I searched around, and it looks like it is from Genshiken, but I don’t know exactly where.

The best I can do with it is:

One of us was saying “I never wanted to be an otaku, but it looks like I’m becoming one anyway, because I can’t help it.” It was sort of funny, but for people like us it’s a tragedy.

My reading is that the と at the end of line 4 goes with 言って on line 1. I’m still not really sure what line 5 is getting at. I hope someone else can do better.

Thanks for making another of these!

1. Literally inside, in this context, we or us.

2. Means want to become 僕は日本語でぺらぺらになろうと思っている。Not really sure if thats gramatically correct, but I think its the right idea.

3. 事　means a metaphorical thing and やめる　could be any of a few verbs, all with the general meaning of stop. I think the entire thing means “the thing of stopping” あゆみちゃんはタバコを煙ることをやめる事にした。 I’m nearly sure that sentence is wrong, but anyway.

4.　for

５。悲劇

６。I’m going to give this a skip….. I think people have already made good attempts at this, and I don’t think I’d be much good at this.

As for a translation: One of us was saying “I didn’t want to become an otaku, but it seems I am anyway, I can’t help it. Its kind of funny, but for us its tragic.” or something…. I don’t really know whats going on in line 3 and thats sort of vital…

• This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by  Mark.

I finally found it. It’s from Genshiken 16.

The story is about an otaku group called Genshiken. The context is important to understanding what is going on in the 5 lines we have here. It’s a conversation between two girls, Keiko and Saki. Saki is a member of the group, although she isn’t an otaku herself. Keiko isn’t an otaku either, and she is having trouble fitting in. They both like the same guy, who is an otaku.

Given the context, I think ウチ refers to the otaku group Saki is in. So “ウチの誰か” really means “one of the Genshiken members.”

Now also I think it’s fairly clear that in the second line, オタクって sets up the topic for what follows, so there isn’t any good reason to put “I” in there like I did. It would be better to do something like:

An otaku isn’t something you plan on becoming.

The next problem is what is going on with 気付いたら. I think it’s a type of usage involving something happening accidentally or unexpectedly. The best reference I can track down is this page here:

http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/ifwhen.html

So the idea is sort of like “You happen to notice,” making the next two lines something like:

One day you happen to notice you are one,
and there isn’t anything you can do about it.

The last tricky part is 私らにとって. Originally I thought it was referring to the same thing ウチ is, namely, the Genshiken members. But now given the context, I think Saki is referring to herself and Keiko. So it means:

It is sort of funny, but for girls like us it’s a tragedy.

I think the point she is trying to make is that it’s difficult for girls who like otaku guys, because the guys are never going to change, and frequently their attention is occupied by video games, pornography, etc.

I should have clarified that I found it in chapter 16 of the manga version. I don’t know anything about the anime version. Based on the episode descriptions over on Wikipedia, maybe episode 10 would be a good place to start looking.