From my point of view
According to the Oxford Languages definition, the term "otaku" is used to describe people who are very fond of anime and manga. An anime is an animated series and a manga is usually more like a comic (both with Japanese origin), we have all seen them, they are those "cartoons" with big eyes.
That's fine and I understand, what I don't understand is why in our culture being an otaku is a bad thing.
There are people so fanatical about soccer that they dress in the color of their team, even in their underwear, because that's fine, but cosplaying is something frowned upon.
I've seen about 70 anime in my life and even though I've never played LOL, I like KDA's music and videos but honestly I don't consider myself an otaku person and I'm not saying this because it's a bad thing but because I'm not a fan of anime or manga, it's more than ever in my life I've read a manga but that doesn't mean I don't like anime. Still, I've been called an otaku, it hasn't happened to me that I'm embarrassed, on the contrary, it bothers me that they use being an otaku as something bad when it's simply being a fan of something other than "normal".
If your argument for throwing dirt on otakus is that they are very weird, they don't bathe or they don't have friends... I present to you Zac Efron, who is a fan of Death Note, Daniel Rathcliff who likes the series and movies of anime, Ariana Grande who liked "Spirited Away" so much that she got Spirited Away tattooed in 2018 and Leonardo Di Caprio who claims to be a fan of Miyazaki's animations.
From my point of view, being an otaku isn't bad or anything like that, it's a way of expressing one more taste. To my bad luck I don't have any otaku friends though, I would love to because for me it's the most beautiful thing when someone is passionate about something and brags about it.
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