Weeb: a derogatory term for a non-Japanese person obsessed with Japanese culture.
Dictionary.com
Also called a weeaboo or wapanese.
I write about anime quite a bit. You know, Japanese cartoons. Some would say I’m a weeb. I wouldn’t, but some would.
A weeb flaunts their infatuation with Japan. I hide it away, never to be revealed in public at the risk of being called a dirty weeb.
The term “weeb” represents a culture that hates anime and anything Japanese.
Anime is hated so much that it has created a self-deprecating subculture within its fan base. I am part of this self-deprecating subculture. If I overhear someone talk about anime in public, I cringe. I immediately betray them. I almost want to make fun of them, call them a “weeb.”
Because I also hate anime culture. It can be obnoxious and toxic.
Most anime fans will tell you anime is hated because people don’t understand it. I believe anime is hated because its fans have this pretentious opinion. Most anime is trash. Absolute garbage. And I still watch it. I must admit that too. I love it for its trash. Most anime is filed under the category of “guilty pleasure.” Much in the same way people watch ABC’s The Bachelor or CBS’s Big Bang Theory or listens to Nickelback.
(Everyone hates Big Bang Theory. They say it’s not funny and cliché. I understand why, but I still loved the show. Another guilty pleasure of mine.)
(And if it was so bad, why 12 seasons? Bing!)
Most anime is trash. It’s hated because most of its fans can’t admit this. It’s nonsensical and corny. Most of the time anime is full of plot holes and character stereotypes so cliché you’ll want to taste your breakfast a second time.
But every now and then you find a gem. A diamond in the rough. You find something captivating and profound. That’s why I watch it. It surprises me. Anime is built to defy expectations.
I sit through trash to find these hidden gems.
Am I the only one guilty of this? Can you honestly say you have no guilty pleasures?
I watch trash and I have grown to love the trash too.
A tall man wearing a blue leisure suit and a trench coat walks into a cathedral. He is a bounty hunter. His bounty hunting partner, a pale woman with dark purple hair, has just been kidnapped. She is being held hostage in the cathedral by an old acquaintance of the tall man’s, an old partner in a major crime syndicate. His old partner is a thin man with grey hair. The thin man also wears a trench coat.
The tall man is armed to the teeth with guns and explosives. He knows he is outnumbered. He knows he is entering a warzone.
In the cathedral, the tall man confronts his old partner, the thin man. After a brief pissing contest, the hostage makes her presence known. The pale woman is being held captive by several crime syndicate members. Her captor orders the tall man to drop his gun but is instead promptly killed by a bullet to the head. The tall man has been in this situation before. He kills the other henchman swiftly, allowing the pale woman to escape.
The tall man eventually races upstairs towards the thin man, killing people as he goes. On the stairs, the tall man is grazed by a bullet. He starts to bleed out, but he continues. He reaches a balcony next to a large stained-glass window. The thin man attacks him with a katana. The old crime buddies duel with gun and sword, both drawing blood. At a quick stalemate, the thin man manages to grab the tall man by the face and throw him through the 3rd story stained glass window. While crashing through the window, the tall man deftly tosses a grenade behind him.
The grenade explodes in magnificent flame through the cathedral window. As the tall man falls to the ground watching the explosion, his former life flashes before his eyes. His old life in the crime syndicate, fighting alongside the thin man.
He remembers seeing the thin man in bed with their shared love interest, a woman named Julia.
The tall man then remembers walking with a bouquet of red roses. The tall man entered a building with the bouquet of red roses. The bouquet of red roses covered an automatic sub machine gun. He was sent on a mission to eliminate a crime syndicate target. The tall man opened fire on his target in the building, which resulted in a gun fight.
The tall man then recalls recovering from injuries at Julia’s place. She was humming a familiar tune.
The tall man is awoken from his near death induced memories. He is terribly injured and back at his bounty hunter base. It’s been three days. The pale woman saved the tall man. The tall man is awoken by the pale woman, coincidentally humming Julia’s tune. The pale woman tells the tall man he should be grateful for her. He mumbles through his bandages that her humming is off-key. The pale woman smacks him with a pillow and storms off.
This is the 4th episode of one of my favorite tv shows: Cowboy Bebop. The episode is called “Ballad of Fallen Angels.” CowboyBebop is a show about bounty hunters in space, aka space cowboys. Cowboy Bebop is an anime. If you didn’t recognize the story, I’m assuming the image in your head was live action. The show isn’t live action. The show is animated. Cue large grandiose sigh from biased readers. Odds are animation makes you cringe. “Cartoons are for kids.” “Cartoons are stupid and predictable.” “I like to watch real people do real things.”
All these statements are fair and true. Most animated shows are catered to children. This usually makes them predictable. And if you prefer live action, more power to you. I’m not here to change your mind about animation.
This is more of a study on the prevailing stereotype. Why is most animation catered to children? In the rare instance animation is catered to adults, why is it considered inferior to other art forms? Why do some critics consider animation to be illegitimate?
Critics imply that animation is “unable to stand with the likes of literature, music, and its live-action counterparts.” Despite the James Bond inspired action above, CowboyBebop will never be taken as seriously as live action movies. It is solely judged on its medium rather than its content.
These questions baffle me and I want to answer them. But then again, I am a biased researcher. In reality, this might be an attempt to validate my obsession with animated television, but it’s an interesting topic nonetheless.
Cinematography and animation share the same history. In fact, cinematography owes its existence to animation. Innovations in what is generally referred to as “animation” created what we now know as modern cinema. And yet there is a divide, a social stigma for one and not the other.
There is a lot to unpack on this topic. I’ll save it for another post.
For now, enjoy this short clip of the Cowboy Bebop episode I described above, “Ballad of the Fallen Angels.” Or don’t. That’s right. You’re not a child. You do taxes and drink coffee and read the newspaper. Cartoons are beneath you.
Sorry. If you can’t tell I’m a little jaded on this topic. I’ll try to take a more unbiased approach in tomorrow’s post.
What does a French classical composer from the 1920s, an American singer from the 1950’s, and a Japanese DJ from the 2000’s have in common?
They all helped make my favorite song of all time: “Aruarian Dance” by Nujabes.
I talk about this song a lot. I love it so much. You should listen to it before reading this. You should listen to it while reading this. That’d be fun. I’m listening to it while writing this.
Something about the song makes me feel sad. But a good kind of sad. It’s bittersweet and nostalgic. I have wonderful memories attached to the song, but I don’t think that’s why it’s nostalgic. I’m aware that’s the definition of nostalgia, a longing for a past associated with personal memories. But I believe if someone were to listen to this song for the first time, without any memories attached, it would inspire something within them. It would make them long for something they didn’t know was there.
Or maybe I’m overdramatic. I’m definitely biased. I love this song. I never get tired of it. Let me tell you how I found it. Let me tell you why I love it so much.
I can’t tell this story without talking about anime. I’m aware this might deter most readers.
And I must admit something before moving forward: I watch anime.
For those of you who don’t know, anime is Japanese cartoons. The word is a Japanese term for animation. Anime is extremely popular in the west. To the point that it has become over saturated and cliché. And mostly hated. Oh god, is anime hated. Inevitably hated. Anything popular receives hate (Bing!).
In another post, I could explain the history and culture around the western obsession with Japan. I could go to great lengths explaining why anime is so polarizing, but for now here’s a summary:
Most anime is trash. Some anime is good. Most fans of anime are rude and aggressive which causes people to hate it. I watch it in much the same way people watch ABC’s The Bachelor or CBS’s Big Bang Theory. Anime is a guilty pleasure of mine.
What does anime have to do with “Aruarian Dance” by Nujabes?
In college, I watched an anime called Samurai Champloo, a show about hip-hop samurai. Anime is wild, I know. I loved the show. It was only 26 episodes and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It moved me. The characters, the story, the animation. What impacted me the most was the music. It was bluesy, jazzy, and satisfying. It was cool and I needed the Samurai Champloo soundtrack on my computer. I looked up the artist list and found Nujabes (Bing!).
I could write an entire book about this man. Maybe I will. But for now, just know he was a legend. Nujabes inspired an entire culture on the internet: lofi hip hop culture. He single-handedly changed hip-hop and the way we listen to music. There was no one like him at the time, save rapper and producer J Dilla.
There were four soundtrack albums produced for Samurai Champloo. The second album was named Departure and contained the song “Aruarian Dance.” I was immediately attracted to this song. I listened to it while I studied. I listened to it while I took a shower. I listened to it while cooking dinner. I couldn’t stop listening to it.
I decided to research how the song was made, where the guitar samples came from. My research took me on a path that made me love the song even more. I started with guitar samples and ended at famous classical composer Maurice Ravel.
Let me start at the beginning.
Maurice Ravel was considered the greatest French composer during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In 1899, Ravel composed a song called “Pavane pour une infante defunte” which translates to “Pavane for a dead princess.”
Pavane: a stately dance in slow duple time, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and performed in elaborate clothing. A piece of music for a pavane.
Google Dictionary
Ravel described the song as “an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court.”
The piece became very popular.
In 1939, Peter DeRose and Bert Shefter, two American jazz and pop composers, adapted Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante defunte” to compose their song “The Lamp is Low.” The song was made famous by Native American jazz singer, Mildred Bailey, and later by his highness, Frank Sinatra.
In 1969, Brazilian jazz guitarist Laurindo Almeida covered “The Lamp is Low” on his album Classical Current.
In 2004, Nujabes uses Almeida’s version of “The Lamp is Low,” a song adapted from Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante defunte,” to record “Aruarian Dance” for the anime Samurai Champloo.
Phew!
Are you freaking out yet?
I was.
If you’re not freaking out, picture this:
A guy from France composes a song 120 years ago. It was amazing. Everybody loved it. Two dudes from America adapted the song 30 years later. A Native American lady sings it. It became a hit. Arguably the greatest musical artist of the 20th century sings it. It became even more of a hit. 40 years after that, a guy in Brazil covers the song on his guitar and a DJ in Japan, 105 years after the original song was created, mixes the Brazilian cover and creates my favorite song of all time.
4 different countries, 4 different musical cultures and styles, 7 people across a century of music all collaborated to make this profoundly sad but wonderful song.
I think music is the only medium equipped with this degree of collaboration.
I could not find an official definition of the word Aruarian. I found a definition on urban dictionary which I hardly categorize as official.
Aruarian: A cavernous love you feel for someone, without any remote reasoning.
Urban dictionary
Despite the urban dictionary definition, I think it’s fitting.
Maurice Ravel stated that “Pavane pour une infante defunte” was not meant to reference a particular princess in history, but rather to show a nostalgia for Spain. Ravel loved Spain. He stated that a painting by Diego Velasquez inspired the song. Therefore, the song is inherently nostalgic. It was meant as a longing for old Spanish customs and sentiments. The feeling in “Pavane pour une infante defunte” impacted people across the world and still resonates more than 100 years later.
So no, I don’t think I’m being over dramatic when I say “Aruarian Dance” will inspire something within you or make you long for a memory you didn’t know you had.
But then again, according to Ravel, I am being overdramatic.
Because Maurice Ravel also said that the song didn’t mean anything and that he hated it. This crushed me when I read this. When Ravel was later asked about the title of the song, he practically admitted the Spanish nostalgia stuff was fake. He said, “Do not be surprised, that title has nothing to do with the composition. I simply liked the sound of those words and I put them there, c’est tout.”