Japanophiles vs. weeaboos, another epic battle

[Obiwanshinobi]

You're a weeaboo aintcha?

"Weeaboo" and "animu" are words used by Japanophiles in denial to wind up each other. I don't find any other meaning in either.

[Skykid]

You're a weeaboo aintcha?

"Weeaboo" and "animu" are words used by Japanophiles in denial to wind up each other. I don't find any other meaning in either.

That was quite a question dodge.

[greg]

That was quite a question dodge.

Well, it's because he's right. Look, you've drawn manga characters and have a collection of anime figures and such. You could be called a "weaboo" for just for that alone. Not a fair assessment, but that just goes back to my position on why we should all just be nice to each other.

To me, a Japanophile is somebody who really likes Japan and thinks it's cool. In that case, I guess that makes me a Japanophile. Perhaps a weaboo is somebody who thinks that Japan is Super Country #1, Utopia on Earth, "Dear God, I wish I had been born Japanese, that way I can live in the land of anime and manga, but at least I can one day move to Japan and become a Japanese citizen and everyone there will embrace me with open arms because I am an otaku" etc. Basically, somebody like this retard. I think we know Obiwanshinobi well enough that he does not conform to this ilk. Just because he has his different definition of what a "fanboy" is, it doesn't make him a weaboo. And singing songs in foreign languages doesn't make you a weaboo, either. I can sing some French lyrics when I listen to Stereolab, but that doesn't mean that I think France is the perfect country and I'm just dying to become a French citizen. I've no desire to ever visit France.

EDIT: Anyhow, any further discussion on the weaboo topic should warrant opening a new thread for it. I'd be intersted in discussing that sort of thing, as long as it never gets nasty.

[Ex-Cyber]

"Weeaboo" and "animu" are words used by Japanophiles in denial to wind up each other. I don't find any other meaning in either.

That's an understatement if I've ever seen one. "Weeaboo" is four or five layers of 4chan meta-trolling encapsulated into a single word.

[Skykid]

That was quite a question dodge.

Well, it's because he's right. Look, you've drawn manga characters and have a collection of anime figures and such. You could be called a "weaboo" for just for that alone.

YO WTF?! Careful what you say there man!

There's a marked difference between what a weeaboo is and what a Japanophile used to represent. A Japanophile was someone with an enthusiasm for all things Japanese, primarily fuelled by anime, videogames and women. JapJac, for instance, is a prime example of an old-school Japanophile who also happens to be a total cock.

A weeaboo is a new strain of lunatic. They are, for all intents and purposes, retarded by choice. They're middle-class, educated and generally bright kids who choose to immerse themselves in infantile pursuits that ape modern Japanese media culture. They embrace and exemplify the worst things about Japan, pretty much tarring the country in the eyes of everyone else. They like crap simply because it's Japanese. Terrible music, terrible films and terrible celebrity idols. They cannot function in regular social circles, and choose not to try, preferring to exist within a group of people where just about anything goes, including free hugs, gang signs, shouting 'baka' at everyone ("baka,baka, you're so baka!"), cross dressing, real life Yaoi performances (to show they cool with their sexuality) and crossing boundaries of people's personal space by behaving like idiots.

Pre-empting the natural argument: "but they're harmless", the truth is they're so aloof and unpredictable they're not always harmless. A friend of mine hung out with folks from an anime show and told me how he went to a 'party' with them, and, being a non-drinking Christian, found himself taken aback when some kid suddenly ran into the room butt naked and shook his cock right in his face, chanting some Japanese phrase.

Japan used to be cool. Weeaboo culture cheapened it. Now it ain't so cool.

[Despatche]

There's a marked difference between what a weeaboo is and what a Japanophile used to represent.

No, there's not. Everything that "weeaboo" could ever possibly stand for was pointed out clearly by Ex-Cyber i.e. the post right above yours.

[drunkninja24]

A friend of mine hung out with folks from an anime show and told me how he went to a 'party' with them, and, being a non-drinking Christian, found himself taken aback when some kid suddenly ran into the room butt naked and shook his cock right in his face, chanting some Japanese phrase.

I gotta be honest, if that happened to me, I would've probably punched that kid in the cock right there.

[greg]

Ha, this conversation about weaboos is pretty interesting. Skykid made some interesting points.

Mods, can we move this stuff into its own thread on here?

[Obiwanshinobi]

non-drinking Christian

The punchline has arrived. I'd say if you are one of THOSE, you should be particulary careful where you go to the parties as chances that you won't be having a good time are always high. Sober and intoxicated people don't mix together.
I don't belong to any social circles, regular or not, as I always find them sickeningly disintegrated. No idea why people who care so little about each other want to flock together. I only hang out with folks I've been through thick and thin with.

[dcharlie]

each to their own - i don't particularly care.

The only attitude trait of -any- thing that baffles me is where there is self denial elements or setting a precedent which would make you look a twat if you went back on it:

e.g.
"I am a sony fan, therefore - everything on the X360 is garbage. No exceptions"
"Woo, the new Ps2 Shinobi game looks amazi .. oh wait, Western developed? it's shit then"

[maxlords]

I've never actually heard the terms weeaboo and animu before......can someone define em for me a bit?

[GaijinPunch]

Fun fact: I was an anime fan at one time, and as everyone knows, a pretty hard core game fan. Never got into Japanese popular music, and I've never, ever wanked to Japanese porn. Wonder if that qualifies as weeabo.

[drunkninja24]

I've never actually heard the terms weeaboo and animu before......can someone define em for me a bit?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=weeaboo

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=animu

[dcharlie]

Fun fact: I was an anime fan at one time, and as everyone knows, a pretty hard core game fan. Never got into Japanese popular music, and I've never, ever wanked to Japanese porn. Wonder if that qualifies as weeabo.

we were so close to being on the same page until that last item!

[Rob]

Pocky-eaters

[ryu]

skykid got it down pretty much. a weeaboo is someone who thinks japan is the best and begrudges their own heritage for not being japanese.

[MX7]

I think this hatred of weeaboos can be quite impairing. For example, at university I really wanted to do a subsidiary in Japanese, but such was my distain for percieved 'Wapanese' I didn't. Now I really wish I had.

The prejudice still rears its head from time to time. One of my brightest students earnestly mentioned "I am very interested in Japanese culture" and I actually ground my teeth. Yet I had just finished teaching a series of lectures on Japanese national cinema from 1950-1970.

Maybe I should just dress like Naruto and effect a lisp.

[KennyMan666]

I've myself been on various places on the scale. But I'm past the phase of "Japanese = Automagically awesome". I watch anime, but these days I'm largely working through the classics (I do still follow Naruto, but Naruto's always going to have a special place in my heart even if it's not as good as it used to be - it was the first anime I got to watch subbed rather than dubbed) - right now, the main series I watch is Lupin III. I still go to anime cons, and while the first con I ever was to still qualifies as one of the most enjoyable weekends in my life, I've largely lost interest in most stuff that goes on on them and now only visit them as karaoke room staff (I used to spend 80% of my con time in the karaoke room anyway).

I admit to using the term "animu" sometimes, but it's in a joking manner, and really only on IRC. I don't ever go to 4chan.

But I'm still interested in Japanese culture, because I think it's legitimately interesting. I also take Japanese at university, because it's a language I'm interested in and I want to be better at it (but, dear gods, I hate kanji).

[burgerkingdiamond]

and I've never, ever wanked to Japanese porn.

Dude.... you're fuckin up.

[Randorama]

I can sing some French lyrics when I listen to Stereolab, but that doesn't mean that I think France is the perfect country and I'm just dying to become a French citizen.

Well, Stereolab are British although Laetitia Sadier is french, and sings many (but not all) lyrics in French. Also, I definitely don't you think you are a marxist because you listen to Stereolab...since a lot of their lyrics indeed have marxist themes. I also really like Stereolab, but probably for your same reasons: I enjoy their sophisticated, melancholic style of music, and skip on other details.

Regarding the main topic...I confess that I am new to this weeaboo thing. I don't really frequent people younger than 30, too. I actually never had a positive image of Japan society, although I seldom watched non-japanese animation, or played western games. Somehow I had two japanese partners, too (including my current love), and I slapped one person celebrating Tempura and Tonkatsu as quintessential Japanese food (weak one, I know). Do I fall in some gray conceptual area?*




























*Shall we factor porn in?

[Skykid]

What have I done.

Defining a weeaboo is actually probably not too difficult to be honest. It's a broad culture and a common sight. It's also a new market that, on one hand is damaging the anime industry through piracy, but on the other is being fed like a fat hungry lion by Japan itself.

As MX7 said, it's an impairing, teeth gnashing prejudice. But over what? Kids having fun? There's really not much wrong with that. But, if you ever see, hang out with, brush shoulders with, or have a conversation in which you peer into the crazed mentality of a weeaboo, their unhealthily unhinged perspectives will leave you scarred.

I had my Japanophile phase from around 11 - 17 (seventeen being the point when I got my first girlfriend and then my interests were focussed on her instead). It was kick started by videogames and anime. I thought everything about the country sounded really cool: the technology, architecture, design work, fashion etc etc. so I lapped up everything there was to know. When I visited for the first time I realised it was genuinely one of the coolest places ever, but not a fantasy world that rides on the shoulders of saucer-eyed anime people and games: it's a real country with real history, real culture and real problems.

I still like plenty about the place and still adopt facets of the culture in my own work and recreation, and probably always will. I've just broadened my horizons so it's no longer a one-horse race.

That's how I understand an 'old-school,' pre-weaboo Japanophile to be.

A weeaboo is different. I've already described their behavioural traits, but to sum up: A weeaboo has an irrational level of denial that if something is not Japanese, it frankly isn't good.
That's a load of bollocks right off the bat. For everything good Japan produces, they produce a right load of shit in almost equal amounts: Waifu's, doll fucking, pillow fucking, sexism, marketing of underage girls: all representative of aberrant behaviour. Then you have J-pop and J-rock (maiii eearrs!), and trends that look like this:




(No, I didn't know Steve Coogan was a cosplayer either.)

A friend of mine hung out with folks from an anime show and told me how he went to a 'party' with them, and, being a non-drinking Christian, found himself taken aback when some kid suddenly ran into the room butt naked and shook his cock right in his face, chanting some Japanese phrase.

I gotta be honest, if that happened to me, I would've probably punched that kid in the cock right there.

That's what I said. He is a really nice chap though, and accepting of a lot of things - but he drew the line there and said it wasn't something he ever wanted to be a part of again. Poor guy, his love of anime stained forever by the weeaboo madness.

I've never, ever wanked to Japanese porn. Wonder if that qualifies as weeabo.

That doesn't even qualify as normal.

[burgerkingdiamond]

What have I done.

Defining a weeaboo is actually probably not too difficult to be honest. It's a broad culture and a common sight. It's also a new market that, on one hand is damaging the anime industry through piracy, but on the other is being fed like a fat hungry lion by Japan itself.

As MX7 said, it's an impairing, teeth gnashing prejudice. But over what? Kids having fun? There's really not much wrong with that. But, if you ever see, hang out with, brush shoulders with, or have a conversation in which you peer into the crazed mentality of a weeaboo, their unhealthily unhinged perspectives will leave you scarred.

I had my Japanophile phase from around 11 - 17 (seventeen being the point when I got my first girlfriend and then my interests were focussed on her instead). It was kick started by videogames and anime. I thought everything about the country sounded really cool: the technology, architecture, design work, fashion etc etc. so I lapped up everything there was to know. When I visited for the first time I realised it was genuinely one of the coolest places ever, but not a fantasy world that rides on the shoulders of saucer-eyed anime people and games: it's a real country with real history, real culture and real problems.

I still like plenty about the place and still adopt facets of the culture in my own work and recreation, and probably always will. I've just broadened my horizons so it's no longer a one-horse race.

That's how I understand an 'old-school,' pre-weaboo Japanophile to be.

A weeaboo is different. I've already described their behavioural traits, but to sum up: A weeaboo has an irrational level of denial that if something is not Japanese, it frankly isn't good.
That's a load of bollocks right off the bat. For everything good Japan produces, they produce a right load of shit in almost equal amounts: Waifu's, doll fucking, pillow fucking, sexism, marketing of underage girls: all representative of aberrant behaviour. Then you have J-pop and J-rock (maiii eearrs!), and trends that look like this:




(No, I didn't know Steve Coogan was a cosplayer either.)

A friend of mine hung out with folks from an anime show and told me how he went to a 'party' with them, and, being a non-drinking Christian, found himself taken aback when some kid suddenly ran into the room butt naked and shook his cock right in his face, chanting some Japanese phrase.

I gotta be honest, if that happened to me, I would've probably punched that kid in the cock right there.

That's what I said. He is a really nice chap though, and accepting of a lot of things - but he drew the line there and said it wasn't something he ever wanted to be a part of again. Poor guy, his love of anime stained forever by the weeaboo madness.

I've never, ever wanked to Japanese porn. Wonder if that qualifies as weeabo.

That doesn't even qualify as normal.

I don't have anything to add to this conversation except that people are gonna be freaks no matter what. I doubt that the dudes who dress up like pre teen girls would have turned out normal without the influence of anime and the internet. Their strangeness would just have manifested in some other way. As for Japan, I've been there twice for work, and really enjoyed it. However as far as Japan-centric interests for me, they only extend to videogames, and really only to shmups in that regard (of course I don't need to mention porn. That goes without saying )

[Ruldra]

Oh wow, Off-Topic is on fire these days

[Nico87]

PONIES SUCK.

[Teufel_in_Blau]

Oh wow, Off-Topic is on fire these days

Yeah, I would love to see Skykid in the IRC because he can post walls of text to pretty much ANYTHING.

[ncp]

weeaboo is a word invented solely to troll anime nerds

people have come up with this definition (skykid's definition) of the word in order to distance themselves from it

lol

[Udderdude]

[greg]

I think Skykid has made a good differentiation with being a Japanophile and a weeaboo. Unfortunately, too many trolls lump it all together and get the phrases mixed up. So basically,

Japanophile is a person who thinks that Japan is cool. They most likely study the language and culture.

Weeaboo is a person who thinks that Japan is the magical utopia of anime and manga, and have built up some idealistic fantasy of what they think Japan is like, and they will continue to perpetuate that absurd fantasy since they're too busy watching anme and reading manga to truly educate themselves (and they probably prefer English-dubbed anime anyway). If they ever go to Japan, they most likely will make complete asses of themselves.

On Memorial Day weekend, Undamend and some other friends joined me at the Phoenix Comicon. It was a blast, but the worst panels were the anime panels. I was really disappointed with not only how unprofessional and uncoordinated (and downright annoying) those panels were, but I was shocked with how obnoxious, loud, and rude the anime fan crowd was. I mean, going from the Star Trek panel to a panel on Japanese Internet memes was like going to sit at the kid's table. The presentation being very sloppy and obnoxious. The presenters were all like, "What does a dog say?" And the anime/weeaboo audience responded "Wan wan!" "What does a cat say?" "Nyaaaaaan! Nyaaaaan!" OMG, STFU! FACEPALM.GIF. Many in the audience, especially this one annoying girl behind us, kept talking and chiming in and trying to outdo each other as to who was really knowledgeable about the subject matters. I felt like telling that girl behind us to either shut up, get on the stage, or get out of the room. It was one facepalm after another. My friend Lou had gone to Anime Expo for ten years straight, and he said that that con was more of the same. It started out great, but it just got worse and worse each year as the weeaboo crowd grew. It didn't use to be so bad, he said, but once anime's popularity exploded and all these English dub-only crowd took over, it got more and more annoying. The annoying anime fans and the lack of decent panel content reinforced the fact that I do not want to ever go to an anime convention. I remember looking at the ads for the first few years of Anime Expo, when special guests were Kenichi Sonoda, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Akemi Takeda, and Mari Iijima, I really wanted to go. But now it's mostly just English voice actors and those who work in the domestic anime video industry. Boring!

So here is another obnoxious type of person who may need to have its own label. How about those annoying martial artist "BOW TO YOUR SENSEI!" types? These clowns think that knowing karate or whatever, knowing words like "kumite" and eating with chopsticks makes them "at one" with Japanese culture (and Asian culture overall, since apparently it's all the same place to them). Like this one company I worked at, I had a cube mate who had been stationed in Okinawa in the military and he thought that living ON A MILITARY BASE in OKINAWA equated with living in Japan. Then this other dude comes along and he starts going on and on about how he was stationed in Okinawa, and they start BS'ing about "harnessing ki/chi" and how it must be possible to kill somebody just by touching them by focusing your ki and all that crap. I just felt like shouting at them, "HADOUKEN!" These guys swore up and down that their black belts made them "in-tune" with Japanese culture and were trying to impress me because the whole conversation began because I'd told them I'd lived in Japan for a few years.

You get these morons who are either into manga or martial arts and they try to BS and impress each other about stupid crap and the whole "one upsmanship" with who knows more about XXX and how they know the difference between sushi and sashimi, and isn't it so great that they can eat any food with chopsticks etc. They go to Japanese fast food places for lunch all the time, thinking that Japan must have food like teriyaki chicken bowls, because hey, why would they serve them at those places if it wasn't real Japanese food?

Oh gosh, I could rant on. Maybe this category would just be "obnoxious Japanophile" instead of weeaboo?

But Skykid, don't knock all Japanese bands. Yeah, the fluffy poppy stuff is garbage, and the anime soundtrack stuff is even worse (although Judy and Mary had one of their songs as the theme to Ruroni Kenshin, and that was cool). But there are some pretty cool indie-label bands from Japan. Advantage Lucy, Waffles, Burrrn, Hartfield, Nanocycle, and My Dead Girlfriend are great fun to listen to, just to name a few. Search for their stuff on Youtube.

[Skykid]

^ Well, if greg get's my differentiation then I guess anyone can. That's not a slight on your character greg, I just didn't know which camp you identified with more (not easy to gauge on the internet) but it seems my annoyances are your annoyances too.

As for Japanese music, the point was aimed more at weeaboo fanatics who have to dance 'coco-natsu' wherever they go. I've heard some awesome Japanese dance/D&B before and some very unique stuff that impressed me, but I generally find J-rock and J-pop total ear murder.

Yeah, I would love to see Skykid in the IRC because he can post walls of text to pretty much ANYTHING.

I just type really quick.

[Vyxx]

Never got into Japanese popular music, and I've never, ever wanked to Japanese porn.

When your wife is Japanese you don't really need to