“Instead of telling someone how much you love something, try showing it.” A lesson in recommending your faves. / Thus Spoke Hijiki Isoflavone

Now, you’ll probably find hundreds of thousands of otakus on the internet each day, listing all the reasons their oshis are the best. If you take a closer look at each of these presentations, however, you’ll soon realize every one of them is tailored and “marketed” to a specific audience, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Depending on who these otakus are trying to convince, the hook of their posts can be entirely different. Are they trying to proclaim their love for their oshis to whoever happens to stumble upon their post? Recommend their oshis to fellow otakus of a different but similar genre? Or are they simply trying to persuade one of their friends to give their favorite show or manga a go?

Take me, for example. Whenever I have a new favorite character, I tend to gush about them to one of my friends about how adorable, brave, or heroic they are. Every time, however, they’ve shot me down instantly—all because my oshi doesn’t have bangs. Although it goes without saying that what’s on the inside is just as important, to this friend of mine, the existence of a full, non-side-swept fringe is absolutely essential for a character to become their favorite. I, on the other hand, tend to fall for characters with an exposed forehead. Naturally, this stark difference in taste means that any attempts I've made to convert my friend into a new fan of my faves are often futile.

However, there was one rare occasion when I fell head over heels for a character who had bangs. Now’s my chance! I remember thinking before loudly relaying the good news to my friend. Since they fulfilled the criteria, that character became my friend’s favorite too. At long last, I had succeeded in my mission.

This hook I used—i.e., “They have bangs!”—worked on my friend precisely because of their history of turning my favorite characters down for being tragically fringeless.

Similarly, it’s best to use terms and phrases that speak to your target audience, such as, “Attention, fans of the paranormal and the occult!” “Gather ’round if you adore depressing narratives about twisted brotherly love!” or “For people who love stories about big beefy men who are keenly aware of how intimidating they appear until they one day meet a child who sees them for the kindhearted giant that they really are and warms up to them!” and so on.

An otaku who’s obsessed with a character or series tends to lose the ability to see things objectively and will find anything about them adorable, even if their oshi only updates their fan club blog once every three months or the thing they’re into has the most ridiculous merch lineup you’ve ever seen. No matter how perfect your oshi is to you, it’s better to put those rose-tinted glasses aside for a moment and get real with yourself for a moment.

Even if you might not care about having a screw or two loose, the people who aren’t part of the fandom yet will most likely find your long-winded obsessive speeches a tad too unhinged for their taste and distance themselves from you.

Personally, I believe it’s important to maintain a healthy balance of passion and levelheadedness when trying to convince someone of your oshi’s good qualities. Rather than simply launching into a one-sided speech about all the things you love about your oshi, try to keep in mind that other people may not necessarily feel the same way as you.

One last thing you need to remember when trying to recommend something to someone is that ultimately, it’s all down to luck whether your oshi will become theirs too.

I know I’ve gone on and on about the different tactics you can use to persuade someone, but no matter how convincing your presentation is or tailored to your friend’s specific tastes, there’s always a possibility that they’ll be too busy trying to keep up with another fandom to make time for your faves.

In some cases, you might insist that if the person you’re attempting to convince likes X, they’re bound to love Y too. However, you need to be prepared for the fact that they might not necessarily be looking for something that’s similar to what they already love or feel annoyed by your suggestion.

Above all, it’s important to note that the need for other people to know about and like what you love is something you do for yourself and not some altruistic deed.

Of course, there might be cases where you succeed in proselytizing someone, and they genuinely appreciate your efforts, but the person who’ll obtain the most dopamine as a result of gaining a new otaku friend and receiving praise for their oshi is none other than you, dear reader.

I’m sure there are many ways of recruiting someone to a new fandom, such as sending them the complete manga series to read or making them a PowerPoint presentation. In fact, these missionary activities are in themselves fun ways of “otaku-ing.”

That said, due to the proselytizing nature of trying to convert someone into a fan of your favorite series or characters, it’s important not to put too much pressure on your target or badmouth other series in trying to promote your faves.

Lately, rather than actively recommending something to someone, I’ve been trying to get people to develop an interest in it by demonstrating how much happiness it brings me. Telling someone about how exciting a show is is fine and all, but in my opinion, showing a potential fan uninhibited joy and being my best unhinged self can be just as effective in luring them in. It’s basically the same approach as the North Wind and the Sun fable: “Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.”

Well, I suppose you could also describe this approach as one that targets people who are interested in seeing otakus lose their mind over something...