Weebs… and the people who hate them. Japan has always had a distinctive relationship with the West. But ever since it broke out on the global stage with its “gross national cool” - distributing an array of films, shows, video games, and toys the world over, Westerners have taken on a particular fascination with the country. To the point that an entire Western subculture has formed around an interest… or rather obsession, with all things Japanese. In this episode, Hannah and Maia track how the weeb was born - from the radical DIY origins of manga and otaku, to the fedora-wearing white Redditors of today who hump h*ntai body pillows. But the question remains: Is a weeb a person who simply attends anime conventions and enjoys a vast knowledge of Japan, or a gooner with a Japan fetish? OR does this binary really exist at all? Listen to find out.
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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:
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SOURCES:
Anne Allison, “The Japan Fad in Global Youth Culture and Millennial Capitalism,” Mechademia. 1, Emerging worlds of anime and manga, (2006).
Hannah Ewens, We Asked J-Culture Fans to Defend Being ‘Weeaboos’” Vice (2017).
Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World, ed. Mizuko Ito and Daisuke Okabe, Yale University Press (2012).
Sharon Kinsella, “Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement,” The Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1998).
Andrew Leonard, “Heads Up, Mickey,” Wired (1995).
Susan Napier, “The World of Anime Fandom in America” Mechademia: Second Arc, Vol. 1, (2006).
Joseph Tobin, Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon, Duke University Press (2004).
Theresa Winge, “Costuming the Imagination: Origins of Anime and Manga Cosplay,” Mechademia: Second Arc, Vol. 1, Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga (2006).