"You are not a weaboo if you are a weaboo," says expert

Copypasta'd from my home forum:

Aka. "You are not a Japanophile even if you like anime and manga".

I have just been led to this article by a helpful Total War forumer (i.e. Swabian).

This is the quote in question:

quote:

Koichi Iwabuchi and other authors have pointed out the distinctive cultural asepsis that is present in the Japanese audiovisual exports that are consumed in the West [Iwabuchi, 2002]. The term "mukokuseki" ("stateless", "culturally odourless") is used to describe such feature or rather, such lack of features.

"Odourless", in this context, metaphorically denotes a characteristic by means of which the authentic Japaneseness of cultural production is not explicitly asserted, but rather concealed and relegated to a secondary role. This concept is contrary to the idea of "fragrant" cultural creation, that is, content with a cultural origin that is more apparent and therefore can be easily identified.

Discuss. Is the Japanese visual arts these days so well disguised into the melting pot of world culture that it is no longer strictly Japanese?

Discusseth?

I liveth to serve.

Faith without deed is worthless.

Originally Posted by hellheaven1987

Faith without deed is worthless.

Indeed. Just like making mods for a bunch of... ... diverse people.

Elaborate pl0x?

If you like anything from Japan you are pretty much a weeaboo.


It's just fact.

So my love of Kendo suddenly put me into a weaboo??

Originally Posted by 43rdFoot

If you like anything from Japan you are pretty much a weeaboo.


It's just fact.

Damn, my plan to own a Lexus IS has placed me in the weeaboo catagory

^^ It should, to the eye of the average e-citizen nowadays. Blame the insane generation of American fans for that.

And slightly off topic but analogous: Liking vampirs nowadays naturally align you with the, you know, infamous Twilight fangirls. At least around some place.

Bottom lines: Crazy fans ruin it all.

Bad, I also love sushi, porkchop rice, sashimi and plenty of Japanese snacks... I also like Blade, hopefully no one align me to Twilight, which I dislike.

There was a video around Youtube some time ago that showed a REALLY, REALLY FAT American weaboo. Stereotypical one, from the extreme, excuse me, body size to the pocky pack to the ever-annoying KAWAII DESU. I had nightmares two days after that. And that is to say I've gone as far off the Weaboo scale as a person of my ethnicity could at that time.

Scary stuffs.

Originally Posted by Argeus the Paladin

There was a video around Youtube some time ago that showed a REALLY, REALLY FAT American weaboo. Stereotypical one, from the extreme, excuse me, body size to the pocky pack to the ever-annoying KAWAII DESU. I had nightmares two days after that. And that is to say I've gone as far off the Weaboo scale as a person of my ethnicity could at that time.

Scary stuffs.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Just an article highlighting the lack of uniquely Japanese cultural elements in much of their "exported" culture. Being a massive anime nerd doesn't necessarily make you a weaboo. Just a massive anime nerd. Nothing particularly ground breaking, as very few anime and/or manga are accurate portrayals of Japanese culture anyway.

I mean, there are plenty good animes with cultural relevance, but let's face it, weaboos bastardise Japanese culture and regard anime as it's primary cultural element, when really, it's almost the other way around. Japanese anime due to it's popularity worldwide is becoming more and more amalgamated into other cultures as it becomes distinctly "less Japanese."

I still reserve the right to make fun of weaboos for being weaboos though.... right?

Oh yeah.

Snarking the insane fans of anything is a steady source of lulz income and should be taxed accordingly.

So....essentially they're saying all the wierd that Japan spews out into the rest of the world can no longer be called Japanese because it has ceased to have Japanese cultural influences?

I disagree, culture changes and Japanese audiovisual exports reflect that changing nature. The exports may not be accurate depictions of the life of an average Japanese lifestyle or culture, in the same way American audiovisual exports don't necessarily depict average American lifestyle or culture, but that does not disqualify them from said culture.

It is a faucet, if you will, of their culture: it represents not a reflection of its parent culture, but an aspect developed by its exported nature. Some will ofcourse argue that the viewers cannot be Japanophiles by indluging in these exports as they are not depicting or representing Japanese culture as found on the streets and town centres of Japan, but I again disagree with this; one does not have to act English to be an Anglophile, one must simply be obsessed with the culture. As I have previously argued, I feel these exports should be counted as part of the parent culture and thus qualifies as a "-phile" amongst those who obsess over it.

Thus, if you are a weeaboo in the classical sense, that is speaking in broken Japanese, watching any and all forms of anime and eating raw fish regularly, you will remain a weeaboo. As you indulge in the exported culture, differing as it does from the parent culture, you are still indulging in a faucet of this culture and as such qualify as a "culture"ophile.

tl;dr: Don't give the weeaboos an excuse to think they're normal. They're not.

If you like cartoons with giant eyes, futanari and SDN's, you're a weaboo. It's that simple.

Originally Posted by Pannonius

If you like cartoons with giant eyes, futanari and SDN's, you're a weaboo. It's that simple.

I disagree.

When someone says weaboo, that pretty much denotes some sort of, you know, excessiveness. So not everyone who likes the stuffs you ahve named are weaboos.

You are a weeaboo if you are a) white and b) a Japanophile.

That's it.

The article has little relevance besides making clear the large gap between knowing Japanese culture, and knowing Japanese culture through some of its anime.

No, actually the article points out pretty well, that anime, manga, etc have little to nothing to do with Japanese culture, which is simply not being exported via said media. While the headline of this thread may be humorous, the article is certainly highly relevant regarding it's more serious meaning.