On Mattering and Counting

The "Monster Musume" girls looking out from the magazine racks at the nearby bookstore meant another issue of Otaku USA magazine had arrived. I buy it regularly, "I can start at the beginning, so I will" having led straight into "it's the last English-language North American anime magazine--might as well do my bit for it." It could also be, though, that just what it covers and how seems a "known quantity." As I pulled a copy out, however, one of the cover blurbs caught my attention.

"Do We Matter?
Geek media is huge, but what about anime?"

This was something different. Getting to the article "Do We Count?" by Daryl Surat about how "As 'geek' culture assimilates, 'otaku' remain outcasts," I spent some time mulling it over, and as I did I just happened to see an online piece (on a site that does at least try to mix in some coverage of manga, and even an occasional piece on anime, in with its "comics" news) making a similar point about manga, one pointed out in a few other places afterwards.
( I was interested in what Surat would say, but... )