In Retrospect,

Through middle school and high school I knew this girl that was a pretty hardcore weeaboo. It’s pretty funny actually, because I grew up in the Bay Area, which has a huge Asian population (over 50% of my high school was Asian, including her and myself). I guess weeaboos can develop anywhere.


She was obsessed with Final Fantasy VIII and an anime called Fushigi Yugi. She wore her Rinoa cosplay to school and almost every conversation with her always related to how much she was like an anime character, or her trying to apply anime to real life. Her 16th birthday party consisted of her really nice brother giving out “trivia” questions about her, which consisted of things like, “Which of the four gods is <girl> a priestess of?” The answer was Suzaku or something. She also had me waltz with her while playing the graduation ball song from FFVIII since I was the only one that knew how to dance.


Looking back, she really had a lot of personal issues and I’m pretty sure she just tried to fill that void in her life with anime fantasies. Her mother died when she was a young teenager, and she was honestly pretty unattractive. Her older sister was very attractive and intelligent, which probably just made her feel worse about herself. Her father once confided in me that they had terrible fights and he was glad that she had friends like me to support her. It was probably easier to be around her since she wasn’t your stereotypical “I’m beautiful and know everything!” type of weeaboo, but it makes me wonder how many weeaboos are just trying to lose themselves into a fantasy world where they’re the heroes.


Looking back, I hope she’s doing a lot better now. I think it’s easy for an obsession like that to turn into a self destructive cycle. It’s all too easy to run away into your anime fantasy world and lose out on real life opportunities, causing you to indulge in it even more to run away. The people I knew like that would try to apply anime to real life and would never go out to learn real skills, because their imagined idealized “anime” selves were already like that. Why go learn martial arts when in your anime fantasies you’re already a master fighter? I hope people like that realize it’s always easy to get back to the real world and become the type of person you really want to be, rather than the fictional ideal anime self most have created for themselves.

Just because you don't like a fandom, doesn't me

Okay, I get it, a lot of people don’t like Hetalia, and I get it that there are a lot of fans who ruin it for everyone else. EXCEPT, there are a lot of people in the fandom who, albeit, are obsessed, but generally harmless, and not the crazy screaming fans. One of my friends, for example, we’ll call her ‘L’. She’s a great girl, kind, caring, slightly obsessed with Germany, but all around cool girl. She’s made a secondary facebook account for her cosplay, and even put Germany in the name, as well as the human last name of the character for good measure.

Anyways, I had this other friend, we’ll call her ‘A’. A had been a nice girl, but fell in with a certain crowd, and changed. One day she had posted a status about hating Hetalia. Being a rational fan myself, I politely asked her why, and got something about France cosplayers groping people without permission. Which I find to be disturbing, but I apologized, and told her the whole fandom wasn’t like that. Then a bunch of other ‘friends’ of mine chirped in with Hetalia hate, over stuff like crossplaing mostly, not even the legit bad fans. Anyways, I got tired of it, and I just unfriended a lot of them because they were just arguing with me to argue, I think even A got in on it with the hate.

So about a month or so later, L had posted a status on her cosplay account about the character Germany, and there was a nice, friendly conversation going on. Suddenly, out of nowhere, A suddenly comments saying “Love Germany, fucking hate Hetalia.” So, having been frustrated by this girl’s hate, I call her out equally salty. It’s one thing to randomly state you hate it, but to SEEK OUT a girl who has done nothing to you to leave a comment like that is beyond logic. Anyways, it disintegrates into a fight, and she attempted to attack me personally, before generally getting butt-hurt and leaving. Mainly because I wouldn’t let A come and aim her hate at L. Anyways, A got blocked by a lot of people involved, and doesn’t bother L anymore.

My point here is that yes, there may be stupidity in this fandom, same with any fandom, but there are genuinely nice people in it who have done nothing to deserve shit over it. However, there are people who are just nasty, hate a fandom, and just looking for people to subject to hate.

It’s not right to go seeking out and cursing at nice, innocent fans just because you hate a series.

Also, I’d just like to say that Although I read this blog for the stories, most of the people discussed here might actually be nice people, and should be spoken to rationally, and politely, because they’re just new, and overzealous. The term weeaboo is a little offensive. These people are really just inexperienced, over-excited noobs that probably grew up as social outcasts. With proper guidance, they will eventually come to understand social situations, and that Japan is a lot different from how they think.

I’ve never been to Japan myself, though I have been interested in their complete culture for many years. With common sense, they’ll soon realize Japan’s culture is a lot like any other modern culture, and that manga is not as popular as they think, and that otaku in japan are creepy people who don’t go out. Though I like the romanticized american version of being an otaku. It means ‘family house’ and from what I have seen of anime fans is that when petty stupidity is not in the way, we bond together like family.

Pardon my rambling, I just hope people will read this and maybe have a little bit of compassion for your fellow anime fans. -Fyre

Spoiled Rotten

A few years ago I was working at a bookstore for a seasonal job. Another girl and I were in charge of the manga section and wrapping up the sexually explicit stuff. Me and the girl were your >>normal<< run of the mill anime fans. We always laughed and talked about Weeaboos that came in the store which was pretty much every day. The girl had trained me to ID anyone that tried to buy any of the mature manga because it’s illegal to sell that stuff to minors and it’s not good if a parent comes back to the store pissed off that we sold porno to their kid.
One morning, me and the assistant manager (who was younger than me and Asian who we will call H) were at the register and saw a large group of loud middle schoolers come into the book store. There was a choir contest at the local high school and they came to the mall to have shop and kill time before the contest started. Most of them headed towards the teen sections and a few stopped at the manga. They were giggling and speaking in the basic broken Japanese and weeaboo language. The talked about Hetalia and started to gush over Gravitation and about recent yaoi porn they just saw. They suddenly got in a huddle and started giggling and whispering. The assistant manager was confused and asked what the hell they were doing. I told her I had no idea and said they were probably weeaboos. She looked at me crazy and was just about to ask me what a weeaboo was until one of the middle schoolers ran up to the counter and screamed, “Konichiwa!!!! Watooshi wa “K” Desuka! Genkeys!”
Now H was not the kind of girl to let stuff go especially when it’s raciest to Asians which is normally assuming their nationality. First of all, she is not Japanese, she was Vietnamese and Chinese. Second, I could tell there was an anger storm building up in her that I had never seen. She stared at this girl for about 3 seconds before saying, “Excuse me?” The girl named K looked at her with a smile and lifted her hand in the air and yelled the same thing in an even worse pronunciation. H looked at me and calmly said, “I’m going to lunch before I do something I regret. Can you please keep an eye on the store?” I said yes before she quickly walked away to the back slamming the door. K looked at me and tilted her head to the side and said, “Nani!?” I sighed and told the girl to please keep it down because we are in the bookstore. I also informed her that the girl she just spoke to in what she considers Japanese to was not Japanese but Chinese and Vietnamese. She then asked me “Does she know China-kun!? He’s so kawaii!!!” I then said “No…do you mean China from Hetalia China?” and she squeeled and said “YES! CHINA-KUN! She knows him!?” I then replied, “No…China isn’t a real person, it’s a country…” She then replied, “Ahhhhh? Baka!” and ran back to her friends.
After a while, the store got really busy and I was alone behind the counter looking up books for customers and ringing people up. During the middle of the rush, K and her group of friends set down a large stack of manga. There was a buy 3 get on free for TokyoPop manga so I had to make sure I paid attention so I didn’t have to do the transaction over again. The line was already long and I didn’t want to stress over fixing mistakes. Each time I was about to scan a manga I would look at the binding to make sure it was TokyoPop and redo the whole thing. I literally, I shit you not, scanned about $300 worth of manga WITH the discount. In the middle of a stack there was a few explicit manga in the middle of the stack. In my scanning frenzy, I noticed them and put them aside. I put aside about 10 copies of yaoi manga and a few copies of Battle Royale which is one of the most graphic manga I’ve ever read. After I was finished ringing stuff up and placed the manga in the bags I told them the total. K stared at me in disbelief and glared. She put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot pointing at the stack of rejected manga. “What about my Yaoi desu!? Yaoi is sugoi and I want it!” I shook my head and said, “I’m not allowed to sell that to anyone under the age of 18. It contains graphic material that isn’t supposed to be viewed by kids.” The girl growled and slammed her hands on the counter and said, “I know what in it! Kawaii boy sex! They are having butt sex and making out and it’s hot! I don’t care what the rules are, I want my yaoi!” The people in line started to get really irritated and started to get impatient. I once again told K that she was not allowed to sell it to her and said that she had to pay and leave so I can get the other customers through the line. The girl continued to argue and whine and her friends started to join in as well. One of the smartass kids said “If you can’t sell us this, then you can’t sell Lord of the Rings because they have sex in that.” Suddenly, H came up to the register and said, “But it’s not primarily about sex. You guys cannot buy the wrapped merchandise.” Something in K snapped. She started screaming, “THE NIGGER AND THE DIRTY CHINK WON’T LET ME BUY MY MANGA!!! I WANT IT NOW!” The store went completely silent. H had had enough. She grabbed the books in the bag and put them behind the counter. She moved me to the side and leaned in. She started to scold the girl in Chinese and switched to Vietnamese in the middle of her rant. She then told the girl that if she didn’t leave the store, this “dirty chink” was going to make her leave by force. While she was ripping the girl a new one, I called security to come up to the store. The girl continued to throw a temper tantrum and grabbed one of the displays and threw it on the floor. She then threw herself on the floor and started screaming “Help daddy” in Japanese. Suddenly security ran in and asked her to get up. She then kicked and broke the glass counter and started rolling around on the ground. The security had finally picked her up by her arm and started to escort her from the store with her friends. Before she left, she managed to spit at H and called her a baka. The girl was lucky that H was too far away for the spit to hit her. I’m pretty sure that girl would be dead.
Later we found out that she was the daughter of a wealthy business owner who pretty much got what she wanted. Go figure.

And I thought Revisionist Fairytales were a Grai

And I thought Revisionist Fairytales were a Grail.

Not a particularly long or bad story, but sometimes the ghosts of fandoms past come back to haunt you. There I was, sitting in English class, and we were reading revisionist fairytales, such as The Tiger’s Bride. And next to me sat a girl we will refer to as weeby chan (the letters confuse me).

So, weeby chan loves anime. LOVES. IT. She’s told me on multiple occasions that she couldn’t live without Hetalia, not to mention anime in general. I used to be a major Hetafag— another story for another time, and I hadn’t come out as hating Hetalia to weeby-chan yet, because I was afraid for my health and well-being.

In the story, the main character talks about how the South of Italy is a place full of lust, warmth— a very “sexy” place, so to say. And apparently, it breeds a certain kind of person who embodies the feel of the place. I know we all know where this is headed.
Now, this is the clincher— I used to absolutely LOVE Romano (when talking to Hetalia fans these days and I want common ground with them, I tell them that I dislike Hetalia save for Romano (because I have a minor-non-weeby-fancrush on him) and France (because I think he’s hilarious.). And for those of us who don’t know, Romano = South Italy. So Weeby-chan, knowing this gem, turns towards me and procedes to make hideous “PFFFFFFFF” noises in my general direction, spraying spit and weeb juice all over me.
She begins to jam her elbows into my breasts (I am very short, she is very huge) to get my attention, and when I finally look over there, she has the following words of unthinkable knowledge for me:
“Romano.”

I’m left there, covered in spit, with jabbing pain in my breast, sides, and stomache— anything within her arms reach, only because she read the name of a country in a fairy tale.
I precede to mhm at her and turn back to reading. But god, there is a reason that I turned away from the Hetalia fandom, and it’s not because I disliked the series.

Milanoo Strikes Again!

Welcome to another round of Why Milanoo is Not That Great!

First of all, I love this blog to death. It’s not only eye-opening but it gives AWESOME advice on cosplay, lolita-clothing, general etiquette, etc… and I’ve learned much from this. Heck, I pretty much changed after reading this blog. But enough of that, let’s get onto the real action.

This happened last year for Fanime 2010, but it’s bad enough to cringe about today. I had enough money and enough courage to cosplay that year, but I didn’t know about milanoo until it was too late. I wanted to cosplay as Hiyori Tamura from Lucky Star because my friends said I looked and acted like her (now that I think about it, I don’t think acting like her was a good thing at times). Sooo I bought this Lucky Star summer uniform from Milanoo. It looked really nice from the preview picture, and I patiently waited for the delivery. When it finally came, it was a size too big and the collar was very thick, ill-fitting, and shiny. SHINY. My mom took one look at it and said that even she could do better than that (which she actually could). She was disappointed enough to fix it for me the day before the con (A BIG thank you to her. She made the huge sleeves smaller and fixed the collar). It was semi-decent, but eh… it wasn’t like anything in the preview. I didn’t bother to file a complaint because I didn’t think it would be worth it at the time. Besides, it’s Milanoo.

After that I learned that making your cosplay is much more fun and let’s you make the cosplay how YOU want it to be. I’ve also learned that being weight-conscious won’t help anythinggg. So I got over that silly fear and decided to dress up in something more unique (aka Touhou. By unique I mean a challenge to make cosplays for XD ) I’m still a novice at cosplay, but I hope I’m improving. I have my mom helping me with how to sew and such still. This is my most recent and first handmade cosplay from Fanime 2011 (Great con btw. It’s really worth checking out if you’re somewhere in the Bay Area) : http://tinyurl.com/3w3afdf

I’m that awkward kid with the giant red bow on her head. I hope it’s good enough for a first time handmade cosplay.