Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? Probably not. Maybe there are a higher percentage of those types of people in the anime community, but I'd still say that the majority of people who talk about waifus or best girls are normal and capable of "getting dates in the real world." It's just a bit of fun, nothing to take too seriously. |
 What's the difference? |
| Then what about the terms like "Husbando"? (Y_Y) |
 Life is a despicable endurance race |
| Whats there's to understand exactly? It's not like it's limited to this medium alone when people have been crushing on actresses, singers, etc. Even if they're fictional or not, who cares. |
| Wow, brave. You're on the money, of course, but I don't think this audience will appreciate being told that. Maybe not so much the Western anime audience, but there is an alleged problem in Japan with young men having issues connecting to the opposite sex (I say and emphasise allegedly, as I don't live in Japan so can only go from what I've heard in reports on the declining marriage and conception rates in Japan), so it leads me to conclude that some anime tries to target this lucrative male audience that obsess over their "waifu" or "best girl". In terms of your second point, it's already happening where series are amping up the cute and sexy aspects of the female character designs to cover the lack of a fulfilling story, particularly with so many short 12 ep series, that don't allow a good story to develop and play out. So we get half a story with lots of extra tits n ass to keep the audience happy. As you so succinctly put it, "using a crutch to subsidise poor writing". |
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| If it's best girl, it means it's waifu as well. Waifu nowadays can be anything so roll with that. |
| That has already been the case with fanservice making up for a boring plot or complete lack there of. |
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Comrade-Question said: The terms “Waifu” and “Best-Girl” seem to be very prevalent in the online anime community. Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? Or guys that have been in multiple relationships but they've never worked out so they've decided it's not worth the stress, time and hassle of seeking the right one if the chances are so high of it not working out. This might not come from a place of hating women just accepting that one would find it difficult to find the right person due to quirks of their own personality. Maybe that person has family and friends to socialize with and is happy to give up sex and the potential for a stronger bond, instead choosing to a life of dedication to fiction where they can experience a great variety of things even beyond the real world. Anime girls aren't super realistic after all, they are a hyper-idealized, hyper-feminine version of women. While there might be some girls out in the world who come close to looking like them and acting like them, if one has tastes which are catered to by anime girls, they may lose interest in real women. Again, this isn't women-hating. This is of course all describing me (lol) and I have female friends (more in the past, such is adult life that people drift apart) who I get on with really well. In fact, I love women, they tend to be more chatty than guys, but romantic relationships never work out. I'm controlling, stubborn, jealous and very particular about things. Throw in uncomprimising, and the fact is finding the right girl is a pipe dream. However, anime caters really well to my tastes. I like cute. I like petite. I like traditionally feminine (though I'm no tradcon at all). So I'm happy to enjoy anime girls. This might not be the case were other areas of my life not going pretty good. I'm blessed in some ways, so this small sacrifice is fine. That's just some of us though. To be honest, there is some validity to your perception. I will say here quickly that waifus and best girls are vastly different. In general, a waifu is someone who you would marry if that were possible. It is someone who you like on a romantic level. Best girl is usually just a way of choosing what the best female character is from a show / season / year or whatever, like best actress in the Oscars. Now, are guys who are single and lonely going to be more likely to adopt waifu culture? Sure. But there are plenty of guys who are in relationships who also have waifus. It just means slightly different things. Of course, a married guy wouldn't leave his actual wife for an anime girl (you'd hope lol), but at the same time, the stereotype of the guy who literally thinks and acts like he's married to an anime girl to that extreme obsessive level is not reality most of the time. And I don't think it's right to judge people no matter what their approach. Not that I'm accusing you of that OP, I see you said you didn't want to come off as judgmental and I respect that. There is also a philosophical side to all this which relates to Japanese culture. I recently read how the Japanese often look at western video games and wonder why everything is so macho and violent and why the girls aren't cuter. Japan has a culture of celebrating feminine beauty, and a certain type of feminine beauty at that. Anime has evolved under that mindset of maximizing the cuteness of the girls. One could argue anime girls are the peak of beauty represented in 2D, and the amount of guys who forsake real women for them just goes to prove that. A big part of what makes anime girls seem so beautiful is how easy 2D drawing makes it to create perfect skin, and that's often overlooked just how important that is. Comrade-Question said: I personally don’t mind it and don’t care what other people choose to do. I guess my only concern would be if manga and anime start using cute female characters as a crutch to subsidize poor writing. In other words, poorly written series get successful if it has enough female characters that the anime community consider to be Waifus and Best-Girls. Your thoughts? The writing is one part of what makes anime good. There is also the quality of the art and animation. There is a huge amount of skill that goes in to drawing anime girls who are beautiful but also distinct in their designs. Then they are brought to life and given persoinality by the voice work and the animation. Don't underestimate these factors. There much artistry that goes in to creating a truly quality anime girl. And if that sounds cringey or whatever to you, then you need to be less narrow minded. However, I agree that writing is the most important part of a good story. And for the most part that's what makes a truly masterpiece anime. But to me, and I know many others, having an art style that is attractive (this almost always includes cute girls, but there are shows I've watched that didn't have them) is the baseline. The writing then decides how high the ceiling can go. Ideally, an anime would have a gorgeous art style overall with fluid animation that isn't just technically good but brings life the characters and the universe and an amazing written story. One more thing. There is some overlap between quality waifus and quality writing. A really good waifu would in most cases also be a really well written character. Be careful about assuming waifu culture is all shallow and only about looks. |
| “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” -Friedrich Nietzsche Aggregate scoring is bad for the anime fandom |
| You ARE being judgmental and jumping to conclusions tbh. Sure some people are like that for various of reasons, but there are more than a few people who have husbandos/waifus and still have relationships irl. |
My Queens  |
Comrade-Question said: The terms “Waifu” and “Best-Girl” seem to be very prevalent in the online anime community. Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? I think that there is some validity but that applies to very small percentage of community. People have various reasons to pick a waifu. Some like their design, some has weird fetishes or some people just love moe and want something they can protect. I personally don’t mind it and don’t care what other people choose to do. I guess my only concern would be if manga and anime start using cute female characters as a crutch to subsidize poor writing. In other words, poorly written series get successful if it has enough female characters that the anime community consider to be Waifus and Best-Girls. Your thoughts? I have that concern as well. Tate no yuusha would be most recent example on how writer covered his shit writing with usage of raphtalia and filo and how people bought that shit. |
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| No I don't think your initial perception is right. It'd be right if you said SOME anime fans are like that, but to say MANY of them might be pushing it. Also, not everyone that uses these terms are the same, just like not every single person that uses the term anime is the same. There are those that genuinely do get disillusioned and view these characters in that way. There are also others who use the term ironically, or interchange "waifu" and "best girl" with "favorite female character", it's just part of the culture at this point. The anime community, just like every other community, has it's quirks and people that are on the extreme end of things, but that doesn't mean you should expect the worst of them. You got into the anime community and saw something odd. All that proves is there are odd people in the community, not that this issue is widespread. If you bump into an anime fan in public your first thought shouldn't be "this person is an anime fan and thus has a character he's in love with". That's just not how it is. |
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| "I don't mean to be judgmental" Immediately follows up with a generalization, nice. |
| "Well, she's flatter than a pancake" -Mimi Alpacas "Woof" -Tobiichi Origami "Are you trying to turn the dormitory into a strip club!?! -Atena Saotome |
| I just use "favorite char" cause I don't want to sound too weird. It's not like I'd want to mary any of the chars (at least for most of them). And best is subjective. It is just the same as "my favorite" but sounds less aggresssive. I have even seen "best boy" for Ovlesser (or was it Ansbach I don't remember) from LOGH when he appeared first in Neue These. :D (OVA fans like them for their behaviour and scenes later.) |
Daemon said: Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? Probably not. Maybe there are a higher percentage of those types of people in the anime community, but I'd still say that the majority of people who talk about waifus or best girls are normal and capable of "getting dates in the real world." It's just a bit of fun, nothing to take too seriously. This. Many ppl I know that use the term waifu/husbando have spouse, even kids. It's just a fun way to emphasis how much you like that character and that that character is your most favorite imo. |
 OTP: KidLaw | IzuKatsu | GureShin | EruRi | AoKi | See more!» My art » My translation » Doujinshi collection » Favorite Kurobas doujinshi  BISHIES X RAP |
| I’ll occasionally use the term Waifu, mostly in a joking manor with my non anime friends, exaggerating what a weeb I am for a laugh or two. Something about sincerely calling a fictional character your wife is kinda cringy to me though. People definitely use it sincerely though. To each their own though, hope that doesn’t offend anyone. If you’re proud enough of what you do, other people’s opinion of it shouldn’t matter. As for best girl, I have used that semi seriously, to refer to which girl in a show I thought was the best. Shit I used “best guy” in my signature, not really a romantic notion with that phrase imo. Although I do joke about me being gay for that character XD But shit who isn’t gay for might guy. As for your later point, trashy anime being praised for trash Waifu material has already been happening. Nothing new there. I’d reference Re:Zero as an example but people would be offended.... oh wait...... |
| Lolicons are scum. BABYMETAL is more metal than Metallica. Naruto is objectively the best anime ever. HxH 99' is decent. HxH 11' is bad. |
| a lot of it is just that it's a fandom literacy thing that people who aren't literate the lingo of this specific fandom understand, and so when you get people who see that, the image they immediately conjure up is "somebody who has enough spare time in life to participate in a subculture and be versed in its own weird way of self-expression," hence the no life loser perception, because people have a fetish for speaking without nuance and sticking by their hot takes no matter the case, and in doing so push things to the furthest possible conclusion that they can take it the "who can't get a girlfriend" part of it is a long associated stigma of males of any age group who explicitly like female oriented things, be it sexualization or not, and it is not at all exclusive to anime fans or waifu stuff, that's the extension of it saw something on YT just the other day where the first thing that a person thought when they saw a teenage boy's room have sexualized posters in them was that he can't get a girlfriend/has shortcomings in his love life, and this was like, the normiest of the normie stuff, 3D and bikini and beaches and extremely tame by any standards except the zealous churchgoer probably that's not anything new, and it's always untrue, just like the no life loser thing is, but stigmas like that are often a result of pressing a meme-y stereotype to an extreme conclusion combine these two things and boom, we get chucklefucks like OP coming in and convincing people that they have a point, not through actually having a point, but because they're operating in inciteful, accusative, guilt-by-association rhetoric and we don't outright reject the notion or the basis that he's operating off of like we should be doing if we were operating off of any basic common sense but fuck it i guess it's cowardly to try to meet in the middle with this sort of rhetoric whenever it's operating off of such a shoddy foundation Comrade-Question said: The terms “Waifu” and “Best-Girl” seem to be very prevalent in the online anime community. Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? so obviously no, i don't think there's validity to this perception, and i would go as far as to tell you A) Your thread sucks and B) please try to imagine people more complexly and avoid falling back on trying to project people's entire lives onto them based off of you noticing them using a single word, your apparently lack of thought beyond as much is what makes this thread so troubling, whether you're acting in malice or not A is connected to B, mind you, A isn't the case because you tried to approach the topic, A is the case because of B 23feanor said: Wow, brave. You're on the money, of course, but I don't think this audience will appreciate being told that. also, immediately responding by making the appeal that people will only react negatively because they don't like the truth is very much skimming over the fine lines of things to try and pre-emptively portray people railing against this blatantly problematic presentation and distortion of other people as "angry because they can't handle reality" so my response to this line of your post is to tell you to take it and blow it out of your ass, more or less, because it's incredibly unfair and - be it your intent or not - enables an environment that operates with the amount of tunnel vision in how they're viewing the other side of things by encouraging pre-emptive dismissals rather than stating anything of merit ---- -Mahesvara said: You ARE being judgmental and jumping to conclusions tbh. Tropisch said: "I don't mean to be judgmental" Immediately follows up with a generalization, nice. And these two are spot on and pretty much illustrate the issues of the thread perfectly in a very TL;DR friendly way Even when people like OP are not approaching it purely out of malice, this behavior is enough of a problem and operates/enables so much unjust abuse to where it doesn't need to be tolerated by anybody, and very much shouldn't be |
ManabanOct 21, 2019 12:06 AM
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| Maybe those terms are more closely linked to anime than any other medium but this "phenomenon" certainly isn't contained to just anime. They are plenty of characters from video games and western animation people are obsessed with as well. They may not be as vocal as the anime community about it, but that's besides the point. Also, consider the fact some of these people, for whatever reason, simply aren't interested in having a relationship with an actual person. I myself have very little interest in socializing with anyone outside of close friends, for reasons I'm not willing to discuss here. Frankly, even if I was in any kind of relationship, it probably wouldn't keep me from being attracted to fictional characters, much like my attraction to other people wouldn't completely go away. |
| What's there to understand? If you have a ''waifu'' or ''best girl'', ironically or not, you're a complete and utter loser. Simple as that. |
 I am a god Even though I'm a man of god My whole life in the hand of god So y'all better quit playing with god  |
To a certain degree yes, but not all of them are like that. Look, it really doesn't matter. All you need to know is that Aqua is the best woman period.  |
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I guess my only concern would be if manga and anime start using cute female characters as a crutch to subsidize poor writing. In other words, poorly written series get successful if it has enough female characters that the anime community consider to be Waifus and Best-Girls. Your thoughts? This is already happening since forever tho, and we can't help it that people choose the wrong waifus and best girls I don't know what you expected to hear when even someone like digibro has gf lol |
| poop |
Asaeed said: Comrade-Question said: The terms “Waifu” and “Best-Girl” seem to be very prevalent in the online anime community. Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? I personally don’t mind it and don’t care what other people choose to do. I guess my only concern would be if manga and anime start using cute female characters as a crutch to subsidize poor writing. In other words, poorly written series get successful if it has enough female characters that the anime community consider to be Waifus and Best-Girls. Your thoughts? Yes it's cringy af, just say your favourite female character instead of that shit. ah yes you see, my favourite female anime character is Megumin. fuck no. I swear to god I will never understand what does "Cringe" mean to you all english kids. Always using this fucking word, why? Why is it cringy? Is it because "eheh lol using a japanese-english term what a fucking weeb" or something like that? Why? Then what about Otaku? Is it a cringy term? Why? Because is Japanese? We can't use a japanese word without being cringy? What the actual fuck guys. I'm tired of this "Cringe" shit tbh. |
 ❅Aoishi❅ ✿My Profile ✿MyAnimeList ✿MyMangaList |
| I'll say what I say on every waifu thread: I know a girl who's obsessed with Holden Caufield, this thing isn't prevalent only in anime world. @Water-sama because of your cute pics of Aqua which I see them everywhere, I'm now interested to watch that anime, soon I'll be a believer. |
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| I never really cared for it myself, I might use 'Best Girl' to express who my favorite female character is in a show that's clearly all about the female characters, but waifu always has and always will make me cringe. The whole idea of looking at, evaluating and judging female characters solely on the metric of how much they would please you if they become your submissive wives is extremely unappealing to me. I don't even wanna associate myself with that kind of perspective. I like to treat characters as full personalities and not reduce them to some head-canon role of solely existing to please me. Not to mention the possessive undertones of waifuism, with people literally wanting to 'claim' and 'own' these characters. The thing is, when I watch fiction I want to immerse myself in the story and the characters, I treat them like real people in my mind and that's an important part of the immersion. If I just treated them as objects to claim or own, whose purpose is to please me and nothing else, I could not enjoy myself at all, I could not get into the story or character interactions or take anything seriously in the show. At which point, why am I even watching it? If I just want to indulge in male fantasies about attractive characters living only to please me as my subservient wife, I'll go to porn and doujins and hentai and the likes. If an anime and its characters are so strongly pandering to the waifu crowd that that becomes impossible to see them in any other light (and those shows definitely do exist) I'm usually not gonna enjoy that anime because I'm simply looking for more in a story, in a character than just pandering. It's not like I don't understand the concept of really loving a certain character or even having a real crush on them, but when that happens to me it happens because I really love that character as a whole and if I reduced them to just their 'waifu appeal' they wouldn't be the character I love anymore. I don't like the 'waifu version' of any character I care for nearly as much as I love that character themselves. To me it's very hard to imagine caring about a character when you constantly reduce her to just her waifu appeal, claim 'ownership' of her and never talk about anything but your fantasies of her being your wive. Especially when that character would have to be a completely different character to ever go along with that fantasy, so you're not even talking about that character anymore, but a fictionalized version that you fantasize about. It's just pure headcanon, it's overwriting the actual real personality, attributes, aspirations and interests of that character with a completely fictionalized (and usually sexualized) version of your own headcanon. In which case you're not actually liking the character. You're in love with your own fantasy of a cute 'waifu' catering to your every wish, and always ready to project that fantasy onto every character that is even remotely close to it. That's why the majority of waifu fags jump from one waifu to the other with each season. Because the actual character does not matter at all, they just need a template to project their personal desires and fantasies onto. So to me, calling a character a 'waifu' means you don't actually care about them, it's almost like an insult. Like saying the only way this character can be appealing or interesting to you is if you overwrite them with your fantasy, because their whole personality, interactions and role in the narrative did not captivate you at all, hence why you're ignoring them and reducing the girl to simply being a 'waifu', a 'possession' to claim. So basically it's the same reason why I hate BL shippers in non-BL shows. Overwriting the actual character with fantasies, stripping away every aspect of their personality that doesn't pander to that fantasy and turning them into a really reductive version of themselves that only exists in your head and only to please you. That's just not why I enjoy fiction and stories. I want to immerse myself in them, take them seriously, accept their whole range of personality attributes instead of just projecting my own fantasies onto them. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my fantasies, but I've always found porn and doujins to be the place for them. I definitely do think that part of the appeal of waifu culture is that the viewers can live out their fantasies of talking about cute girls as objects to own and whose sole purpose is to please them. Not having to treat them as a real people, as full personalities with their own problems and dreams, just being able to reduce them to their cuteness or sex appeal and that's the extent of the 'relationship' with them. That's something only 2D girls can offer, only characters who aren't real and won't talk back, won't talk to you and will never disagree with anything you say or think about them and your relationship with them. That's the main attractiveness of 2D girls. If people talked about other people like they talk about their 'waifus', it would not work out well for them and they probably know. So they indulge in these fantasies in the realm of fiction where it doesn't really hurt anybody if they objectify them. And I don't really have a problem with that aside form just personally having no interest in it and not really liking it when people shove their headcanon in my face be it a BL ship or the 'waifuization' of a character that I really appreciate in a more holistic way than anyone reducing them to a 'waifu' ever would. I don't really get that so many people aren't enjoying fiction and stories for what they are, by immersing themselves in them, taking them seriously and accepting what they are trying to do, but instead just look for templates to project their fantasies on. But I accept it and as long as the people who indulge in that are aware that it's fantasies, that you can't evaluate, judge and treat real people the same way they talk about their 'waifus', I don't see a problem with it or even any reason to assume they all have to be lonely virgins. The appeal of fantasies does not diminish depending on your rl circumstances, at least not necessarily. But I do, on a very personal level, not like it, I don't really want to hear about it or talk about, and I'll avoid conversations about the topic except to mock it, or getting close with people who are too involved in that whole waifu culture. It's just really the opposite approach of mine and I feel like it's a good indicator of whether I would get along with someone as an anime fan, or not. Do what you want to do, but ideally do it somewhere I don't have to see it because it does make me cringe. |
AlcoholicideOct 21, 2019 10:15 AM
| I probably regret this post by now. |
Comrade-Question said: They're basically equivalent to "celebrity crushes". Nothing particularly special, just a very normal sense of (one-sided) infatuation with someone one finds attractive.The terms “Waifu” and “Best-Girl” seem to be very prevalent in the online anime community. Not to sound judgemental, but it honestly gives the impression that many anime fans are lonely guys who seek female affection from anime girls because they can’t get dates in the real world. Do you think there is any validity to this perception? I personally don’t mind it and don’t care what other people choose to do. I guess my only concern would be if manga and anime start using cute female characters as a crutch to subsidize poor writing. In other words, poorly written series get successful if it has enough female characters that the anime community consider to be Waifus and Best-Girls. Your thoughts? The main difference between "waifu" and "best girl" is that "waifu" is sorta defined globally over all series for one person, while "best girl" is defined locally for a single series. |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
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