Wow so topical. Thanks, Noah. My HK wife is crazy about Spy x Family and her family travels to Japan like five times a year. All of HK is absolutely obsessed about Japanese food, culture, documentaries (perhaps, it's how they set themselves apart from Chinese folks). Last night, there was actual applause at the end of a movie, Do Unto Others, about a caregiver turned serial euthanasia practitioner killing elderly folks with dementia to 'free' the children of the burden (it was a layered and beautiful movie) while my wife's high school kids (she's a teacher) ape Japanese anime culture and behave like them.
As a South Asian largely influenced by American culture, I find it all a bit befuddling, frankly. Ah well whatever floats their goat.
Hey, did you know that part of Tokyo station is under water? (They stopped pumping out ground water for industrial use in the area, and the ground water level rose above the level of the lowest level platforms (24 meters down!) under Tokyo station, something that had not been planned for when they bored the tunnels. Oops.)
(Part of my being old and square is being a monster fan of Tokyo station.)
I should add here that they've taken measures (include lots of new piles) to avert problems for the nonce, so the tunnels are still functioning. It's just that the ground water level really is well above the platform level, so more "measures" may be required in the future.
And another piece of Tokyo Station trivia: since almost all the lines into/through the station are from one company (JR), the official "number of passengers handled per day" (115,000) is way lower than reality because people changing between JR lines aren't counted; just people going through a ticket style. Shinjuku Station, which has a zillion different lines, has like 350,000 passengers handled per day.
I can tell you from personal experience that anime is massively popular among members of my generation (<25). At college, I would estimate that well over 50% (n≈40) watched anime consistently. There is no doubt in my mind that the “niche”-ness of liking anime will be almost entirely erased in the next couple decades, just as you stated.
I do, however, have to push back a little on the implication that liking and watching anime is unrelated to escapism. It is absolutely a form of escapism for those whom I mentioned. That’s not necessarily a negative – consuming TV in its many varieties is often a form of escapism, and I certainly enjoy the experience of putting aside stress for a couple hours while rewatching a comforting film. The overwhelming majority of popular anime (Ghibli aside) is extremely simplistic in theme and narrative structure, which is especially conducive to that kind of escapist consumption. It’s the equivalent of my own obsession with fantasy novels in middle school and early high school – the stories, while repetitive, overly dramatic, often featuring flat or one-dimensional characterization, have appeal precisely for their predictability.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with including those kinds of stories in one’s media (or literary) diet. However, valorizing a subculture simply because it exists and is interesting is a too-common tendency. I would have loved to read some consideration of the downsides to weeb culture; I say that as someone who loves and is fascinated by Japan, and as someone who strongly agrees with your point that Weabu culture and a foreign obsession with elements of Japanese society are not synonymous.
The point you make about Weebs finding actual life in Japan unsatisfying is spot on I think. One of the reasons that anime and manga flourished in Japan is because it is classic escapism. I lived and worked in Tokyo for seven years and was struck by how many aspects of Japanese culture are explicitly about escaping everyday life - even the end of year parties are “忘年会” - literally, “forget the year” parties. All this escapism is, I think, a reflection of what a grind daily life is in Japan for most people. I still love the place though.
The lack of Eren Jaeger on that meme dates it quite a bit (although I'd put those people more in the "Populist but not very politically engaged" area of the US political vector space, rather than somewhere on the left-right axis)
The "anime profile picture political spectrum" meme makes little sense to me, and I used to be a huge anime fan. I did notice that Westerners (or Anglophones to be specific) tend to project their politics on to anime titles and/or characters. There's even a fan-compiled book called "Left-wing Anime", which is an absurd idea to me because anime isn't political to its intended audience, the Japanese. I don't think even Miyazaki would label his cinematic works "left-wing"...
And why do you think that the stereotype about Japan being less uptight about sexuality is "mostly false"? As someone who lived in Tokyo for a couple years and still have Japanese friends, I find the stereotype mostly true. Heck, even Japanese Christians strike me as sexually liberal unlike their American counterpart.
It’s Anime Con in Boston today, so lots of cosplayers are out and about. Thanks for this article! Now I get to romantically picture all the great connections these people are making with each other.
Love this piece. As someone who lived in Tokyo for 5 years, I was always fascinated by the quirky subculture that I often saw there. I didn't fully embrace it myself, but I saw these things as a kind of social safety valve for an otherwise highly stratified, conformist country (even the language reflects this stratification) where nobody apparently wants to be the "unhammered nail".
That view of Japan is obviously a massive oversimplification. What I love about Noah's piece is that he gets to a much more fundamentally accurate vision of the country. It certainly explains why I love the country so much (even though I would never consider myself a "weeb").
Having read Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar as a college student shortly after they were published and having remained a fan for the past 5+ decades, I'm heartened to know Richard Brautigan is still being read and admired by younger folks.
The association with right wing politics is interesting. At least in the tech space, when I see an anime character avatar that almost always seems to be an indicator of extreme left wing politics. I wonder if it's changed over time or if it's a point-of-observation issue.
The anime characters in the political alignment diagram all look the same to me. Guess I'm definitely not a weeb.
I think association of anime with Right wing politics shows society's own bias in having hypersensitivity towards noticing symbols associated with extreme right wing ideology more than anything bcoz of the paranoia we have(rightfully so to some extent) towards extreme right. Like weirdly communist and Trans also disproportionately have anime avatars but society in general does not fear them as they fear extreme right bcoz of our history especially in America.
I think it's due to how certain forms of escapism can often create communities that are united by their frustration with the world and how they wish to change it in a way that serves them. In the case of weebs that found in these types of communities, their version of said world tends to align with the kind of society that most right-wing ideologies strive to achieve.
The sheer foolishness of humans ! I may be old now but even when I was 20 I don't think I EVER felt a need to put on strange clothes or do weird things with my hair just to 'be different' or noticed ! Sorry folks, you are all so strange !
I’m 77 and started high school in 1960. In 1960, we had buzz cuts, but there was a subculture of guys with DAs, leather jackets, and ineffective mufflers on their cars. By 1963, we had Beatle hair, and older people were upset. I think that teenagers who are a bit nonconformist are never rare.
Another interesting question is how the interest in Japanese culture started for these folks. For French aged 35-40+ the answer is easy, it started with TV syndication (primarily through a kids program called club Dorothee) of popular Japanese anime series (often heavily censored! dragon ball episodes would have the most violent scenes cut out and then frame rate reduced to stretch the remaining minutes to full episode length, leading to stereotypes about poor quality of Japanese animation. even funnier the sake bottles in Maison Ikkoku would be relabeled as fruit juice or something, leading to a lot of confusion among kids wondering why drinking juice led to wild behavior...). Given there were only like 4-5 TV channels in the country at the time there wasn't much choice on TV and so pretty much every kid was exposed. Much later on in Japan I met countless French dudes who went to Japan specifically because they watched these animes in their youth (including a few that were trying to break into the anime industry). Wonder how it was in other countries.
And on the topic of love yeah, probably also should mention how (at least 20 years ago) nerdy white guys with poor dating prospects/zero game suddenly become (became) hot dating prospects in Japan, could get girlfriends etc. That became certainly a big reason why a lot of these guys stayed in the country, although hard to tell whether it was a consideration that drew them there to start with.
Your last paragraph is profoundly true. One of the attractions of Japanese women to westerners is that the latter are totally outside this highly stratified society. Befriending or dating westerners gives them an exotic out from this framework. I suspect the anime sub-culture represents another escape.
Wow so topical. Thanks, Noah. My HK wife is crazy about Spy x Family and her family travels to Japan like five times a year. All of HK is absolutely obsessed about Japanese food, culture, documentaries (perhaps, it's how they set themselves apart from Chinese folks). Last night, there was actual applause at the end of a movie, Do Unto Others, about a caregiver turned serial euthanasia practitioner killing elderly folks with dementia to 'free' the children of the burden (it was a layered and beautiful movie) while my wife's high school kids (she's a teacher) ape Japanese anime culture and behave like them.
As a South Asian largely influenced by American culture, I find it all a bit befuddling, frankly. Ah well whatever floats their goat.
"Some actions on this tweet have been disabled." I have a screenshot, tried multiple devices and platforms on your weeb tweet. Strange.
I know, it's weird. I'll try again.
Seems Twitter has disabled tweets with links with ".substack.com" domains.
We'll see if that persists...
You just dropped Richard Brautigan - that’s excellent
You make me feel old and square.
Hey, did you know that part of Tokyo station is under water? (They stopped pumping out ground water for industrial use in the area, and the ground water level rose above the level of the lowest level platforms (24 meters down!) under Tokyo station, something that had not been planned for when they bored the tunnels. Oops.)
(Part of my being old and square is being a monster fan of Tokyo station.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GP5qmKSBnc&ab_channel=%E3%81%93%E3%81%A4%E3%81%82%E3%81%9A%E9%89%84%E9%81%93%E3%81%A1%E3%82%83%E3%82%93%E3%81%AD%E3%82%8B
I should add here that they've taken measures (include lots of new piles) to avert problems for the nonce, so the tunnels are still functioning. It's just that the ground water level really is well above the platform level, so more "measures" may be required in the future.
And another piece of Tokyo Station trivia: since almost all the lines into/through the station are from one company (JR), the official "number of passengers handled per day" (115,000) is way lower than reality because people changing between JR lines aren't counted; just people going through a ticket style. Shinjuku Station, which has a zillion different lines, has like 350,000 passengers handled per day.
I can tell you from personal experience that anime is massively popular among members of my generation (<25). At college, I would estimate that well over 50% (n≈40) watched anime consistently. There is no doubt in my mind that the “niche”-ness of liking anime will be almost entirely erased in the next couple decades, just as you stated.
I do, however, have to push back a little on the implication that liking and watching anime is unrelated to escapism. It is absolutely a form of escapism for those whom I mentioned. That’s not necessarily a negative – consuming TV in its many varieties is often a form of escapism, and I certainly enjoy the experience of putting aside stress for a couple hours while rewatching a comforting film. The overwhelming majority of popular anime (Ghibli aside) is extremely simplistic in theme and narrative structure, which is especially conducive to that kind of escapist consumption. It’s the equivalent of my own obsession with fantasy novels in middle school and early high school – the stories, while repetitive, overly dramatic, often featuring flat or one-dimensional characterization, have appeal precisely for their predictability.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with including those kinds of stories in one’s media (or literary) diet. However, valorizing a subculture simply because it exists and is interesting is a too-common tendency. I would have loved to read some consideration of the downsides to weeb culture; I say that as someone who loves and is fascinated by Japan, and as someone who strongly agrees with your point that Weabu culture and a foreign obsession with elements of Japanese society are not synonymous.
The point you make about Weebs finding actual life in Japan unsatisfying is spot on I think. One of the reasons that anime and manga flourished in Japan is because it is classic escapism. I lived and worked in Tokyo for seven years and was struck by how many aspects of Japanese culture are explicitly about escaping everyday life - even the end of year parties are “忘年会” - literally, “forget the year” parties. All this escapism is, I think, a reflection of what a grind daily life is in Japan for most people. I still love the place though.
The lack of Eren Jaeger on that meme dates it quite a bit (although I'd put those people more in the "Populist but not very politically engaged" area of the US political vector space, rather than somewhere on the left-right axis)
The "anime profile picture political spectrum" meme makes little sense to me, and I used to be a huge anime fan. I did notice that Westerners (or Anglophones to be specific) tend to project their politics on to anime titles and/or characters. There's even a fan-compiled book called "Left-wing Anime", which is an absurd idea to me because anime isn't political to its intended audience, the Japanese. I don't think even Miyazaki would label his cinematic works "left-wing"...
And why do you think that the stereotype about Japan being less uptight about sexuality is "mostly false"? As someone who lived in Tokyo for a couple years and still have Japanese friends, I find the stereotype mostly true. Heck, even Japanese Christians strike me as sexually liberal unlike their American counterpart.
It’s Anime Con in Boston today, so lots of cosplayers are out and about. Thanks for this article! Now I get to romantically picture all the great connections these people are making with each other.
Probably the best take on the topic I've ever seen. Except for Filthy Frank's, of course.
Love this piece. As someone who lived in Tokyo for 5 years, I was always fascinated by the quirky subculture that I often saw there. I didn't fully embrace it myself, but I saw these things as a kind of social safety valve for an otherwise highly stratified, conformist country (even the language reflects this stratification) where nobody apparently wants to be the "unhammered nail".
That view of Japan is obviously a massive oversimplification. What I love about Noah's piece is that he gets to a much more fundamentally accurate vision of the country. It certainly explains why I love the country so much (even though I would never consider myself a "weeb").
Super article.
Having read Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar as a college student shortly after they were published and having remained a fan for the past 5+ decades, I'm heartened to know Richard Brautigan is still being read and admired by younger folks.
The association with right wing politics is interesting. At least in the tech space, when I see an anime character avatar that almost always seems to be an indicator of extreme left wing politics. I wonder if it's changed over time or if it's a point-of-observation issue.
The anime characters in the political alignment diagram all look the same to me. Guess I'm definitely not a weeb.
I think association of anime with Right wing politics shows society's own bias in having hypersensitivity towards noticing symbols associated with extreme right wing ideology more than anything bcoz of the paranoia we have(rightfully so to some extent) towards extreme right. Like weirdly communist and Trans also disproportionately have anime avatars but society in general does not fear them as they fear extreme right bcoz of our history especially in America.
I think it's due to how certain forms of escapism can often create communities that are united by their frustration with the world and how they wish to change it in a way that serves them. In the case of weebs that found in these types of communities, their version of said world tends to align with the kind of society that most right-wing ideologies strive to achieve.
You should visit indonesia sometimes, there are a lot of weeb events there
The sheer foolishness of humans ! I may be old now but even when I was 20 I don't think I EVER felt a need to put on strange clothes or do weird things with my hair just to 'be different' or noticed ! Sorry folks, you are all so strange !
I’m 77 and started high school in 1960. In 1960, we had buzz cuts, but there was a subculture of guys with DAs, leather jackets, and ineffective mufflers on their cars. By 1963, we had Beatle hair, and older people were upset. I think that teenagers who are a bit nonconformist are never rare.
Another interesting question is how the interest in Japanese culture started for these folks. For French aged 35-40+ the answer is easy, it started with TV syndication (primarily through a kids program called club Dorothee) of popular Japanese anime series (often heavily censored! dragon ball episodes would have the most violent scenes cut out and then frame rate reduced to stretch the remaining minutes to full episode length, leading to stereotypes about poor quality of Japanese animation. even funnier the sake bottles in Maison Ikkoku would be relabeled as fruit juice or something, leading to a lot of confusion among kids wondering why drinking juice led to wild behavior...). Given there were only like 4-5 TV channels in the country at the time there wasn't much choice on TV and so pretty much every kid was exposed. Much later on in Japan I met countless French dudes who went to Japan specifically because they watched these animes in their youth (including a few that were trying to break into the anime industry). Wonder how it was in other countries.
And on the topic of love yeah, probably also should mention how (at least 20 years ago) nerdy white guys with poor dating prospects/zero game suddenly become (became) hot dating prospects in Japan, could get girlfriends etc. That became certainly a big reason why a lot of these guys stayed in the country, although hard to tell whether it was a consideration that drew them there to start with.
Your last paragraph is profoundly true. One of the attractions of Japanese women to westerners is that the latter are totally outside this highly stratified society. Befriending or dating westerners gives them an exotic out from this framework. I suspect the anime sub-culture represents another escape.