If you are into anime or Japanese idols, chances are you may have come across Wotagei, a dance revolving around waving your arms with glow sticks known as cyalume sticks in intense movements. For the uninitiated, Wotagei is an abbreviation of “Wotaku no Gei”, which means “the art of Otaku”, and is a form of cheering where fans integrate arm-waving, clapping, and chanting into their dances to scream support to their favorite idols.

During our time at Comic Fiesta 2023, we got a chance to chat with Midori, president of the Malaysia Wotagei Club about the dance form and why you should be interested in learning it.

As mentioned, Wotagei means the art of Otaku, and as Midori would put it, “Basically, an art that is created by Otakus for Otakus.”

For those unaware, the Malaysia Wotagei Club had a panel at Comic Fiesta 2023 where they introduce the dancing art form to attendees. One of Midori’s goals is to bring the popularity of Wotagei as it used to be back in the day.

However, he mentioned that there are definitely difficulties in bringing the dance into Malaysia especially when it comes to popularising it in the country and bringing the community together.

As for Midori’s own experience, he first found out about the art form by watching online videos on YouTube that were shot in Japan, saying “I just felt that it’s so amazing and it’s so cool and I wanted to do it for myself.” 

“The person that I idolize in Wotagei is a person by the name of Latte, a long-time Wotagei player from Tokyo, Japan. He is one of my main inspirations in doing Wotagei, I have been learning Wotagei from him for six to seven years.”

Is the Dance Difficult? 

Considering videos of Wotagei showcase the dance to have many intense movements, we wonder if dancing experiences are required to learn the art form. To that, Midori noted that “anyone can learn Wotagei from scratch, and you do not necessarily need to have any dancing experience beforehand whatsoever.”

“Wotagei is pretty easy to learn. It is just step by step and that is all.”

When it comes to the time beginners take to learn the dance moves, Midori mentioned “It depends on how much free time you have for yourself. Wotagei is really not that difficult to learn, it depends on how much time you can put into learning it and how passionate are you.”

He also mentioned that equipment is not necessary for learning, noting that you can simply learn the moves using your hand.

“The addition of light sticks for when you’re dancing in a dark place when shooting a video per se is just to make it look more beautiful and that is the core of what Wotagei should be like.”

As for moves easily approachable and learnable by beginners, Midori suggested the “Romance” as it is the most popular technique there is in Wotagei, adding “pretty much even the people who are not exposed to Wotagei have seen it before at least once.”

The Otaku Culture

While the Wotagei culture mainly focuses on the Anime, Comic, and Games (ACG) community, Midori expressed that it can be exposed to any pop culture or dance events.

“It’s just nice to see Wotagei in all sorts of community and organizing committees and all of that stuff.” 

The Oshi no Ko anime series aired in April of this year and took the anime scene by storm, garnering many positive responses from fans and quickly becoming one of the most popular series that season. The manga series is written by Aka Akasaka of “Kaguya-sama: Love is War” fame and explores the world of idols and the entertainment industries.

Having a strong focus on idols, the dance was also heavily featured in the anime with several iconic scenes of the dance moves. When asked if the boom of Oshi no Ko’s popularity has brought in more people into the art form, Midori agreed that it does.

“Yes. This year, I believe one of the most popular anime is Oshi no Ko and I personally love the show myself. It is amazing how they put much focus on people who do Wotagei, especially people like us. It puts a smile on my face when I watch the anime and I can’t wait for the second season.”

Advice

As we close to the end of our interview, we asked if Midori had any advice for people interested in learning the dance. This is what he had to say.

“For those who want to learn Wotagei from scratch. From the beginning, you can always start by coming to events or simply watching YouTube videos about it and learning what it looks like. Yeah, I mean, anyone can start from anywhere and Wotagei is just fun.”

Here concludes our conversation with Midori and we would like to thank him for taking the time to answer our questions.