| (no subject) |
[Sep. 3rd, 2005|11:10 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  ANTI-OTAKU WHOO | ] |
| [ | music |
| | That Song from Karate Kid | ] |
Dear "Otaku",
Japan is not the Promised Land. Living in Japan will not make you God or any cooler than any other "otaku". The Japan you see in anime is rather different from the real Japan. Japan has many domestic issues and extreme xenophobia. There are no samurai in Japan, no giant robots, if Tokyo Tower explodes, it will not come back, and there are no gateways to other worlds. You are not Japanese. Japanese is not your native language. Speaking in your non-native tongue excessively is not cool. I don't care how kawaii that plushie is, or how much of a baka that person is. You're not Japanese. Don't try and look Japanese, because you may end up looking you got a sex change operation from a second rate surgeon.
Life in Japan isn't great. Japan is a very xenophobic country and unless you want to be an English teacher (assistant teacher, that is, good lucking getting full time teaching job), you'll probably have a crap job and be frowned upon. You may think you're Japanese. You may even be Japanese, on the inside. But to them, you're just dirty white man who raped great motherland and heartlessly pulled us into World War II. Acting Japanese will not make the Japanese like you. In fact, it will probably make you somewhat less popular, because the little gaijin bubble you live in will pop, and they'll start treating you like they would anyone else. Except worse, because you're not Japanese.
You're also probably obese.
Japan has many budding young students ready to succeed the current generation. You will not become a manga artist. Japan has many talented artists that seek to get into the real manga world and stop doing doujinshi. You may get lucky however, because they tend to kill themselves when they fail.
You want to be a seiyuu? Perhaps play a foreigner in some harem anime, since every harem anime has a foreigner? Have you seen any other English people being seiyuus? What? You can't tell because you can't understand the language? You speak it well enough. So let me put it this way: Has any foreign character in anime ever actually spoken good English?
You may even think you know a lot about Japan. You know all about its school system and perhaps it's geography. But you probably don't know much else about the political, social, or economic structure of the country. This is because such facts aren't contained in anime and manga.
Now I shall continue to watch my anime, read my manga, and listen to Japanese music. However, I will not think that I'm OMFGCOOL. I will consider it to be rather geeky and uncool. I will want to visit Japan, but certainly not live there. I shall take a class on Japanese if an oppurtunity should present itself, but I will not spend $400 on books such as "Learn Japanese While Watching Japan's Single Big Breasted Girl Bounce Around". I shall even spend some money on some bizarre anime merchandise, but I will not devote my life to buying every single anime item in existance, or get myself arrested while trying to cut off a lock of Rumiko Takahashi's hair.
Thank you,
Anubi |
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