Being called a weeaboo

kadajkitten said:

I find it very offensive when people called me a weeaboo or other 'anime freak' names just because people think I'm trying to 'become japanese'. True enough I love the culture, maybe because I've been surrounded by asian culture my whole life as I was adopted by a thai family, and I do love anime, but is this really considered wrong? To learn the Japanese language, and to live an 'asian lifestyle'? I mean when I moved in with my fiance he found it a bit strange that I expected to eat rice with everything.

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I don't think your a weeaboo. But I do think your overreacting too much. Imean, lol, people just say that sort of stuff as a joke, and heck, its funny. If you know your not a weeaboo, then thats all that matters.

Goddessu said:

I don't think your a weeaboo. But I do think your overreacting too much. Imean, lol, people just say that sort of stuff as a joke, and heck, its funny. If you know your not a weeaboo, then thats all that matters.

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Not sure why you necro'd this thread : S
That post is from 2011.

killerinsidee said:

Not sure why you necro'd this thread : S
That post is from 2011.

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Well the format does not exactly force dates to your attention. Oh well.

Do people still say weeaboo? Do they still exist?

If so, this thread can be revisited, no prob.

What I found funny was this "rice with everything" deal. Did she have to mean literally "everything"? Cause my experience, as someone definitely not obsessed and a hater of manga and anime for its over-action and melodrama, is that the Japanese do at least figuratively eat rice with everything! (Which means dang near everything! Gohan means both meal and rice, because to a Japanese, the two are virtually inseparable!)

Would you believe I've never encountered in real life even one single weeaboo, otaku, or whatever the foreign anime/manga/JPOP nuts are called? Not once. The whole phenomenon is a total mystery to me.

I suspect that if you did, Mike, you would run them over with your truck.

Glenski said:

I suspect that if you did, Mike, you would run them over with your truck.

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Are they really as prevalent and annoying as the web makes them seem to be?

Mike Cash said:

Would you believe I've never encountered in real life even one single weeaboo, otaku, or whatever the foreign anime/manga/JPOP nuts are called? Not once. The whole phenomenon is a total mystery to me.

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Seriously? I think it's because you don't know where you can meet them: 80% of the graduate students in social sciences and English education in my univ are otaku. True otaku. Last year, our senpai had their video games and sexy figurines on the shelves/on their desks. This year, the guys put some AKB48 and One Piece posters on the walls and my kohai is a true fujoshi. They spend their time playing games on their computers, watching youtube videos, anime etc. I seriously don't understand how they can study at the same time, but they say that they can, so... And I have myself some of my Gunpla displayed on my desk...

Mike Cash said:

Would you believe I've never encountered in real life even one single weeaboo, otaku, or whatever the foreign anime/manga/JPOP nuts are called? Not once. The whole phenomenon is a total mystery to me.

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It may be that they tend to lack the appropriate resources to actually get themselves to Japan?

Mark of Zorro said:

It may be that they tend to lack the appropriate resources to actually get themselves to Japan?

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Probably mostly that. I suspect there may a bunch of them in Japan's larger cities, but I live out in the sticks. The whole thing hadn't started yet when I left the U.S. and in my real-world daily life I only speak to another foreigner maybe a couple of times a year anyway. To me they're just another internet meme. It strikes me as very odd that my living in Japan has had the effect of completely insulating me from these people who are apparently rabid Japan nuts.

Mike Cash said:

It strikes me as very odd that my living in Japan has had the effect of completely insulating me from these people who are apparently rabid Japan nuts.

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Its certainly ironic.

But that point about the cities makes a lot of sense. I also live in rural Japan, and I don't remember meeting any.

Also its the same for me that it was so long ago that I left America, I had not heard of the phenomenon at that time. I did go back to America for a couple of years and did meet one girl who might have been borderline weeaboo, but I don't remember anyone even suggesting she was, using that term.

Mike Cash said:

To me they're just another internet meme.

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Might be basically all it is, aside from a few assorted weirdos.

The best place to find "weeaboos" in Japan is probably during/at コミケ.
I feel like the word weeaboo is just a part of the standard 4chan insults, internet nonsense. People (internet trolls/heroes) throw that word around at the slightest hint of Japanese influence of any kind in someone. Hell, one guy called me a weeaboo for learning Japanese .
What I would consider to be a real weeaboo is a person who: is all out otaku (anime, manga, figures, daki, JP music etc.), living outside of Japan, nothing but Japanese food and also mixing Japanese words (in romaji when writing) with English/other languages. That's an extremely rare combination to be honest.
When does being a enthusiast/hobbyist cross into the maniac/weeaboo territory is really subjective. Watching anime and reading manga doesn't automatically make you a weeaboo or ____ (<-- insert currently popular insult here). If you declare that you have some Japan related hobby or like something, being called a weeaboo, otaku, animefag, etc. is commonplace on the net these days. I don't see why anyone would take it seriously.

So it's basically about the Geek Hierachy then (The Geek Hierarchy | The Brunching Shuttlecocks )

Hey!
There's nothing wrong with liking anime and Japanese culture. But many people, myself included, really do not like people who went too far (and I would unhesitatingly use the term weeboo to describe them, not people like you who just like anime in a normal way). They are those who adopt a hostile attitude towards any criticisms of Japan or hold an irrationally positive view of Japan to the point of being annoying or outright offensive, e.g. Japan is the best country in the world and should dominate Asia, Japan has the longest history and best civilization, Japan was forced to attack Pearl Harbor, Japan didn't do anything wrong during WW2 etc.
Unfortunately I've encountered quite a few of these cases, to the extent that I'm beginning to view all those who like anime negatively, since I have no clue how these people got brainwashed, other than through anime. But I know that's wrong and I'm doing my best to rectify my prejudice.


So stick to your interests and disregard what others call you. Although I'm curious under what circumstances people called you a weeboo? People usually won't outright label you that on the internet when you have an anime profile pic or something, since a lot of people do. They usually call you that when you say something that annoys others (like what I posted above) or makes you appear too Japanophile (which is equally annoying). Hope you don't fall into either of these cases.