My weaboo experience: the latter days
I am a weaboo and it is good, lol.
More seriously, I started out becoming a Japan fanatic through swords, rather than through anime or games, like many others. As an adolescent, I shared the same obsession for sharp things that any number of young men in the past have had, and that eventually led me to the katana, then to the samurai, then to Japan (in that order).
I met anime and jrpgs about the same time, which only made the hunger more intense.
Like all newbie weaboos, I practically worshiped everything Japanese... I wouldn't accept criticism of anything Japanese, and I instantly thought of anything Japanese as awesome. That lasted well into my twenties, when I began to seriously study Japanese history as part of my larger hobby of studying world history and anthropology.
To be blunt, it is about this time that my views began to change, if subtly. The weaboo psychology, such as it is, is peculiar in some areas. Some weaboos continue to simply idealize everything about Japan, past and present, regardless of what information they pick up. Others become disillusioned as the faults in Japanese society (again, both past and present) become apparent. The third, and final group, tempers their adoration to a mere fondness and preference for things Japanese as they accept a more objective (relatively-speaking) viewpoint on their subject of obsession.
The first ideal that had to be broken for me was the samurai... to be blunt, reading the history of Japan puts the samurai caste into perspective in a way movies and video games just can't. The samurai ideal a lot of weaboos practically worship was born during the centuries of peace during the Edo period and is a relatively recent invention.
Once the samurai ideal was broken for me, it became a lot easier to see Japan for what it was. I still love Japan, I still love Japanese culture, and I still have a definitive preference for Japanese ideas. However, I can now admit that Japan's society is just as badly flawed in its way as my own, thus reducing my weabooism to a matter of personal taste, rather than a fanatical obsession, lol.
So what kind of weaboo are you? (not assuming you are one, whoever is reading this, lol)
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