It’s not a bad thing to have hobbies, but some folks take a disproportionate interest in things that borders on obsessions. Infamous among examples like this are the so-called “weebs,” non-Japanese people who are obsessed with Japan in general and anime in particular. Bizarrely, this can even mean preferring to date Japanese folks.
A netizen shared their experience with an anime-obsessed roommate who somehow landed a date with a Japanese woman and then creeped her out. We reached out to the person who shared the story online via private message and will update the article when they get back to us.
Some people’s obsession with anime ends up going too far
Image credits: Pressmaster / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
A netizen ended up causing a conflict when they told their roommate that his date didn’t like his anime references
Image credits: mstandret / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
Image credits: van_millie2567
There are a significant amount of people who are deeply fascinated with Japan
Image credits: Roberto Miguél Gomez / flickr (not the actual photo)
If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, you’ve no doubt encountered netizens who seem to solely consume anime over any other sort of media. Anime, in case you’ve been living under a rock, just means Japanese animation. To be clear, a preference for Japanese animation over, say, western isn’t enough to make someone a weeb. After all, anime’s popularity was born from its superior craftsmanship. For example, in the US, many viewers saw anime as being leagues above local offerings. The techniques were quite innovative at the time and often featured a style that is still popular today.
Some viewers end up getting quite attached to the portrayal of life in Japan provided by anime. For westerners, anime can help people “find refuge in a culture that diverges from the typical American way of life,” according to professor of Japanese Language and Literature Susan J. Napier.
Some folks start to take this a little too seriously, consuming only Japanese media and fantasizing about living in Japan. Often this is due to an unrealistic conception of life in Japan as well as a somewhat weird fetishization of Japanese culture and people. It has also sparked a disproportionate interest in learning Japanese, as many consider it a prerequisite for living in Japan or at least watching anime in its original language.
These folks might be broadly categorized as “Japanophiles” or “weebs,” depending on your perspective. Others might use the Japanese term “otaku,” which is pejorative in its own way, designating a person with consumption-based interests. In other words, a person whose hobbies include paying for and consuming media made by others. There is nothing wrong with these sorts of interests, but it’s perhaps a bit unhealthy to base your entire worldview, including dating habits, on the consumption of mass media.
Being judgmental and rude is a bad strategy, even when you are right
Image credits: Pressmaster / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
Similarly, while “weeb” is a sort of catch-all term, there are Japanophiles who are disinterested in anime but quite interested in other parts of Japanese culture. After all, anime is just a sliver of life in Japan and an often unrepresentative one at that. It’s pretty reductive to take a culture this storied and rich and just focus on animation.
As the person who shared this story correctly notes, many people might be turned off by constant references to things you have never seen before. Imagine dating a person who would constantly make “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” references to you just because you were from Philadelphia. Even worse, in this analogy, they are only dating you because you were from Philadelphia.
So the person’s advice is solid. However, as some readers note, they have a bad habit of calling women “females,” which is quite often a sign of little experience in the first place, as it makes women sound like some sort of alien creature. Similarly, the anime-loving roommate was actually able to get a date.
All in all, this story gives the impression of a few missing details, for example, why was this comment enough to make a person just move out? They aren’t wrong, an unhealthy obsession with anime and the fetishization of Japanese people would be a turn-off to many people, but there are nicer and more helpful ways to go about it.
Readers shared their thoughts on this roommate’s bizarre behavior
Some also wanted more info
However, a few readers also thought the person who shared the story was too judgmental
