How Japanese people really feel about Japanese culture fetishes

Image via Complex Original

"It truly is infuriating when people think that Sailor Moon and DBZ are the peak of Japanese cultural heritage," said wofroganto. "It's like someone thinking of Barney the Dinosaur as a cornerstone of Western civilization."

Redditor _ooze_, a Japanese-American who has lived in Japan, agreed: "Most people who like Japan from the West are usually interested in anime and manga and tbh I kind of look down on them. I think its because they like Japan for different reasons than I like Japan. I love the food, the festivals, and how structured the society is. These types of people think that Japan is like the Japan they see in anime/manga and that is not the case."

"People with Katana boners are literally the most irritating people in the world," said Kiita-Ninetails.

For those who don't know, a katana is a sword used by samurais in feudal Japan. And it's what it sounds like: an old weapon that by no means represents the most advanced technology the country has to offer. 

Some Westerners don't get that, though. Triantaffelow said they've seen the katana characterized as "A MAGICAL WEAPON THAT WAS LITERALLY THE PINNACLE OF SWORD CREATION TECHNIQUES."

Not so much, said Kiita-Ninetails. "The reality is it's a weapon that, at best, is on par with swords that had been being made in Europe for decades prior. (And the Middle East, even, and most likely China.)"

Akadaka2 sees no problem with Westerners engaging with Japanese culture, but it grinds their gears when people try to pass off their anime vocabulary as Japanese. 

"What annoys me is when people who claimed to have learnt Japanese via anime try to engage in a conversation using solely 'baka,' 'kawaii,' etc.," they said. 

This is a common misunderstanding, according to PM_ME_UR_DUCKFACE_, who is learning Japanese: "I translate random internet things sometimes just as a way to practice, and it seems like every time I do, half a dozen weebs end up scrambling over each other to nitpick what I say because it doesn't translate that way in their anime fansubs."

According to the Urban Dictionary, a weeaboo is "someone who is obsessed with Japan/Japanese Culture/Anime, etc. and attempts to act as if they were Japanese, even though they're far from it. They use Japanese words but usually end up pronouncing them wrong and sounding like total assholes."

In other words, it's someone who appropriates Japanese culture—or their warped version of it. Contempt for weeaboos popped up a lot in the thread. 

"Weeaboos aren't obsessed with Japanese traditional culture, they're obsessed with some kind of bastardized fantasy version of Japanese culture/pop culture," said scm96. 

So, fans of all things Japanese, here's the consensus: It's fine to enjoy the country's cultural contributions, but don't fool yourself. What you've been exposed to in the West is probably vastly different from Japanese culture itself, and your attempts to emulate it could very well make you look like a complete idiot.