Japanophilia
| “ | I appreciate the portions [sic] japan culture that promote cleaniness in the home, showing gratitude, and those good and kind gestures. | ” |
| Chris, admiring traits he doesn't have.[1] | ||
Japanophilia is the appreciation and love of Japanese culture, people, history and media. Since his youth, Chris has been fond of Japanese media and culture. Sonic, Pokémon, PlayStation and anime are all Japanese creations that Chris enjoys. While Japanophilia is a well-established concept, existing in western society since the latter half of the 19th century with the Opening of Japan and becoming amplified in scope and popularity since the 1960's, Chris's love for Japan is on a whole different level.
Chris has been known to prefer Japanese media over American alternatives; PS3 over the HEXBox, Sonic over The Adventures of The American Rabbit (though one can't blame Chris for leaving that behind). He has stated that a lot of media is better in Japanese.[2] He also ranked Japan 2nd on his list of countries he wants to visit, since going to Buckingham Palace to claim his crown is more important to him.[3]
In reality, Chris knows next to nothing about Japan; a good chunk of his knowledge comes from anime and parodies of anime.
People
- Main article: Chris and race#Asians
Chris seems to have a favorable opinion of Japanese people. He didn't exclude Japanese women from his Love Quest, and has said he would date and go deeper with Japanese women.[4][5] Despite this, his tendency to not care about people other than himself arises here - he has regularly confused Chinese and Japanese people and has also created a stereotypical Asian character.
Culture
Chris claims to be a huge fan of Japanese culture; when asked what he liked about their culture, he said he liked their technology, ninjas, kung-fu (which is actually a Chinese martial art) and the peaceful way of life outside of violence.[6] What the last part means is anyone's guess.
Chris also spends $31.50 per month on the premium edition of the TokyoTreat box, which gets him some snacks and trinkets all the way from Japan. To date, he has spent over $1,000 on this since at least October 2017.[7]
Language
- Main article: Chris and language#Others
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Chris has shown interest in the Japanese language; he said if he could learn any language instantly, he would pick Japanese.[8] Currently, like all things Chris knows, his actual knowledge of Japanese is quite shallow. He uses popular weeaboo words such as “Arigato“, “Kawaii“, “Sayonara“ and “Senpai“. A troll in Mailbag 3 compared Chris to a gay man in Japanese but he was oblivious to it. In his videos for Shigeru Miyamoto, he pronounces the Japanese names incorrectly. He also uses the honorific "-san" incorrectly.[9]
In November 2017, he was conned by the Idea Guys to make a drawing of himself and Sailor Moon where they speak in Japanese. The dialogue translated into memes and statements mocking Chris, and not what Chris thought it meant.[10]
Media
Games
- Main article: Chris and video games
The raison d'être of Chris's life, Chris has been playing video games since he was a child. He has played many video games from Japan such as Sonic the Hedgehog, and many first-party Nintendo titles such as Animal Crossing and the Pokémon series. However, Chris also plays many games made in Europe and the US, such as LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, and Guitar Hero, so his tastes in video games are much more varied.
His tastes in consoles, however, are much different. He was a huge Sony fanboy, buying anything they put out, and also had an affinity for Nintendo as well, showing a tolerance to the Wii. His hatred for the HEXBox, the only major non-Japanese console, mostly stemmed from Chris's brand loyalty and his hatred of it being a rival to the PlayStation, and not because it wasn't Japanese. The reason why he didn't show as much resentment towards the Wii could be because it wasn't considered to be a competition to the PS3 and he is a large Nintendo fan.
Television
- Main article: Chris and television
Chris, being a huge connoisseur of TV shows and movies, has stated his deep interest in anime multiple times. He watches anime with Japanese audio and English subtitles,[11] and enjoys Japanese animation over American animation as he considers the anime stories and art styles to be superior to their American counterparts. He also likes the fact that censorship is more lenient in Japan, due to which some minor cuss words are allowed in TV-Y rated shows.[12][13]
His interest in anime peaked after he met Megan, who was interested in anime and manga; this got to the point where he started incorporating anime-esque art styles into his comics. He continues to use the same art style to this date although with minor changes. Many tropes he uses in the comics are also directly lifted from series such as Excel Saga, Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon.[14] Chris also finds many of the Japanese theme songs to be superior.[15]
Most of his favorite shows and movies are all Japanese such as Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, Excel Saga, Sonic X, Transformers[16] and Pokémon movies.
Conventions
Chris went to Anime Mid-Atlantic in 2004 and 2005 and was very happy to receive cheap plastic trash all the way from Japan. He later attended OmegaCon in 2015 and 2016. He didn't do anything at these places other than buying food and trinkets and talking to weebs.
Is Chris a weeaboo?
No. A "weeaboo" is a western person who is obsessed with Japanese culture, often regarding it as superior to all other cultures. Though Chris does have some shared qualities with actual weebs, he doesn't consider Japan to be the best; he merely enjoys certain things from Japan more than the ones created locally.
See also
References
- ↑ Mailbag 3#Chris admires traits he doesn't have
- ↑ September 2013 Facebook Posts#Japanese is sometimes better
- ↑ Twitter Q&A
- ↑ Mailbag 26#Mary Lee Walsh trolls IRL
- ↑ Mumble 7#(From 45.29)
- ↑ <@cogsdev> What do you like about Japanese culture?
<@ChrisChanSonichu> their technology, kung-fu, ninja, peaceful ways of life outside of violence. - IRC (22 December 2008) - ↑ May 2020 social media posts#Tentacle grape
- ↑ Twitter Q&A
- ↑ CWC to Mr. Miyamoto
- ↑ November 2017 Patreon posts#Chris and dicks
- ↑ Date with Emily - "I have [Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars] on DVD, uh, y'know, with J- Japanese audio and English subtitles."
- ↑
01:00 <@CVDierten> What is better and why: Japanese anime or American anime?
01:01 <@CVDierten> err... American animation
01:01 <@ChrisChanSonichu> Japan, hands-down; espeially when roughly-translated with subtitles; accidentally saying a curse-word in japanese is funny. - IRC (18 December 2008) - ↑ Regina e-mails#Chris answers a bunch of questions, is still a virgin
- ↑ Mailbag 3#Chris admires traits he doesn't have
- ↑ September 2013 Facebook Posts#Japan is sometimes better
- ↑ Regina e-mails#Chris answers a bunch of questions, is still a virgin