This blog was written back in March, but I thought it was a good one to bring over here.
Today in the old Funi forums, a younger user created a thread called, What do Japanese people think of us. This got me thinking about a character that facinated me in Lucky Star, Patricia Martin.
For those of you unfamiliar with her, she is a first year foreign exchange student from America. Her portrayal is rather interesting, since in the series they give her a really screwed up vocabulary where she uses "fanwords" over things a regular Japanese person would say.. even weird compared to Konata. Throughout the series bascically everyone but Konata cracks jokes on her.
There is a scene where Kagami asks her a culture question and Patricia fires back with a great fangirl answer. Kagami facepalms and makes a comment along the lines of all she knows she learned from anime.
So how about us? I'll be the first to admit that I know nothing about Japan outside of what I see in anime, which according to Kagami is nothing like real Japan. So here we are idolizing a culture that we know nothing about. We watch their TV shows, read their comics, eat there sweets and listen to their music. Does this really give us a clue about Japan itself. I seriously doubt it.
Lets make a comparison to our TV and Media. Does the Mel Brooks movie the Patriot teach us History, heck no. Even Gettysburg and Gods and Generals took a few liberties with the story. Does Spongebob or X-Men show how we Americans live and act. God I hope not.
The reason I write this is as a bit of a warning to the Weeaboos, and anime fans who take themselves way to seriously. Basically you can not understand a culture until you live in it. Trying to re-create the life of a Samurai in Maryland, or trying to live Japanese in Utah is really just stupid. Odds are your doing it wrong. It's ok to be a Patricia Martin. She is a rather happy fan but you need to know that your a Patricia Martin and nothing more.
I'll admit I'm a Patricia Martin, and I'm totally having fun with it. Care to join me?
