Feb 19 2009
Top Five Annoying Fanboy Habits
While not everyone who reads this blog post will identify themselves as an ‘otaku’, more than a few of those reading this would be willing to identify themselves as a ‘fanboy/girl’ of some kind. It’s become very difficult lately to not eventually be converted into a full fanboy (I’m going to keep using ‘fanboy’ for the rest of the post, don’t read anything into it) on something or other. It was even added to the dictionary this past year!
Being a fanboy can be a great time but there are always some bad habits that someone will fall into. It’s only natural and anime fanboys are no exception. Everyone is guilty of displaying poor fanboy behavior at some point but there are still those out there who make these mistakes their life missions. So here are my top five annoying fanboy actions, perhaps you’ve seen a few?
~ Sprinkling random Japanese vocabulary words into your speech – So you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve watched A LOT of anime in Japanese. So much that you can now even recognize some of the easier and more common words. Great for you, give yourself a nice little treat. Now stop using those words in your everyday speech as an accent to every other sentence. If you don’t speak the language, stop using random words for no real reason.
To be fair, even I have been guilty of a stray ‘Nani?’ when someone is trying to get my attention but not everything is ‘kawaii’ and I’m not going to attach an honorific to your name so stop asking me.
~ ‘More Otaku than Thou’ – You’ve seen every episode of Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragonball Z, Bleach AND Naruto? Wow, you have a lot of free time on your hands but it’s good to hear that you’re finding series that you enjoy that much. However, you’re not an expert on anime. Hell, I’M not an expert on anime (random trivia: It actually bothers me when someone calls me an expert) so hearing your ‘otaku-er than thou’ rants aren’t going to impress anyone. So the next time you utter the sentence ‘you mean you haven’t seen *name of anime here*?’ or ‘Well, my collection is actually bigger/better because I have…’ (also known as compensating by the way) with any sort of scoff or disdain, keep in mind that it’s actually painful to those around you who have to hear it.
~ Voice Actor/Seiyuu Obsessions – This is probably the easiest of the bunch in terms of visibility. Now let’s be clear here: Having a favorite voice actor where you follow the roles they play and possibly geek out a little when meeting them at a con; very cool and fun to do! Talking about the hot voice actors that you want to get together with or getting wrong impressions because they happen to be able to play sexy characters in a convincing manner; very creepy!
~ Sub/Dub Snobs – Stop already! Seriously, this debate has been going on for decades and it’s time to just let it go! Drop it! Hey… no, drop it! Good boy!
~ Fandom Wars – Has no one learned from the ongoing war between Trekkers and Star Wars geeks? No one wins these wars, give peace a chance! Come on, both pirates and ninjas have some damn fine qualities that I’m sure we can all enjoy. And I’m sure that if we all look hard enough we can all find something within 4chan to enj… actually let’s skip that one.
There are many more (and probably better) examples of annoying fanboy behavior and as I think of them (con season is fast approaching after all) I’m sure that this list will gain the sequel: ‘Five MORE Top Annoying Fanboy Habits’.
@Kiri: Well when you’re just sitting around with friends its one thing but to ask everyone you know to add the chan honorific (knew someone who did this, even had autographs written out to her with it) to your name, you’ve jumped head first into annoying.
I only use some Japanese phrases like chotto (chotto matte kudasai)…..or hai! or yosh……and sometimes sumimasen or gomennasai (I also like to annoy my friends with others as well, but you get the picture). I only use them because I am actually learning Japanese and plan to live in Japan when I am older. Thus, I need to know when to use them and to respond with them.
and I admit…..I am a fan girl…..but only to Hitsugaya Toushiro (thus my nickname). I admit I squeee and omfg! it’s shiro-chan! and glomp (though only my friends)….it’s just who I am. yup. random rant is over.
I try to live by the tiresome motto of “Treat people like how you’d like to be treated.” Sure, I geek off with my sister (yes, I’ve done the Japanese thing at one point; yes, it got old quick) about certain things: English VA, how totally awesome this or that show currently is, etc. But that’s about it.
It’s sad that I’ve actually done most of these things before; not to the extreme, mind you. ;D