[ SECRET POST #161 ]

[degrees.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #161 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Last day to submit for next week! You know you want to!

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #023.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, 0 not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Saturday, June 16th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: Here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

8. Don't glorify war. It's a miserable, painful experience that will eventually lead to nothing being left on Earth but rats and roaches, who hopefully (if there is any justice) will evolve the capacity to laugh at the stupid humans who nuked their civilization to a radioactive ruin.

11: So you like older and more "manly" men for the most part. That's fine. Some of us like bishounen and less rugged geeky types. That's fine too. I'm kind of tired of people acting like liking anything but the Rugged Rough Manly Man Stereotype is some sort of "childish" or "fangirl" thing. and Hiro > Mohinder. Deal.

12: Honestly, I'm annoyed with the concept of "weeaboo." Yes, there are some REALLY annoying and batshit anime/manga/Jrock/whatever fans. That DOESN'T mean the great majority of us don't at least try to be somewhat culturally sensitive, don't go around babbling in Japanese, and do understand that every culture including Japan is 90 percent crap and 10 percent YES THIS IS THE BEST EVER. So we like Japanese stuff. What harm is that to you? *headdesk*

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

12. I think the problem comes from people that are fans of Japanese stuff going out of their way to bash Western stuff, but that's just my perspective :\

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

*nods* Though I don't see why that should make anyone who likes anime or manga (even better in specific cases) a "weeaboo." In that, yes, I think Gackt is a very talented and beautiful musician, and asked, yes, I would unequivocally say that Gackt is much, much, MUCH better than, say, Toby Keith. That doesn't make me an American-hating basher, it makes me someone who likes Gackt a million times more than Toby Keith.

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

Well in that example you're equating a pretty readily accepted Japanese figure to a redneck douchebag only hardcore country fans like. So that example just makes you a smart person.

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

Thank you ~_^ And maybe I did use the wrong comparison. But the point I'm trying to make (however badly I did it ^_^) is that sometimes one can see something Japanese as "better" but not necessarily be engaging in bashing. ^_^

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

Oh, that goes without saying, but in my (forgive me) weeaboo days, I was friends with MANY people that were constantly riffing on American crap simply because it was American. Which is such bullshit.

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

*nods* I completely understand that. I'm just personally more annoyed at the counter-reaction that goes something like "anyone who openly admits to liking anime style is a childish weeaboo," "he has anime icons so he MUST be a weeaboo" or "OMG how DARE you self-identify as otaku/hikikomori/EGL/other Japanese subculture you are SUCH a fucking weeaboo!" or "you actually think a manga is one of the best books you've read? Read moar, weeaboo." Stuff like that makes me want to slap anyone who view 4Chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica as anything but troll crap.

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

I'm an EDer and 4chan person myself, but throwing around weeaboo is pretty counter-productive to the term itself. It's like people who toss Mary Sue onto any character they dislike---it demeans the term and makes it less applicable for people who ACTUALLY FIT THE DESCRIPTION.

Generally I don't think of people as weeaboos unless they are truly Wapanese; ie, people that genuinely wish they were Japanese or proudly proclaim themselves otaku with no understanding of the word's stigma or meaning.

(...But I would be lying if I said I didn't look down on people when they say they prefer anime style to other art styles no holds barred, because anime technically is a commercialized way of skimping out.)

In the end, there are a lot worse people and a lot more to make fun of on the internet (hello babyfurs) than people who like Bleach.

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

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I'm an EDer and 4chan person myself

My apologies then. I've met so many people who hang around both that are total assholes that I'm rather jaded about everyone there. Just as most of them are probably rather jaded about me. ~_^

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but throwing around weeaboo is pretty counter-productive to the term itself. It's like people who toss Mary Sue onto any character they dislike---it demeans the term and makes it less applicable for people who ACTUALLY FIT THE DESCRIPTION.

Word.

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Generally I don't think of people as weeaboos unless they are truly Wapanese; ie, people that genuinely wish they were Japanese or proudly proclaim themselves otaku with no understanding of the word's stigma or meaning.

The former, I don't even think should be called weeaboo *if* it's for a reason (e.g. wanting to have known the language from childhood, truly understanding the culture and wanting to have a level of integration Westerners, due to the xenophobia, might never have. On a personal note, I've wished I was Japanese at points so I could know the language, and most recently so I could post a rant about Yuka Tojo's asshattery and why people need to stand up against rightwing nationalism and the like without it never meeting anyone who needs to see it)

But yeah, anyone who calls himself or herself an otaku or ESPECIALLY a fucking hikikomori without any knowledge or understanding of the stigma, the meaning, the surrounding culture, and without any similarity at all (newsflash: simply watching anime doesn't make you an otaku, and if you have meaningful offline social engagement outside your place of residence, you are *not* a hiki at the time) deserves to be slapped repeatedly with copies of "Welcome To The NHK" and "Densha Otoko."

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(...But I would be lying if I said I didn't look down on people when they say they prefer anime style to other art styles no holds barred, because anime technically is a commercialized way of skimping out.)

I can respect that opinion, yet there's also a lot of variation in "anime style" and I don't see the point in bashing art like that for RahXephon or Cowboy Bebop or Paranoia Agent as if it were exactly the same as art for "Generic Shounen Slugfest 100" or "Overdramatic Shoujo Soap Opera: The Remix."

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In the end, there are a lot worse people and a lot more to make fun of on the internet (hello babyfurs) than people who like Bleach.

Exactly.

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

Wtf, how do you make the forum quote code---wait no I figured it out. SWEET.

there's also a lot of variation in "anime style" and I don't see the point in bashing art like that for RahXephon or Cowboy Bebop or Paranoia Agent as if it were exactly the same as art for "Generic Shounen Slugfest 100" or "Overdramatic Shoujo Soap Opera: The Remix."

Sadly, high-production anime is vastly outnumbered by shitty three-cels-per-minute crap of the season, which is just the worst of the worst in animation and art style. I don't know, my assumption may be incorrect, but it's always seemed to me like bad Eastern animation is MUCH worse than bad Western.

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

I use a Firefox addon to generate it. LJQuote.

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Sadly, high-production anime is vastly outnumbered by shitty three-cels-per-minute crap of the season, which is just the worst of the worst in animation and art style. I don't know, my assumption may be incorrect, but it's always seemed to me like bad Eastern animation is MUCH worse than bad Western.

And that is one among many reasons I usually prefer manga to anime in most fandoms. As in original source and original writer usually means better, I like to read, and the production value is often better simply because if the original artist is good (or at least not awfully horrible and is improving), there's less opportunity for stuff like rushed plots, fillers, and you're much more likely to find quality art.

Or, at least if you're browsing in a store, to go "man, this artist is generic" *look ahead four volumes later and see the same shitty art and amateurish mistakes combined with no story advance at all* "meh, not buying this."

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

And forgive me, I didn't mean to slap all of 4Chan. Just the /b/tards who seem to think being an asshole troll = being the coolest person ever.

[(Anonymous)]

I wish I could tell you how many times that I've wanted to friend you just because you've either agreed with something I've said that I thought nobody else would agree with, or said something that I wanted to say.

Except if I friended you, then you'd know who I was, and that would sort of ruin my anonymity.

Plus, we don't have that many fandoms in common, so you'd probably get bored of me.

But thank you.

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

Awwww. *glomps* ^_^

[(Anonymous)]

8 - I don't glorify it. I still want to be there.

[maeda.livejournal.com]

11 I agree with you. To use the fandomy terms, I find bara AND bishounen attractive... what's the big deal?

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And yes, bishounen has its cliches and overdone attached tropes, but I've read my fair share of crappy bara/roughneck stuff too. I think the problem is that character overdescription and focusing on appearance above anything and everything else.

Whether it's your willowy bishounen's hair the color of freshly stirred cream and deep, empathetic emerald orbs (for one example) or your exuding masculinity bara toughguy's huge, immense, rippling 8-pack of well-oiled muscle leading down into his small forest bush and foot-long girth of a beer can thickly veined cock (for another), this is the problem, not the style, the *obsession* with style and rules over substance.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dahne_/]

11. Well, Otacon definitely falls into the category of "less rugged geeky type" XD

And Hiro > Everything.

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

XD I didn't recognize him.

Ando would beg to differ. *Ando-chibi throws rant about not "being the girl" and similar misogyny, until Hiro shows up with the webcam he'd ever-so-carefully planted in their room*

Re. 12

[(Anonymous)]

It's the people who use "weeaboo" as a blanket term for who just like x-part of Japanese Culture that really bother me. Just because I have a bunch of anime icons, and know how to read certain Kanji does not make me a Weeaboo, is what I'm trying to say. As well, they seem to assume that I like x-part of Japanese Culture, that automatically makes me like the rest of Japanese Culture.

I do agree with you, however, it's the ignore people that piss all of us off.

Re: Re. 12

[pretentioustfu.livejournal.com]

Word.

[(Anonymous)]

Re 11 - That was not what I was trying to say, at all, ever. I just don't find bishounen hot any more for the most part, and the only reason I don't come out and say it is because people would think I was trying to undermine their love for the bishounen, and I'm not. I'll admit I can't understand what the physical attraction is to the people I picked on the bottom row, but I am not going to think any less of someone who can't understand what the physical attraction is for the people on the top row.