I guess I'm a free Otaku? I don't spend any money on books dvd models posters or anything like that. If I had money to throw away I would probably buy manga. I can just make posters and burn dvds but nothing quite matches a feel and smell of a book. 😀

I consider manga a hobby and I won't lie that I kind of get fangirl/boyish when it comes to certain cultural aspects of Japan (and yes I will definitely visit Japan one day!). However, I don't watch anime, I think the amount of anime I've watched in my lifetime boils down to maybe 10 all together (if that). I don't own merchandise other than licensed and translated manga. I own maybe 5 volumes of Japanese tanks. I will admit that I do regularly log onto tumblr to get my BL fix and that the entirety of my tumblr is devoted to BL (but I'm not ship crazy like some of the Free brethren). I stalk scanlation sites and a while I ago I stalked BL publishing companies for publication and licensing news. I still purchase licensed BL but yah, no more stalking publishing companies.

So, probably not a otaku in the most Japanese sense of the word. Maybe a bit of a nerd, but (BL) manga is only one slice of the pie when it comes to my interests and hobbies.