Toshio Okada

Childhood

Okada was born on July 1, 1958, in Osaka, Japan. He has written several Japanese-language books on otaku culture, and lectured on the topic as an adjunct instructor at University of Tokyo from 1996 to 1997. He is considered the foremost authority on otaku and in addition, in a tribute to his own otaku-ness has been called "Otaking" amongst his colleagues and fellow otaku.

University, Daicon Film and General Products

Okada was admitted to Osaka Electro-Communication University to learn to use computer in 1978, but he could not obtain any credits in the first year because he had forgotten to hand in his course registration form. For this reason, he stopped completing all the courses necessary for a university degree, and he joined a group of SF fans and went into its activity. He lived on a monthly allowance from his parents who did not know of his dropping out. In the same year, he saw Star Wars as he was dressed as Darth Vader.

In 1981, his group promoted 20th Japanese SF convention (aka Daicon III), and he put DAICON III Opening Animation on the screen. Okada and Yasuhiro Takeda and their group established "Daicon Film" as an anime producing team and commissioned undergraduates of Osaka University of Arts to produce DAICON III and IV Opening Animations for the SF convention. Hideaki Anno, Takami Akai, and Hiroyuki Yamaga who were undergraduates of that university worked on those animations.

Okada realized that he could make a business out of selling SciFi products because he made a large profit selling garage kits and videos of opening animations at this convention. In 1981, he was formally expelled from his university. On February 14, 1982, he opened General Products as a part of his parents company to sell SF Goods in Osaka. Before opening his shop, he borrowed money from his parents and got permission to use term of general products from Larry Niven. In this year, he got married.