The terms weeb and otaku are loosely defined. I learned them through social media, not cultural context. So for the purposes of this post, I will define them as I’ve learned them.

weeb – (n) someone, usually white or at least culturally Westernized, who really loves anime

otaku – (n) a Japanese individual who obsesses over Japanese created animated content, not necessarily anime since this includes video games, movies, and other consumable media that may not be strictly defined in the anime genre

First and foremost, I’m a weeb who will fight other types of weebs.

There’s a venn diagram to these words, the middle being the gross Western fetishists of East Asian cultures and erases South Asian, South-East Asian, and Pacific Islander cultures for the sake of their beautiful waifus. They also excuse the gross child sexualization and sexual harassment of the anime genre.

So what is a good weeb and a bad weeb? Trick question, all weebs are trash.

The bad weeb is the previous description. They also tend to curse their lineage and beg the universe to make them Japanese. If not that, an import Japanese waifu who makes them bentos and wears kitty ears might be involved to different degrees and variations. They tend to not like being called weebs. They tend to call themselves otaku.

“I appropriate??? To cope?????” – ancient gross fetishist proverb

A good weeb calls out the bad weeb. They also understand that Japan is just a fraction of Japanese culture much less continental Asia and general Eastern history. It’s nothing. We also understand that being a weeb isn’t an identity like race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. You can decide whether or not to immerse yourself in this American culture and recognize it’s problematic impact on APIA representation and stereotypes.

So why am I a weeb who fights other weebs? Because I used to be that weeb. I used to want to be completely Japanese, and made sure to tell my parents my deepest, middle school wish.

Then I looked past the whiteness and stopped turning a blind eye to Japan’s colonialism that ravaged my country, leading me to be 1/64th Japanese and discovering my family sold out to survive. I’m fat and alive because we threw my great-grandmother to her assaulter and thanked god “He wasn’t fully Japanese.” I’m a stupid asshole who didn’t have to grow up because we sold our oxen, my great-grandmother (the local altruist I may add), and our neighbors for that sweet slave money. So my wish was granted a little bit. Nifty.

I wonder how my parents felt knowing our lineage, keeping it hidden to my brother and me, and then watching me prance around as a stupid ten year old butchering Japanese to tell my waifu (Kino from Kino’s Journey) I love her. I wonder how my grandmother, as I was taking her back from her eye appointment, felt when the car in front of us had a rising Japanese sun flag plastered all over the back windshield. Hey fuck you pal, I was doing the speed limit. Also you car is trash.

It’s the least I can do, I think. If I’m going to learn, you’re going to learn as well.

You’re either a gross weeb or a trashy weeb, end of discussion. And this trashy weeb is going to use fists, not words, as god intended. Reparations, if you will. It’s time for me to be unapologetically anti-racist.

And I can’t speak about otaku. I’m not culturally Japanese.