel space, with the measure of coolness being both how niche a title is, but also how many visual novels you can make yourself read. I'm a pretty casual enjoyer, but to my non-visual novel friends, every title I show off to them feels like another world. There's a real perspective issue plaguing the current state of the community, but I could write an entire second blog post about this sort of thing. I just wanted to bring up how I see things.
On that note, my conclusion on larping is thatā¦ thereās a correct way to do it. Allow me to elaborate. I think most people would agree that larping is either undermining the artistic merit of something, if not undermining the otaku culture in of itself. Personally I do think art can be separated from artist. I can look at art in a vacuum and find something to enjoy (or hate) about it without any prior knowledge of who made it or why. Having that knowledge adds a lot more depth to the piece, but art is in the eye of the beholder. It is always better to not separate the two. Like I said, it adds a lot more depth and context to the piece. But itās fine if it's done. That being said, a lot of people like things for purely aesthetic reasons such as the re-boom of vinyl and CRTs. It drives prices up, and it sucks. Thereās nothing wrong with wanting either, though. Itās not wrong to desire them for the aesthetic either. Much less than scalping! I think you could make a similar argument for anime. Ultimately, these people just want to express themself with the emotions or āvibesā depicted in otaku pieces of media. It only becomes problematic when they begin to pretend to have engaged with the things they collect and post about online. Even more so when they actively disagree with the source material. Itās almost like owning a flag whos organization you dont agree with, but the flag was hard as fuck so you bought it anyway. Which is just absurd and lame as hell. My point is, if you want to larp something, maybe do it with an open mind. Take the 5 minutes required to actually look into what it is you're pretending to engage with so you know if it's agreeable. You donāt have to do this with everything you buy or post about, but generally it's a good idea to understand what lolicon means before you're on your 10th cute core whatever loli figure. Even if you don't agree with it, maybe give the source material a try anyway. See if you change your mind. If you still don't, at least you probably learned something about yourself, or the artist behind it. One of the few positives I can say about larping is that it exposes you to a lot of media you might not have otherwise known about. Please, take advantage of that to its fullest effect. That is the main takeaway.
This is really poorly written but Iām glad I took a stab at it. I havenāt really seen anyone talk about this in a longform context without it devolving into justifying one's own position on the matter. Iām sure I did that subconsciously myself, but I think it's necessary for an opinion piece. Let me know how poorly this is written, or if you agree or disagree. Iād be happy to continue the conversation. The next piece will be engineering/tech related. Iām not sure what itāll be about yet, but Iāll try to make it interesting.