Cover Image: Weeaboo

Weeaboo

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Member Reviews

Honestly, I thought this book was terrible. The overall concept of this novel had a lot of potential but it was executed so poorly. The story sets-up many chances for Sallah to critically dissect certain issues like racial identity, cultural appropriation, fetishization, and homophobia, however, none of these problems are addressed in an effective meaningful way. I also wasn't a big fan of the art style and the cringe dialogue.

For these reasons, I did not enjoy reading this and I would not recommend it to anyone.

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I was leery of this book based on the title, but the blurb mentioned discussions of appropriation, etc., and I generally trust Oni Press, so I figured this would be a much deeper, more nuanced discussion of anime, fandom, and appropriation than I feared. I...was unfortunately wrong, in most ways. The author tries to do some things here, but it wasn't effective, and as other reviewers have said, this comes across as problematic in many ways. Also, I really didn't gel with the 'real-world' art style (as opposed to the anime fantasy elements, which were beautiful).

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Weeaboo is about three friends who decide to go to a con together after school. I don't entirely believe the friendship of the three characters. They each seemed invested in their own lives and only hung out occaisionally. Maya was the only one who seemed honestly interested in the otaku life and the other two didn't really seem that interested. They decide to do a group cosplay together and when James realizes that it's going to cost money he gets a job. His home life is difficult and he has a hard time being successful in school but he manages to graduate but has to run away to go to the con, which was questionable. Dan apparently is a girl but tried out for the male lead in the school play and wanted to cosplay as a male character. It was confusing the reasoning behind this and it was never made clear. I know for young people it can be confusing to them too but it could have been said to help the reader understand. The art style was really sketchy making all the characters kind of ambiguous. I couldn't tell their genders or races until it was pointed out, which it was except for Dan's gender. It was an okay story. There was a lot of layers to it and some language but not terribly compelling.

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The book mixes its messages quite a bit and while I understand where it was trying to go, it never caught my attention. While you could understand the struggles certain characters were going through and could feel for them, then they presented other scenarios that were problematic and the Author was out of their depth.

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This was a constant swing between unbelievably wholesome to Cringe levels rivaling My Immortal.
While the cringe is infinite, there is a good story about growing into your most authentic self.

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3.5 stars!

This was really cute! I loved how they aren't ashamed to do cosplay, and to just be themselves. Teens will surely find solace in 'Weeaboo.' However, my only complaint is that the art is somewhat hard on the eyes. It wasn't my cup of tea, but that's okay. Overall, 'Weeaboo' is a unique and fun coming of age story that I recommend to all the cosplay and anime fans out there!

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**Thank you to Netgalley and Oni Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my rating**

I'm just going to be upfront: This book was garbage. It is quite possibly the most problematic graphic novel I have ever laid eyes on. I am just speechless after finishing this.

To begin with, I thought maybe the artwork was a stylized choice, but after seeing the difference in quality between the "anime" sequences versus the "real life" sequences, this maybe should have been given more time to go to publishing or been a webcomic. The artwork in the "real life" sequences is inconsistent, often very ugly. A great example of this is Danielle/Danny's hairline, which often is cut outward, which makes it look like she has a pointy forehead in many panels. Additionally, James is supposed to be biracial Japanese, but is white presenting in almost all panels. The idea that a white, blonde woman and a Japanese man would produce a white child with freckles and brown hair (which neither parent has) is biologically improbable and more could have been done to make the character present as biracial Japanese.

Artwork aside, the storyline needed a LOT of work. Sallah brings up a lot of issues within the anime fandom community and gives almost no commentary on ANY of it. She brings up the racism Black cosplayers get from non-Black cosplayers and...the character deletes the comment, the end. The biracial JAPANESE character is essentially being "taught" about this aspect of HIS culture by two non-Japanese people, which is a whole mess. The one character dresses Lolita style on a daily basis and drops random Japanese words in her language and the most she's called out for this co-opting of another culture is being called a "weeaboo" ONCE, a word which she "reclaims" as a good thing by the end of the book. She talks about "expectations" of how POC people should behave and it's never resolved. She has a homophobic grandmother. Never resolved or even discussed. The Black character consumes media that includes Blackface minstrelsy with ZERO pushback or commentary on it. The Black character has a crisis about her natural hair that isn't worked out on the page and she goes back to straightening her hair by the end of the book. Two side characters, one Japanese and one white, are, no joke, described as "short-tempered" and "[the] token white guy...Does everything Jun does, but with a tolerable attitude." The white side character is called out repeatedly for his "blaccent" and he tells the character calling him out to lighten up and that he takes things too seriously. This goes unresolved. This isn't even ALL of the problems, just the ones I can recall off the top of my head. I sat here stunned for most of the volume.

All in all, this needed to be workshopped more. I think the issues brought up are important and could have (and should have) been explored in a more comprehensive way. It's a clear case of trying to do too much and not really doing anything. I can't recommend this with a good conscience. It tried to address too many things and had little to say to address any of them.

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