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I have (or had? I don't know, we're all in different colleges) weeaboo friends on the light side of sprinkling Japanese phrases and Japanese fashion and food excites them just as much as anime and manga. And anime influenced fashion or merchandise makes them stick out a bit more, something I'd like to avoid because I don't have the balls to forgo convenience of no public stares. I guess it counts that I used to be a weeaboo to the degree of living in Japan and making manga, but that was when I was in middle school (I didn't know any better >__<). But after looking into social and work lives of Japanese citizens, I'd say it's better if I just studied abroad or vacationed there for sightseeing and food. I had a high school English teacher who taught for a few years in Japan and she said that the hospitality wears off quickly when travelers stay longer than the average tourist. She got teased and had weird looks, but from the suburban area she was in she was practically ignored :\ "Weeaboos" should be a non-existent term and shouldn't be bringing negative attention like discrimination, but the people under that category who display ignorance of all but entertainment of Japan grate on my eyes on the internet.

In short, no.

It was a dark moment in my early high school life that makes me wanna hurl when I look back on it.

I wouldn't really consider myself much an otaku anymore either.

I'm just a dude.

The real problem with Weabooism (yeah, that's a word now) is that it completely disregards the reality and nuance of Japanese culture. When the portrayals of Japanese schools in anime are viewed as reality, when people assume all Japanese people love games and anime, when these ignorant (in a non-pejorative way) people visit Japan and try and force *their* ideas onto a nation's entire culture those are very serious problems.

They aren't just annoying people, these are people who are willfully ignoring the reality of the culture of millions of people. No matter how you slice it, that is a problem. Those are the Weaboos I can't stand. People who are obsessed with Japanese culture are *fine* as long as they recognize that there is more to Japan than games, anime, maid cafes and a language.

a normal person called me weaboo simply because i watch fansub with honorific o.o; ... geez, i don't understand normal people these days ... .

HikkiPanda wrote:a normal person called me weaboo simply because i watch fansub with honorific o.o; ... geez, i don't understand normal people these days ... .

I think I can explain why. It is generally considered bad writing practice to use foreign honorifics in English texts, especially if the notion that the writer wants to convey can readily be conveyed using English expressions. It gives readers the feeling that the writer is being pretentious. It's a leap of logic to apply that notion to fansubs, however.

But it does come from somewhere.

yea, i know that logic, but It's not like his mom got a diarrhea when I watch fansub with honorific ... .

I definitely wouldn't use that term to describe myself. I don't read manga and rarely watch anime anymore; but I do like the art style. I'd only visit Japan to go shopping. I've heard they have awesome black market merchandise and my inner deal seekers' interest are peaked. But I think that people who tend to be unnaturally and utterly obsessed with Japan and it's anime, games or whatever else tend to lean more on the delusional side of thinking. Like.. they don't understand where reality ends and fantasy begins.

In school I knew this guy who was obsessed with all things anime. It's all he'd talk about and acted as if the characters were real. He'd randomly go around speaking Japanese, which he learned from watching the shows. He had this big dream of going to Japan and becoming a mangaka(?) and becoming famous. He'd wear a Naruto headband and act like he was some kind of ninja. Heck, he even dressed like an anime character! Ugh. And don't even get me started on the supposed martial arts he learned while watching YouTube. I'd expect impressionable kids to act this way but we were in college. You don't go around acting like that in a professional setting. He was so deep in this fantasy that I'm not even sure he ended up graduating. I just felt sorry for him because now he's in the real world and struggling. Even to this day he still keeps this behavior going and only lives to go to the next convention. Wanting to be a Power Ranger won't pay the bills.

I'm not even going to lie, that sounds like something ripped straight from the front page of Something Awful.

I think it would help if anime and JRPG creators stop pandering to the otaku crowd with lolis, panty shots and highly visible ninja, among others. I'm of the opinion that cheaply mass-produced fanservice will be the death of the entire industry in the eyes of most sensible adults in the Western world. But maybe it's just me.

otakus/weaboos support the industry more than normal people does. They buy 3 or more copies of the same stuff, collect ALL the merchandise etc. Normal people don't do that and some of them even resort to piracy. So removing otaku from the target market is a bad marketing decision. The product might survive and still succesful, but it will have less profit.

I find it kind of mean and pointless to make fun of weeaboos. Sure, they can be annoying, but why does it really matter in the end? Let them have their fun, they'll grow out of it eventually as they mature and learn more about the world. If not, oh well.

Let's look at this logically
Weeaboo ~= Stereotype
Stereotype != Person
Me ~= Person
.
. . Me != Weeaboo

Simple.

WatchJessieGo wrote:I find it kind of mean and pointless to make fun of weeaboos. Sure, they can be annoying, but why does it really matter in the end? Let them have their fun, they'll grow out of it eventually as they mature and learn more about the world. If not, oh well.

Also, this.
Yelling a couple of random words is far less damaging than cutting your wrists or doing crack etc.
It doesn't harm anyone, and looking at what some of you think of them makes me think that you're the ones who need pitying.

WatchJessieGo wrote:I find it kind of mean and pointless to make fun of weeaboos. Sure, they can be annoying, but why does it really matter in the end?

Because they hurt the perception of the community and anime as a whole. I discussed in the Art Schools thread how weeaboos are one of the main reasons art schools don't accept anime art anymore, when they were perfectly fine with doing so before hand.

Weeaboos are also the most visible members of the community. Normal anime fans or the like are largely invisible in public, but the weeaboos are brash, annoying, and in your face. So when people NOT in the anime community think about people who are anime fans, they think of weeaboos, who are the only anime fans normal people know they have met for sure. Then those normal people believe the entire fandom is like that, and deride anime as some weird thing only freaky annoying people like, because that's the only example of fans they've seen.

Then when someone tries to get them to watch an anime, they'll be super resistant, thus hampering community growth, all because weeaboos go around acting like social outcasts with no manners.

So, yeah. It kind of matters in the end.

Argeus_the_Paladin wrote:I'm not even going to lie, that sounds like something ripped straight from the front page of Something Awful.

I think it would help if anime and JRPG creators stop pandering to the otaku crowd with lolis, panty shots and highly visible ninja, among others. I'm of the opinion that cheaply mass-produced fanservice will be the death of the entire industry in the eyes of most sensible adults in the Western world. But maybe it's just me.

Oh man, that reminds me of this one Something Awful user's story about her over the top weeaboo "friend" who from just reading in the lines was freaking insane. The way she acted not only hurt herself, but it damaged her relationships with people. It was magical and frightening at the same time.

As for the pandering, I agree, but I guess as long as there's still a market for that it'll stay......

"Ask me about growing up with a girl who thinks she's married to anime guys", yes?

I have that thread bookmarked.