fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2006 ]

[ SECRET POST #2006 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2006 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 135 secrets from Secret Submission Post #287.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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06. http://i49.tinypic.com/156vbjp.jpg

Nonny, unless you go around screeching about how ~wonderful~ Japanese culture is an how it's vastly superior to everything and how you're going to move there as soon as you're able to and undergo surgery to make yourself look more Japanese and dye your hair...

You're not a weaboo.

You just enjoy stuff from Japan, and appreciate their culture.

(signs you're not a weaboo: you clearly stated "[the culture/society] isn't perfect")

I never got that whole "growing out of J-fandom" thing. Yes, many J-fandoms skew younger, but I like what I like, and if I want to talk about anime and J-Pop, that doesn't make me immature. You don't sound like a weeaboo, since you notice that Japan isn't perfect, and I'm going to assume you don't wish you were Japanese or something. Be in whatever fandom makes you happy, and fuck the haters!

Yeah, what the above anon said. It's perfectly okay and possible to have a mature appreciation for another culture, including Japan's. Most young anime fans will hopefully grow out of the obnoxious weeaboo phase but that isn't to say they won't still enjoy anime and Japanese culture. (Speaking as an ex-weeaboo myself.)

I think "weeaboo" as a term is a bit unfair, anyway. You get those overenthusiastic, obsessive young teen fans in lots of different fandoms - I've seen it with Homestuck, Harry Potter, Transformers, Star Trek... It's just that the ones from anime fandom seem to be either the loudest or the most prevalent, and unfortunately that kind of behavior gives a bad name to fans with a perfectly reasonable, mature appreciation for Japanese media and culture.

But we got names for all of those subcultures as well?

Agreeing with the first three commenters here.

Also, I really like Japanese culture; I think it's interesting and often very aesthetically appealing. Nothing wrong with that!

ia with Anglophiles being total hypocrites toward "weeaboos" when their attitudes and behavior are just as bad.

god I hate Anglophiles, especially on tumblr and lj. So holier-than-thou and so hypocritical.

THIS.
i have a soft spot in my heart for japan and japanese culture. i also love british culture and media.

but i am also very much aware of the problems british culture has, and the dark parts of their history.
(patriarchy, racism/eugenics/the slave trade, imperialism, classism, misogyny...)

This is the second secret I read about Anime/Japan fans "moving on" to Western fandoms. Is that really what happened? I remember around end of 2011 I suddenly fell out of love with all anime and started getting interested in Western shows (Merline, Torchwood, Supernatural.) I thought it was just me but now I suspect a mass exodus happened in my Internet backyard and maybe I got swept in it without even noticing.

Really? I must've missed the other. But this is certainly a thing. Everybody I met back then in Japanese fandom (be it anime, Japanese music or games) is now into other medias/fandoms, such as American/British TV series, webcomics, K-pop. And some have this superior "I grew out of it" attitude. Japanese fandom is dying down and I would've left back in 2010 myself, but I realized others just weren't as fun to me.

yeah I did too. When I was in HS/college I was REALLY into anime and visual kei, then I moved to Japan and just got into Japanese fashion and music, and now I still like the fashion but my fandoms are all Western. (I do still watch an anime here and there if it's really good, but I don't usually actively participate in fandom) It seems to be common.

Oh this happened to me. I don't know in what exact moment, but I think it was around 2007 that suddenly fell out of love with anime , and now all my fandoms are western shows (most of them british ~heh). And every time I look back I can't help but relate all the anime/japan loving to a childhood/teenage stage.

IRT anime/manga fandom has shrunk even in Japan. There's certainly more product out there, but outside of the mass-appeal, long running juggernaut properties like Bleach/Naruto/One Piece, the audience consuming it is smaller. So the stuff that does get produced reflects the taste of a more niche, hardcore demographic.

I don't follow Japanese pop culture with the intensity that I did in the late 90s/early 2000s, but I think the fact that professionally produced anime has become less accessible overall, coupled with changes in how material makes its' way overseas, has made it more difficult for casual fans to find the shows that are most popular in Japan.

In comparison, Western television shows, especially shows that have fantasy/sci-fi roots, have become more mainstream, appeal to varied demographics, and can be accessed through different sources like Netflix/Hulu/On Demand.

I think it's just a lot of smaller trends that, when taken together, have caused people to move away/drop out of anime/manga/Japanese fandoms.

It's totally possible to love Japanese culture without being a ~weaboo~. I think the title has more to do with your attitude about it.

I don't get "growing out of" anime, I feel like that's what people say when they just watch flavor-of-the-month shit and never get into the classics

Most people who "grow out of" anime have seen like, a handful of shitty anime on tv or something and decided they are done with the whole genre, it's like reading Tom Clancy and saying "ok done with books forever now"

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2012-06-30 21:13 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2012-06-30 23:37 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

omar - 2012-07-01 05:16 (UTC) - Expand

I think it's cool to have an appreciation of any culture, as long as you're aware (and it sounds like you are) that ALL cultures have their faults.

You don't seem like you're one of those creepy weeaboos, just somebody with an interest. It's okay to have a preference for Japanese fandoms! Being into American or British live action TV is not what makes somebody an adult or not.

There are spoiled brats everywhere, and people need to realize that they're not all in anime/manga fandoms. Hell, my main fandom is of American origin, and we are like, objectively the worst.

Aw, I just want to say thank you, F!S. These comments are pretty sweet. :)

You don't sound like a weeaboo at all, OP! There's nothing wrong with being into Japanese fandoms or being interested in Japan (it is interesting!).

I've never understood the idea that you can grow out of a fandom. I've been in a lot of fandoms in my time, and I've never felt that I left any of them because I outgrew them. I just lost interest (or, more likely, something else grabbed my attention more), and whatever I moved on to was no better or worse than whatever I left. And there's no rule that says you can't stick with a fandom for ages and ages. Some people flit around a lot, some people never leave a fandom, some people fall somewhere in the middle. Nobody is doing it wrong. I think when your friends move on to something else, you can feel a bit left behind, but there's nothing wrong with you. Like what you like, for however long you want to like it!

Well yeah, if their basis for being in the fandom is that Japan is this OMG so wonderful magical happy place where all their problems will be solved, then yes, they will grow out of it when they realize it's not. But if you're genuinely interested in Japanese culture and media, it's not something that is in any way age-dependent.

Hey, you just appreciate a different culture. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it's a lovely thing.

Could be wrong but I think squeeing over American/British fandoms is judged differently from weaboo-squeeing because of context and history. Weaboo-ness might be being understood in the context of Orientialism and exoticising the Other. American/British fandoms can have a different kind of Otherness attached depending on where you come from.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2012-07-03 21:11 (UTC) - Expand

I don't think there's anything wrong with having an interest in Japanese culture, or with finding that Japanese fandoms tend to appeal to you a lot.

As long as you don't put Japan and J-fandom on a pedestal, I think you're probably okay.

As long as you aren't claiming you're "transethinic", why not.

hey, there's nothing wrong with liking japanese culture and entertainment
if that's where your heart is, so be it! :)
(and as long as you're aware that every culture has its good points and its flaws, and you respect & understand culture, then you're not a weaboo.)

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