I’m an avid fan of anime and manga and have been for quite some time. However delving into it I’ve noticed some problems cropping up from both the western and eastern side.

First the Western side, since this is closer to home.

Things I’ve noticed is the tolerability of people to put up with out there acts of racism, sexism, misogyny and violence in both anime/manga and laugh at it for being silly. It bothers me as these people consume it and put money back towards bringing out more books/anime like it and I get called out for being too “sensitive” about it. While I’m not going to critique people for making a choice, I do question if they are really recognizing what they are doing. It kinda goes back to my post about Carpe Fulgur games dismissing me. Some of these people are the ones that want some otome (maiden, “girl”) games yet they go out and buy all this stuff that basically tells these companies that what they are doing is par for the course.

The vile forum culture. Otaku/anime forums are very much like common gaming forums, however these forums have a knack for have MORE people with pictures of lolita girls with their mouths open, tongues out, or the ones with naked women posing in such a way to cover their bits, etc. It makes for a hostile environment that you just have to block the image with adblock or something and keep going. I might also add that these people are the moderators for the forums. It makes it hard to start a thread up with “Hey, hot guys” without some man coming in and going “this is gay/this anime is gay/these characters must be gay/this anime is NOT for me yet I’ll attack it by saying it’s gay.” Yet look at you like you have five heads if you say their AIR or Klannad or <insert perverted harem anime name here> is overdone and repetitive.

The idea that, if you have NOT seen any of the anime on this list (Evangelion is one of them as well as a few others) you MUST watch them or your some kind of troglodyte that doesn’t know their anime, despite said anime not being your cup of tea, contain triggering images, contain incest, gore and a whole host of other horrible imagery. Oh and said anime is AWESOME and you need to STFU N00b nao! if you disagree.

The misappropriation of the Japanese language. While I can ignore most of the other stuff by just avoiding most people, I still come across posts in forums and such that aren’t really anime inspired but a few otaku are there that misuse Japanese. There are a few sets:

The people that drop Japanese phrases/words and have NO idea what it means. They can’t tell the difference between tako and neko, yet they’ll pepper their sentences with it, kawaii neko desu! They also refuse to learn how to properly pronounce Japanese, despite their use of Japanese.

The people that will add ‘desu’ (it is) to the end of their sentences. “I really like that hat, desu!” This I hear comes from Rozen Maiden (though not exclusive) where Suiseiseki drops “desu” at the end of her sentences where most people would leave it off. Like above, “kawaii neko” (cute cat implied ‘it is a’) “kawaii neko desu” (it is a cute cat). However in English, it becomes redundant like Mount Fujiyama for sentences with ‘it is’ in it. “It is a good day, desu” and just.. random on the “I like that hate, desu.” (I like that it is hat, or it is I really like that hat).

The people that add -u to the end of words. I’ve seen people do this within my circle. As a Japanese friend of mine commented in her LiveJournal a long while ago (that I cannot find), there is no reason to add -u to the end of blink, sleep, or other words. You might as well use the English or try for the Japanese word (I think they are nemuru and pachi). Sleepu and Blinku are akin to making fun of Spanish by adding -o to the end of words (sleepo, blinko), or -ski to the end of words to mock Russian (sleepski, blinkski). The people doing this think they are being cute, however it’s being downright insulting to the people that speak the language and the language itself. They don’t think about if Spanish were this “exotic foreign language”, would it be cute to add -o to the ends of things.

People that KNOW Japanese and go out of their way to use as much Japanese in a sentence as possible. They will say “watashi/atashi/ore/boku” when they want to say ‘I’, or “kimi” for you. YOu aren’t friends you either “tomodachi” (sometimes actually used wrong) or “nakama” (also sometimes used wrong.) (The difference is that tomodachi is used for close friends while nakama is more like companions/comrades). They will add -tachi to the end of English words: I-tachi, You-tachi, we-tachi (redundant), us-tachi (also redundant). While an efficient suffix to say all of them in that group or this group, English doesn’t have one. We use “we, us, you all, them, those guys, Name’s group”. These people will sometimes kick it up a notch and type COMPLETELY in Japanese without translation, and if you can’t read it, your not cool enough. Some of these people will also shove it in your face that they can read Japanese and you can and you should really play that game in Japanese, it’s SO much better, and I don’t play games in English, sucks to be YOU.

People into anime and manga that REFUSE to learn how to pronounce Japanese and ONLY want books and anime in English. I don’t mind people wanting the dubs over subs, but if it’s from Japanese at least respect it enough to learn how to pronounce the title of what your watching. At least KNOW that anime is pronounced ah-nee-mey and manga is mahn-gah. I know that, I pronounce it wrong from overusing the bad pronunciation for so many years, but I’m learning to get better. These people will even go so far to say that you are WRONG for wanting subs on anime and the Japanese sound effects left intact in manga (with or without a small subtitle). They will rant and rave on game forums about how EVERYONE should get used to the English voices for games and your some ‘weaboo otaku’ for wanting the Japanese voices and you are a small niche and everyone should ignore you! Despite NISA putting the option for both (and failing sometimes, Ar Tonelico II). They want to deny people a choice. The far worse ones are the ones that thing the hacked, censored versions are SUPERIOR to the Japanese and your wrong for thinking different. I know some people prefer the “4Kids” version of things (the extremely edited, white washed, badly dubbed) however respect that people like the non-4Kids version or even the original Japanese, however these type think nothing else exists.

The exotification of Japanese/Japan. People think that Japan is the wondrous magical land and the people there are different and strange and do silly things. They go out of their way to wear kimonos and any cultural piece of clothing that is long and flowing is a kimono. They don’t want to look at the cultural aspects of wearing one. Some women want to wear a male kimono without thinking about what that is saying. If it’s made in Japan it’s SUPERIOR! (Despite most of Japan’s stuff is now made in China too). If it has Japanese on it “put it in the cart!”. They will create stories and characters that take a bit of culture here and there and create something that can’t even be all that real in the scope of the culture, like a samurai ninja. As far as I know, samurai were supposed to be more honorable than sneaking around in the shadows, though samurai themselves are not without their own dirt. However people will ignore all this to great the super ultimate cultural reference! People even want to live there without knowing the language, or even exploring deeper what it means to both be a foreigner and a woman.

What people don’t know also about “silly Japan” is that they market the crap out of everything! If Hello Kitty toothbrushes are good, Hello Kitty tampons are better! Which gets me into the “Eastern” problems.

The thing with Japan that makes me NOT want to live there, is that they are HIGHLY misogynistic. While there have been some progress towards equality, most of the stuff I notice seems to be a “last ditch effort” for a woman. Women are not supposed to want to work, not supposed to want to do anything male, however if you must… You are also considered “too old to marry” after 25 (or was it 30) as your just like Christmas cake. Nobody wants you after the date on package.
This feeds into the anime/manga and game culture. I’ve noticed a shift towards more misogyny in anime/manga/games. While it’s always been there, there seems to have been less of it from days past. The otaku male demographic seems to have taken over everything and now the anime is all about big breasts, “harmless fanservice” of upskirts, panty shots, skirt flipping, and harems that simply LOVE the main male character who may or may not be into it. If not big breasts, then underage girls are the extreme opposite. The “lolicon” characters that you can see in Touhou, Disgaea, and even Recettear. While Japan DOES acknowledge a female market, it’s too problematic to take seriously as them actually being focused. The genres for girls are usually magical girls series that is overly pink and pastel now (even though Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure were darker blue and black and white), with the games being the usual tripe we find over here OR for women there are the ‘otome’ games. Otome games are mostly a visual story with character cut outs talking to each other for most of the game. Your job is to DRESS FOR THE MEN, WEAR PERFUME that they like and act HOW THEY LIKE A WOMAN to “catch” them. The men in the game are what women are supposed to want in a Japanese man, not what women WOULD want. So most men are possessive, mean, stalkerish, violent, misogynistic douchebags and you are supposed to want them. Yes, they are dating games. The content can go from all visual story to having bits of mini-game stuck in there for some sort of stat raising. While Idea Factory does have their Otomate line of games, so far none of them have had any women as the hero and have been mostly ‘pretty guys doing things’. Which isn’t /that/ bad, but still… GUYS get their exclusive men heroes doing things AND their fanservice AND their collectible women games all in one package. Even mainstream publishers like Atlus (Persona 3-4), Square Enix (Final Fantasy 7, Star Ocean 1-2 maybe the rest, other games), SEGA (Sakura Taisen), NIS (Mana Khemia, Atelier Iris 1-3), Konami (Azure Dreams), Bandai Namco (Tales of…, Ar Tonelico 1-3). The ones that do have something for women are not exclusive like Harvest Moon, Avalon Code, etc.

Other games that are “MEN ONLY!” are the Love plus game, where you have a virtual girlfriend (someone in Japan even married a character) and the new Love Plus has a “boyfriend lock” to keep your woman faithful. No sign of the virtual boyfriend game, though making one of those might lower Japan’s birthrate even further.

Lest to say the only form of marketing you usually find in an anime convention are the “hentai honeys”, figure statues of mostly naked women with large breasts, no clothes in an impossible pose, blind box figures of various female characters and Square Enix figures. Most of the other stuff are key chains from the men’s anime and plushes from the men’s anime. Rarely are the girl’s/women’s anime even represented. You might find a poster or you might find some magical girl stuff. This is the stuff coming from Japan. The only male figures I know of from a series for women exclusively were some Haruka Naru Toki no Naka De characters. Even in Japan it seems that they will only go so far on their marketing. Probably because they think that women aren’t supposed to have any sexual desires… even though they make sexual games for women. *head scratch* Though those games fall into the above. Only men that other Japanese men have deemed appropriate for women to want, not what women actually want. (One game that WAS good was Angelique. I had heard Koei had an all women team make those games at one time. While tropey the men weren’t nearly as douchey as the modern ones.)

In conclusion. I am very frustrated with western otaku culture for being as misogynistic and frustrated with Japan for feeding their own misogynistic anime/manga/game otaku culture that our otaku mimic.