ORIGIN OF OHT

The Origin Story of Otaku Heart

It was March 2020, and I, Toruchou, was searching for a high-quality Minecraft SMP server. I was determined to find a community that was well-organized and welcoming, with plenty of opportunities for collaborative gameplay.

As luck would have it, a friendly user reached out to me on Discord and invited me to join "The Kingdom SMP", an SMP that seemed to fit the bill. I was immediately impressed by the quality of the community and stayed on to play with them for several months.

Over time, I formed close friendships with several members of the community and found myself deeply invested in the experience. However, as the SMP began to decline and the community slowly dissipated, I found myself searching for a new way to connect with my friends and continue the sense of camaraderie that I had come to cherish.

That's when a friend and I created a nation/faction in-game, which we called Sicarii Surge. We created a separate Discord server for our faction, and before long, we had built a tight-knit community that was dedicated to fun, friendship, and collaboration.

As the SMP server continued to falter, I had an idea: what if we transformed our faction server into an anime server? Although some members were initially hesitant about the change, I was confident that it was the right move. With the support of my closest friends, I rebranded the server as "Otaku Nation", later renamed as "Otaku Heart", and began to put all of my energy and enthusiasm into growing the community.

To my surprise, I quickly saw results. Within days, we had reached 100 members, and I spent countless hours designing icons, banners, and other creative assets to help bring the server to life. I recruited some of my closest friends from The Kingdom SMP to serve as moderators, and together, we worked tirelessly to build the community.

Over the next several months, Otaku Heart continued to grow and flourish. We formed partnerships with other servers, such as The Cornucopia, a very aesthetic and motivated community, and Kaede's Coffee Shop, a very active and adorable community which was almost twice the size of ours. Through it all, we experienced both highs and lows, but the sense of companionship and shared passion for anime, gaming, and other things just kept us strong.

In retrospect, developing Otaku Heart was a profound learning experience for me. I gained a deeper understanding of Discord, the internet, and community building, and I also discovered new ways to cope with stress, anger, and anxiety by connecting with others who share my interests and passions.

Today, Otaku Heart remains a thriving community that welcomes new members from all walks of life. It is a testament to the power of collaboration, creativity, and friendship, and I am proud to have played a part in its development.