Japanophilia
Japanophilia is the appreciation and love of Japanese culture, people, history and media. Chris is a huge fan of japanese entertainment and culture from a very long time. Sonic, Pokemon, Playstation and anime are all Japanese entertainment that Chris enjoys a lot.
He has chosen Japanese media over American alternatives multiple times, PS3 over the XBox, Sonic over The Adventures of The American Rabbit (though one can't blame Chris for leaving that behind), he has also said that a lot of media is better in Japanese.[1] Chris also ranks Japan 2nd on his list of countries he wants to visit. Since going to The Buckingham Palace to claim his crown is more important to him.[2]
In actuality, Chris doesn't know anything about Japan, all his knowledge comes from anime and parodies of anime.
People
- Main article: Chris and race#Asians
Chris shows a positive outlook towards Japanese people, he hadn't excluded Japanese women from his Love quest and has said he would date and go deeper with Japanese women.[3][4] Though Chris's tendency to not care about people other than himself arises here again - 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 (a chinese martial art) and the peaceful way of life outside of violence.[5] What the last part means is anyone's guess.
In the mailbag when he was asked the same question, he replied "I appreciate the portions japan culture that promote cleaniness in the home, showing gratitude, and those good and kind gestures"[6] I.e he enjoys qualities that he himself lacks completely.
Chris also spends 31.5$ per month on the premium edition of the TokyoTreat box, which gets him some snacks and trinkets all the way from Japan. Till date Chris has spent over a 1000$ on this since at least October 2017[7]
Language
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 the 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 Miyamoto, he pronounces the Japanese names incorrectly. He also uses the honorific "-san" incorrectly.[9]
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, many first party Nintendo titles such as Animal Crossing and the Pokemon series. But 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, he also showed tolerance to the Wii. His hate for the Xbox, the only major non-Japanese console mostly stemmed from Chris's brand loyalty moreso than hatred for it not being Japanese; He may have chosen the PlayStation as it was Japanese, but hated the Xbox because it was a rival to the PlayStation and not because it wasn't Japanese. The reason he didn't show resentment to 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[10] and enjoys Japanese animation over American animation as he considers the anime stories and art styles to be superior to the 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. [11][12]
His interest in anime peaked after he met Megan, 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 Excel Saga, Dragonball and Sailor Moon.[13] Chris also finds many of the japanese theme songs to be superior.[14]
Most of his favourite shows and movies are all Japanese such as Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, Excel saga, Sonic X, Transformers[15] and Pokemon 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 slang term for a western person who is obsessed with Japanese culture, often regarding it as superior to all other cultures. Though Chris does have some qualities that he shares 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
- ↑ 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) - ↑ Mailbag 3#Chris admires traits he doesn't have
- ↑ May 2020 social media posts#Tentacle grape
- ↑ Twitter Q&A
- ↑ CWC to Mr. Miyamoto
- ↑ Emily Date Conversation Transcript
- ↑
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