i've had just about enough of this "weeaboo" crap...
And not from the weeaboos themselves.
Today, I was once again looking at dA stuff, going through the new posts by people I watch, and I came across a really cool set of photos. An artist had designed the paint job on a food truck specializing in Japanese snacks and such, and it was really cute and professional-looking all in one. I scrolled down to comment on the sheer adorable factor of this truck, and BAM: the most recent comment struck. Mood ruined.
The food truck photos had obviously been taken in the vicinity of an anime convention of some sort, as the handful of people in line for snacks were decked out in the usual anime-con attire--cute hats, backpacks, crazy hair, you know the routine. Great place to look for customers, given the truck's chibi-bedecked design and the type of food on the menu. One customer had a tail, but no one was in cosplay or anything, and for the most part it was fairly tame. And yet, the comment:
"The truck looks great, but ohgawd, the weeaboos. It seems like it'll be an otaku magnet."
Excuse me? Or actually, excuse you.
I went to my first anime con when I was seventeen. It was January 2007, Ohayocon in Columbus, Ohio, and my friends and I were decked out in thrift-store YuGiOh cosplay. One of the most striking things about the convention experience for our small bunch of shiny-eyed high school seniors--other than the mountains upon mountains of merchandise--was the crazy feeling of being absolutely and utterly accepted into a community. No one there was identical to any one other person in anime preferences or even types of nerdery/geekery, but we didn't need to be, because we weren't there to give each other a hard time. We were there to share interests, have fun, wear crazy outfits, and spend too much money. We were there to come together with people who weren't going to assume we'd grow out of it or give us bizarre looks for forming crushes on animated characters. We were there to laugh at obscure internet memes and try to puzzle out the kanji on Japanese merchandise. And you know what, we were there to have fun with our friends and maybe make a few more.
I've fallen a bit off the con circuit lately, but I'm still pretty far into the anime community. Lately I'm seeing this "weeaboo" thing becoming more common, even within our bunch. People use it to mark status, to boost themselves up at others' expenses. What better way to prove how mature, intelligent, and cool you are than to laugh at that weeaboo in the Naruto cosplay who can't stop using the word "kawaii." Sure, you like anime--but at least you're not a loser about it.
Well, you know what? I've seen a lot of those kids in Naruto cosplay, dropping the word "kawaii" into every couple of sentences. And no, I can't say that was ever me irl, but the internet provides its own record of my embarrassing noob tendencies dating back to about 2003. Before I got to college and had the chance to take a few semesters of Japanese, I was on my own, picking up vocab where I could, and I'm pretty sure "kawaii" was in all of our starter vocabulary. No one jumps right into the community knowing all, embodying awesome. Experience gets you there, but just because you've learned all the lingo and discovered the proper material for crafting a great cosplay, it doesn't mean you've got a license to mock the new kids. No one has a license to be rude and single people out when the whole point of this shindig is the community and acceptance.
So what now? Does weeaboo just become the new insult for anyone displaying anime-esque interests? Funny hats with ears, belted-on tails, and Artist Alley buttons all make you a weeaboo because someone else wants to feel superior? Why should anyone have to pass a Japanese language exam before they're entitled to wear a t-shirt with Japanese writing on it? Maybe they like the graphics. Maybe the kanji just look cool. Maybe it's their right to wear whatever the eff kind of t-shirt they want. That's a pretty silly thing to make fun of, in the grand scheme of all that's wrong in the world.
And you know what? Maybe that kid in the Naruto cosplay can't stop using the word "kawaii" because it's the only Japanese word the kid can remember, and there's nothing he or she wants more than acceptance among these crazy-cool people. Because maybe the kid's only got this weekend to make some memories before reality comes back with a vengeance at school on Monday. Yeah, the majority of weeaboos and otaku kids aren't confused little teenagers teetering on the edge, but do you really want to be the person to give the final push to one that is?
I'm one of those girls who's proud to use the otaku label. I'm one of those girls who drops foreign languages into conversation sometimes. I'm one of those girls who likes yaoi (and yuri); I'm one of those girls with a crazy hat with ears; I'm one of those girls who spent high school collecting the entire YuGiOh manga series. And when I was fifteen, I was one of those girls who made up Mary Sues and used the word "kawaii" when I could work it in. And god knows I'm not perfect, and god knows I've rolled my eyes at some newbies, but there's still no excuse for straight-up being mean.
We're already weird; everyone else always thinks so. Shouldn't we at least try to respect one another?
*Crossposted from my dA journal
**Update on the dA piece that sparked the whole thing: the artist had to disable comments on the photos due to rudeness. From all the comments I read containing the word "weeaboo" prior to her decision, I'm not surprised. Since the specific comments are no longer available, I feel comfortable linking to the photos without fearing that I'm starting a comment war. http://fav.me/d3iq9f9
Today, I was once again looking at dA stuff, going through the new posts by people I watch, and I came across a really cool set of photos. An artist had designed the paint job on a food truck specializing in Japanese snacks and such, and it was really cute and professional-looking all in one. I scrolled down to comment on the sheer adorable factor of this truck, and BAM: the most recent comment struck. Mood ruined.
The food truck photos had obviously been taken in the vicinity of an anime convention of some sort, as the handful of people in line for snacks were decked out in the usual anime-con attire--cute hats, backpacks, crazy hair, you know the routine. Great place to look for customers, given the truck's chibi-bedecked design and the type of food on the menu. One customer had a tail, but no one was in cosplay or anything, and for the most part it was fairly tame. And yet, the comment:
"The truck looks great, but ohgawd, the weeaboos. It seems like it'll be an otaku magnet."
Excuse me? Or actually, excuse you.
I went to my first anime con when I was seventeen. It was January 2007, Ohayocon in Columbus, Ohio, and my friends and I were decked out in thrift-store YuGiOh cosplay. One of the most striking things about the convention experience for our small bunch of shiny-eyed high school seniors--other than the mountains upon mountains of merchandise--was the crazy feeling of being absolutely and utterly accepted into a community. No one there was identical to any one other person in anime preferences or even types of nerdery/geekery, but we didn't need to be, because we weren't there to give each other a hard time. We were there to share interests, have fun, wear crazy outfits, and spend too much money. We were there to come together with people who weren't going to assume we'd grow out of it or give us bizarre looks for forming crushes on animated characters. We were there to laugh at obscure internet memes and try to puzzle out the kanji on Japanese merchandise. And you know what, we were there to have fun with our friends and maybe make a few more.
I've fallen a bit off the con circuit lately, but I'm still pretty far into the anime community. Lately I'm seeing this "weeaboo" thing becoming more common, even within our bunch. People use it to mark status, to boost themselves up at others' expenses. What better way to prove how mature, intelligent, and cool you are than to laugh at that weeaboo in the Naruto cosplay who can't stop using the word "kawaii." Sure, you like anime--but at least you're not a loser about it.
Well, you know what? I've seen a lot of those kids in Naruto cosplay, dropping the word "kawaii" into every couple of sentences. And no, I can't say that was ever me irl, but the internet provides its own record of my embarrassing noob tendencies dating back to about 2003. Before I got to college and had the chance to take a few semesters of Japanese, I was on my own, picking up vocab where I could, and I'm pretty sure "kawaii" was in all of our starter vocabulary. No one jumps right into the community knowing all, embodying awesome. Experience gets you there, but just because you've learned all the lingo and discovered the proper material for crafting a great cosplay, it doesn't mean you've got a license to mock the new kids. No one has a license to be rude and single people out when the whole point of this shindig is the community and acceptance.
So what now? Does weeaboo just become the new insult for anyone displaying anime-esque interests? Funny hats with ears, belted-on tails, and Artist Alley buttons all make you a weeaboo because someone else wants to feel superior? Why should anyone have to pass a Japanese language exam before they're entitled to wear a t-shirt with Japanese writing on it? Maybe they like the graphics. Maybe the kanji just look cool. Maybe it's their right to wear whatever the eff kind of t-shirt they want. That's a pretty silly thing to make fun of, in the grand scheme of all that's wrong in the world.
And you know what? Maybe that kid in the Naruto cosplay can't stop using the word "kawaii" because it's the only Japanese word the kid can remember, and there's nothing he or she wants more than acceptance among these crazy-cool people. Because maybe the kid's only got this weekend to make some memories before reality comes back with a vengeance at school on Monday. Yeah, the majority of weeaboos and otaku kids aren't confused little teenagers teetering on the edge, but do you really want to be the person to give the final push to one that is?
I'm one of those girls who's proud to use the otaku label. I'm one of those girls who drops foreign languages into conversation sometimes. I'm one of those girls who likes yaoi (and yuri); I'm one of those girls with a crazy hat with ears; I'm one of those girls who spent high school collecting the entire YuGiOh manga series. And when I was fifteen, I was one of those girls who made up Mary Sues and used the word "kawaii" when I could work it in. And god knows I'm not perfect, and god knows I've rolled my eyes at some newbies, but there's still no excuse for straight-up being mean.
We're already weird; everyone else always thinks so. Shouldn't we at least try to respect one another?
*Crossposted from my dA journal
**Update on the dA piece that sparked the whole thing: the artist had to disable comments on the photos due to rudeness. From all the comments I read containing the word "weeaboo" prior to her decision, I'm not surprised. Since the specific comments are no longer available, I feel comfortable linking to the photos without fearing that I'm starting a comment war. http://fav.me/d3iq9f9