Opinion: Anime #31--Otaku Identity

Being American and being a fan of Japanese animation has always been an interesting position. The animation is from a different culture, and those things from other cultures can appeal to us, who do not live in that culture. I believe every otaku has gone though a "Japanphile" phase. You buy a yukata, you pretend to celebrate a Japanese holiday, you eat sushi, you employ phrases picked up from watching things subbed, etc. When the interest in Japanese culture reaches the "everthing about Japan is amazing and Japan can do no wrong" phase, it has gone too far.
I think that part of it is a sort of rite of passage. If you know more about Japan than someone else, you're a better otaku. Makes sense, right? Until you start objectifying Japanese people's culture as a state in life that can be obtained by eating enough soba, watching enough fansubs, and calling everything you see "kawaii". For most, it's a stage of being a fan, and doesn't get to that nasty objectifying place. I certainly went through the "learn Japanese and spout words picked up from subs" phase. When it persists, that's not so good.
That isn't to say that wanting to know more about Japan is a bad thing. I have a sincere desire to learn Japanese now. I did a 40-minute long presentation on the history of anime and its cultural significance in Japan last year for World Literature. I'm interested in Japanese literature. I like knowing those little cultural things in series that Americans don't usually know. (example: just yesterday in Ouran High School Host Club, there was a scene where a character saw a tea stalk sticking up in his tea. In Japan, that's a sign of good luck.)

This was spawned by a commericial for Sakura-Con.


The commercial has sparked some heated debates between otaku, though most of it was two months ago when the commercial actually AIRED. ^_^;; But I was so sick of the debate, I never wanted to post it. I saw it in my unposted posts today, and felt I needed to address the topic. Rewatching the video, I don't think it's THAT bad. They were going for something like "we all like different aspects of anime culture! sakura-con has ALL those things! isn't that cool?" but came off more like "WE'RE OBSESSED JAPANAPHILES WHOO SAKURA-CON". Anime fans took offense. But it's over now, and not that big a deal anymore.

In summary, liking Japan = good. Japanaphile, Japan can do NO WRONG, Japan is better than everything else, spouting off random Japanese words means you can speak Japanese = BAD.