Okazu Reader Survey

July 17th, 2008

The Okazu Reader Survey is now closed. Thanks to the 300 people who took it! I’ll report the results as soon as I have a moment so you can see just who you are. :-)

Last night, I received a comment that made me realize that while I *write* Okazu for two 40-something women who happen to live in my house, I am often read by people who are younger, male and totally Yuri fanboys.

So I thought about it a bit, and decided that I’d like to know who you are better than I do. I probably won’t change my writing style or opinions, but I was just curious, because I have a pretty good idea of who I *think* is my audience.

So, if you have a few seconds, Click Here to take survey. It’s only 10 questions. I’m not collecting names or anything, I just want to know if you are who I think you are. :-)

Thanks in advance!

25 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Eh, Erica, you should add Latin America to the “Where do you live” list. You have a lot of readers there.

  2. You are quite correct. I apologize for the oversight and have added it.

  3. You didn’t put the Caribbean/West Indies. You have readers here too!

  4. Nancy says:

    Waiting patiently for re-posting of poll :)

  5. Dale says:

    I am an aged 20 LFB who loves your style. It doesn’t bother me that I’m not your target audience because I read your blog for your thoughts in the style you put them in. In fact, I rather enjoy the fact that I’m not your target audience because I have to re-evaluate how I read your entries and that teaches me to think outside my own box.

  6. well said, dale. And in a nutshell – that is why I continue to address, if not target, people like you. Thanks for letting me know that it’s worth the effort.
    :-)

  7. Anonymous says:

    Thank you for writing about Yuri! When I was a teenager I started reading your blog, and it’s helped me to see that there are other women out there who enjoy Yuri – it’s not just the blokes who read your blog!

  8. Thank you for reading Okazu!

  9. Anonymous says:

    Lets see…I’m a 14 year old bi female who lives in the California. The majority of manga I read is Yuri other than shounen manga. I don’t think many other of your readers fit my that criteria XD

  10. Anonymous says:

    What’s an LFB?

  11. As a dedicated Marimite afficionado, it has become my daily ritual to peruse, read your blog, get informed and share my thoughts (and creations), whether it’s about Marimite or not. :)

    The best parts? Besides the fact that I manage to link up with some very unique and talented people in the “know”, Okazu changed the way I think and gave me a sense of tolerance towards the “third sex”. ;)

  12. darkchibi07 says:

    Once this survey gets tallied up, I’m more interested on the Yuri fan distribution around the world. For some odd reason, I’m getting a feeling there are more Yuri fans in Spanish-speaking countries (or other Latin American countries) than anywhere else.

  13. Lycoris says:

    Definitely going to be checking out the results for this. I think everyone will be surprised to some extent. xD Also for the record I consider myself, straight, Christian, and pro-homosexuality. (Why else would I be here?) I’m actually really interested in Yuri for the literary aspects, the fact it pops up so frequently in one of my favorite mediums is a plus of course. (Currently adoring Simoun~) It’s also really enlightening to hear your opinions Erica. (As for the survey, I’m really not sure where I get my anime news, no specific sites just friends and the grapevine.)

  14. jaymiemizuno says:

    Maybe because of the repression there? But ah well; Thanks for writing everything, Erica; went through a tought time, so missed some stuff i like and am now catching up! (posted as a 24yo lily in the US).

  15. Neo_Hrtgdv says:

    Lycoris touched an important point. I’m also straight and Christian and also pro-freedom of choice, I know there are transgenders and many others that I might not really understand but I respect and support their freedom of choice, and then there are asexuals and while I don’t understand them fully either I support and respect them as well.

    And, in the Hispanic Yuri Community we have people from latin america, Spain a few from the US, a girl from Canada and when you think about it that’s a lot of places that like Yuri and speak the same language (Spanish) and add to it the fact that we are often required to speak English to get a good (office) job. Hey! Erica if you let me insert the link to the coyuhi here, it’s this:

    http://coyuhi.foros.ws

    It’s obviously in Spanish I’m just curious about how many people are interested/able to read it, if you can, say hi in the name of Okazu ^-^*

  16. Anonymous says:

    I am a 17 year old boy form italy… well i don’t consider myself a LFB or at least as far as Yuri is concerned… I’ve been watching Yuri anime and reading Yuri mangas for a bit now (almost a year) and I don’t consider myself a LFB because I never wanted what I read/watched to be ecchi or in some way aimed to a fanboy audience…
    Maybe I’m just tricking myself but anyway what I want to say is that this poll should tell you more about what people think about Yuri itself even if it’s also very intresting to know how old and where are the Yuri fans from nowadays ^^
    I haven’t been reading your blog for a long time and obviously this isn’t in any way some kind of criticism towards your blog which I think is awesome because when you give high marks to a series I know it is worth giving it a try ^^

    Pleas keep up the good work,Bye :D

  17. Megan says:

    Technically, the most recent Yuri purchase I made was a light novel (Strawberry Panic 2, and I think you’ll approve of the quote on the back of this one if you haven’t seen it yet ^_~), but I’m pretty sure that still counts.

  18. rphjas says:

    as a 51 y.o. hetero male..i enjoy Yuri very much because most stories show that True love is more important..and more rare…so gender is not a very imoprtant factor. The outward appearance of your soul mate is less important than the love you both have for each other..

  19. Sasa says:

    I’ve been thinking about this a few days now, and contemplating about whether I should mention this: Am I the only person in the world who finds “loser fanboy” somewhat offensive? Interestingly, I have been reading the Yuricon Mailing List and Okazu for much longer than I read all other manga/anime blogs, so honestly I didn’t know what “loser fanboy” really meant at that time, because I never came into contact with LFBs. Today, it seems to me that LFB applies to these males who like the moe aspect of Yuri or girls humping girls and thus are, hm, losers? What’s wrong with liking moe really? Do you really have to be 40 and lesbian or in some other way non-straight to qualify as “winner”?

    If I were a LFB (which I probably am, just that I’m a straight female), I probably wouldn’t be very happy about this word. But what can I say, I am a big promoter of the term “fat yaoi fangirl” after all *g*

    On a side note, although I have read everything Lililicious and Dynasty have released so far, my personal interest in Yuri mainly lies in character-driven stories with a focus on romance, I suppose. I find Yamaji Ebine interesting and love Minami Q-ta to death; I’m not a big fan of PWP and ‘symmetrical docking’ gives me the creeps. However, I would buy Honey & Honey and Pietà if they were available. On the other hand, I have regretted my purchase of “Blue” by Kiriko Nananan, but that’s probably the exception to the rule.

  20. LFB is not specific to moe in any way. It is a class of person who cannot distinguish between “Girls Gone Wild” and two women kissing because they like each other.

    We also have an LFG equivalent, which is slightly different, but in both cases the inability to distinguish affection and salacious behavior is a key factor.

    LFB is my English-language equivalent for “otaku” which in Japanese is still not a nice thing to call someone – it implies a fetish-obsessed, unhygenic, socially retarded creep.

  21. BruceMcF says:

    I wouldn’t venture an opinion on whether the L in LFB ought to be Loser or Lazy (let alone the intricacies of direct, ironic, and self-deprecating uses of the term) …

    … but I had to feel guilty at being able to tick a recent purchase of anime when the reality is that I normally can only afford to rent it, and it was only by a strange coincidence that I could tick that box.

    On LFB, I may not know what the precise definition is, but I am confident that any reasonable definition will apply to someone who prefers Itti Kousen to Strawberry Panic and Strawberry Panic to Maria-sama ga Miteru.

    But having cleared that hard-core-LFB hurdle, the worry is that simply watching enough of each to know that automatically puts me into fringe-LFB status.

  22. Anonymous says:

    I’m the italian guy who posted before (Maybe I should pick a nick or something XD).
    I think Sasa brought up an interesting point… I mean,I feel pretty otakuish for many reasons (one of them being because I watch quite a lot of anime) and my idea of the “LFB” is the person who likes Yuri in an “ecchi” way,if you know what I mean, and doesn’t make a distinction between romance series and “fanservice” series…
    As an example I enjoyed many Yuri romance series but when I watched the new anime Koihime Musou I never thought of it the same way as the romance series I mentioned before but I had a great time laughing because of the protagonist being harassed by the other girl in episode 2 just as an entertainment XD
    The thing that in my opinion may sound offensive (I’m not offended,really) is that just saying that your a teenage boy in the survey might get you labled as some kind of pervert who enjoys watching two girls making out and doesn’t give a damn about girls’ love… Please let me know if I’m wrong

  23. anonymous – I think it’d be creepier if you were a young guy who didn’t like to watch two girls making out. lol

    But no – I don’t make any judgements about people because of their age, or sexuality or gender or any of that. If you wrote long, rambling posts about why some particular fictitious couple you made up in your head is REALLY A COUPLE, then I’d make a judgement about you. :-)

  24. Anonymous says:

    Well I just feel relieved by that then ^^

  25. Neo_Hrtgdv says:

    wait.. 300!? we could have an army and yell “This is YURI!” LOL

    ok, bad joke <.< I'm glad so many people voted, I'm eager to know about them (us?) too ^-^yai

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