When you just know that campaigning in Saimoe competitions aren’t enough.

Heh. Waifus. Of course, the deliberate misspelling of the word only adds to the confusion, seen by ‘ordinary’ readers who come across a post like that.

Obviously it’s derogatory. An intentional corruption into pseudo-Japanese, to further enhance the obsessive nature of the anime fanboy who will shun the real world in favor of a two-dimensional girl with personality traits that happen to align with their own.

So what is it with the nature of the anime fanboy? The criticism that they place upon themselves, if only to shield themselves from someone else heaping onto them the same insult?

Of course, it can easily be imagined that there is an analogue in any fandom. For the sports fan, there is the superstar; the straight man, the supermodel; the stylish lady, the fashion star, the movie star, I could run the stereotypes all day and all night long but the point of the matter is -

It’s very rare that you will find someone who doesn’t have someone they look up to. Often, humans will have many someones; their mind equal – a best friend; their close superior – a role model; their ultimate dream – the untouchable.

(image by Kani Infuruenza)
The Uberman, I would say, if I wanted to delve into a deep philosophical discussion on why fanboys have ‘waifus’, in one form or the other. Someone to strive by – whether to become them, or to come upon someone like them, or to come in –

Wait, maybe that’s a different thought. But certainly the right tone!

Because in all seriousness while I intend to rant and philosophize and wax poetic, this time, it’s falling on the smoke and mirrors side – rather, the Taihen Serious side – of things. Or so I claimed! Eventually the pretense and the passion got mixed so deep that eventually I had to split them into two separate posts.

So take this as an intro, to a much lighter piece, coming shortly.

Perhaps it’s interesting to figure out why people in general seek out higher ground, a bar to set themselves by, rather than an achievement to work towards (or perhaps the two are inseparably linked?) … but today, I’m focusing on just how much love, passion, and devotion goes into the selection of a waifu.

I suppose you know the devotion. You’ve been to Sankaku Complex. You’ve seen the stories referenced with a facepalm worthy of Kyon himself. The posters plastered across the wall, the eight-times-redundant purchase of fan merchandise, something painfully banal in nature. The shrines.

The devotion is there. But is the passion?

(image by Kantoku)
Certainly everyone who is silly enough to have followed me for any length of time – or even the last 400 words – has fallen hopelessly, nonsensically for an anime girl. Every person’s shrine is different – some wax 2000 word paeans. Others cover their banners and signatures with the girl. Some go out and spend real money on real Nagato poste – whoops, a little slip there.

Do you call that love? Obsession? Escapism? Maybe your feelings are never that strong … but if you’ve come to anime to evaluate everything irrationally, without ever letting just one person stir your emotions … you’ve come for the wrong reasons.

What is it? Love is the best form of insanity? Something like that.

And I’ll show you that if you’re going to be insane, you might as well be insane with style.

Because the last thing I want is for the average ‘otaku’ to be as fickle as the wind – or perhaps, as fickle as husbands in Vegas – when it comes to their waifu. You know how it is. You’re a new anime fanboy, you watch Haruhi. She is God. Literally, figuratively, every sense of the word.

Then you pick up Clannad. Kyou is unparalleled. Haruhi is nobody, a drop in the bucket compared to her. And then you find Bakemonogatari …

It’s a vicious cycle. It’s a bad role model. If you’re going to find a ‘waifu’, why not find one that you can truly believe in? The derogatory part in ‘waifu’ shouldn’t be because of the incapability of a girl to be acceptable as ‘wife material’.

Usually, it’s the person that changes, right? More ‘meetings’, more maturing of emotions, and suddenly your little crush on Sailor Mercury is all but ridiculous.

Mistakes of youth, isn’t it?

(image by Niichi Doriimu)
So perhaps, what I plan to attempt in an epic, Keima-Katsuragi-style lesson in two-dimensional love, is to use my experience, to further develop this concept of a ‘waifu’. If there’s something I’ve learned about myself from my year of campaigning in ISML (to which I thank all of you who participated), it’s that I am crazy feel that if you believe in something, you should believe in it all the way.

I don’t mean to say that I want you to be deadly serious about this kind of thing. Of course, if you aren’t having some enjoyment, then you aren’t having anything at all.

But, without some sort of deeper meaning, there is no strength.

And this strength is the passion that drives the otakusphere – the passion that drives me ever closer to that cliff of insanity – the passion to talk about something that simultaneously means everything and nothing. The world … of a false world.

Although … is it really false, if we’ve internalized it? I’ve sworn many days by the mindset of girls like Akari. This is how, something that is so unreal, something that is so pointless … can be meaningful. To me. At least for a bit now, even if I come back in a year and -really- regret busting out 3000 words on ‘waifus’, that -moment- is important, isn’t it?

That’s why, I’m trying to make this moment not something that I do half-heartedly. And hopefully, after my exposition, you’ll be encouraged to do the same.

(image by Tachibana Sakuya)
Well, not that all of you should go out and find 18 anime girls you really like, and then sort them out in a soul-searching, word-limit-breaking fashion. I don’t even insist that you take the definition of a ‘waifu’ seriously (even if I am, just for a bit). I mean, come on. The spelling.

But … when you find something that you think you want to believe in … make it count, won’t you?

I guess this concludes the ’serious’ side of the Waifu Post. Some introspection into my discovery of myself, that will hopefully cause you to also introspect sometime and do the same. For these girls have gotten close to our hearts for a reason, right …?

And it’s up to you to find that reason.

Next time, I’ll show you my reason for this much passion and this many words:
All these waifus and you’re selecting it wrong. I’ll lead you under the banner of Keima Katsuragi to show you the true meaning of a waifu LEXUS.

-CCY

(fun reader exercises to do in the week it will take me to write the other half: speculate on the 18 girls)