I Was A Cringy Teen Weeaboo | Art + Storytime

In honor of spookymonth, I'm digging up the ghosts of my past and discussing the cringe of my teen years. There's catgirls in there.
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[@onetinyrabbit742]

I know your deep dark secret And yes, everyone, it really did make me laugh so hard I cried

[@JustAnAverageToast]

._.

[@VideoCannibal]

Yasss- I meannnn yuh- no no no... hmmmmmmmm Hello?

[@orangeismyfavoritecolor]

Oh my god now I NEED to know

[@mindopolis6089]

It's better for our sanity to not know

[@kyubeycoobie3568]

Is that discussed on the podcast? I usually don't lke podcasts but I must know lol

[@TukaShiri]

"Don't kill the part of you that's cringy. Kill the part of you that cringes." Seriously needed to hear that today.

[@faenene]

Favourite quote! ⭐️

[@JanusKastin]

While I was taking Japanese in college, one of the grad students in the department did research on us, asking how many of us were in the program JUST BECAUSE OF ANIME.

[@JanusKastin]

@MrRainbow228 In my classroom, all of them.

[@aperson1754]

I'm kind of like this, but instead of anime for me, it was the video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Or it was for like 3 days because I hate learning languages.

[@ShelbyLikesStuff]

9:25 I imagined a scenario for this. *jingling slowly approaching* “You hear that?” “Yep she’s coming, we gotta go fast.” “Hey friends!” *the pitter patter of small children running*

[@ArwenCaldwell]

This video has made me reflect on my middle school self… I think the worst thing I did was making mha characters into furries 😔

[@tatugasshow6047]

this made me cry

[@ArwenCaldwell]

This also makes me cry

[@random_kai]

as a furry, this is the most funny thing I have seen today

[@espressodepressoo]

when i was in 6th grade i cosplayed as ochako uraraka WITH FUCKING CAT EARS 💀💀 im never gonna forget the pain

[@bunniifangz]

man u used to be cool af

[@enetgrinson8394]

I was apparently too young when I discovered night core to know that it was a genre, I legit thought it was a specific artist XD

[@Obsessive_Artist]

@@enetgrinson8394 NOOOO XD

[@dyed-indigo]

i had my weeb phase, my creepypasta phase, AND my fnaf phase all at the same time in middle school, so in 6th grade i was operating at maximum cringe at all times. i drew a ton of "creepypasta characters but anime" type stuff, and i still have an old unfinished drawing i did back then where i tried to make a fnaf/ib crossover work for some reason. one of my friends at the time (that i met because we happened to be wearing the exact same hot topic soul eater t-shirt on the same day) also convinced me to write some of the worst script format fanfiction known to man. but i think the worst thing is when i auditioned for my middle school's musical i literally just sang the pokemon theme song. no i did not get a part.

[@raxxie]

Holy crap! I saw my name, yay! I was much more cringey in highschool than I thought I was at the time... I was a SUPER emo, wannabe gangster rapper. Yep.. I was equal parts, writing my first album and writing ridiculous poetry that I dreamed would be discovered 100 years after my death

[@luigiboi4244]

We all have that part in life where we think we are the hottest sh*t, but end up channeling our inner Bully Maguire.

[@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit]

What if it does get discovered 100 years after your death?

[@raxxie]

@Cocaine420_ that would be awesome and horrible lol

[@HiddenWindshield]

I was an absolutely unrepentant nerd when I was a teen. I'm... just a little bit older than Star, so this was late 80's and early 90's. I remember telling anyone who would listen what "The Internet" was, and how it was going to revolutionize absolutely everything (and I hate the fact that the internet took so long to make an impact that I grew up before I could say "told you so"). I was part of Usenet, and I was the first person in my family to have an internet email address (except for the one my parents got for free from their ISP that they never even checked). I knew people who had UUCP bang-path email addresses (though I'm not _quite_ old enough to have actually had one of those myself). My equivalent to Star's bell necklace was a binary watch I wore proudly for about a year or two. As in, instead of showing "8:30", it would show "01000:011110". The only reason I stopped wearing it was because it wore out (it was a cheap novelty thing that didn't last long). And, yes, before you ask, I now make a living as a computer programmer and technician.

[@Mattchudon]

My first steps into middle-school weeaboo-dom was seeing the first volume of One Piece in one of those Scholastic book orders in 2004. Pirates of the Caribbean was the big thing of the time, and the summary said it was about pirates, so naturally I wanted it and begged my mom for the ten bucks to get it. When my 13-year-old self got the volume, I went from, "Wow, backwards book? That's weird" to "Whoa, swear words and blood and violence? Awesome!!!" I got as many volumes as I could, but I think I petered out at volume 32.

[@mayuwu4408]

The reason I clicked on this video was the thumbnail. I didn't feel a shred of judgement from the way present you was looing at your past self. It's silly and still a bit emberassing, but the way she looks back with this kind and almost bitersweet expression was really touching and profound to me, I teared up a little. I felt that whole final point of the video, a journey I have been on and resonate with personally, just from that expression. "What makes you different makes you strong." - Vi, Arcane Star's point at the end of the video exeplifies this quote perfectly; all those "cringey" things of her past are part of her too. And they've blossomed into this beautiful passion carreer. For others, that might mean realizing that you're a girl (me haha). For everyone, you get to just authentically unapologetically be yourself openly and without shame!!! Try not to let anyone try to make you feel shame about yourself, as if there was something wrong with you and that you need to hide or supress or change. Don't kill the part of you that's cringe, kill the part of you that cringes. You deserve to be who you are.

[@Linkfan88]

I did the bell neck choker too, in High school. You were not alone. It honestly wasn't that bad. It was just anime reference the mass school population did not get. Gosh feels its so nice to know I wasn't alone in doing this.

[@thoughtfulravn]

"In the all my friends have crushes so I guess I will also pretend..." I literally slapped my hands on my desk like YES THAT IS WHAT IT IS LIKE for young aces! I also remember the exorbitant prices of anime DVDs and even further, the VHSs with maybe three episodes on them (if that) from Suncoast. Also the KZbin episodes cut into two to three parts, would open multiple tabs and pause the videos so they would buffer while I was away at class in college. What a trip down memory lane, haha! Kids these days are really missing out on having goofy signature images and silly forums.

[@maplesugar7409]

I don't find anything you did in middle school cringy. I wish I had that much fun in middle school. I didn't get into anime until well into high school and was still in my Hannah Montana phase in middle school.

[@legendary_hero]

It's okay, Star. You may be cringe, but you are free.

[@lululuvscats]

I was obsessed with magical girl anime in elementary school, to the point where I tried animating my own series...s. Most episodes were never finished because I kept giving up on animating the transformation sequences and starting over XD My Pokemon phase was the worst, though. It was LITERALLY ALL I EVER TALKED ABOUT, so I didn't have many friends back then XD

[@ladytanyeta4687]

I took psychic AND physical damage watching this entire video dare you unearth these memories.

[@GhostKidArt]

Ok when I was say 11-13 i was OBSESSED with panic at the disco. It was in 2018 when pray for the wicked came out and omg. I painted my converse red black and gold from fever you cant sweat out. I screamed ‘SHOTGUN WEDDING’ at the top of my lungs outside where probably all of my neighbors could hear me. (i didn’t know what it meant) I was ‘emo’. I thought panic was the best music i’d ever heard. It was so bad.

[@GhostKidArt]

I was so fake edgy it makes me cringe so bad.

[@kingmaxstatic]

I remember I used to make sonic fanart via tracing bases that I found on DA (You probably know the ones) In middle school I had this oc named Ruby who was an echidna and also the adopted sister of Scourge The Hedgehog. I wonder how middle school me would feel knowing I still draw her. That I submitted my sonic fan art to an art show in my college. Yeah sure I kinda got made fun of it by someone after but there was something that just hit really hard about seeing my work be framed. I still have that oc, GOD she's changed throughout the years. But I love Ruby deeply. No matter how much people laugh at my little hetrochromia having echidna.

[@learnova1761]

I was a Dinosaur Kid(TM) and I'd walk like a velociraptor all through middle school and screech at my classmates. It was fun lmao

[@HTMangaka]

I started out cracking up to this video....then about halfway through I just clutched my head and screamed at the ceiling. This was WAAAAY too relatable. O_O I loved it! Awesome stuff! ^^

[@Nova_Bovine]

The flashbacks when she said gaia online my 35yr old butt just cringed so hard. I remember my snake escaping. We put flour all over my floor to see if i could catch it guessing it was still in my room. I didn't mind because I stayed up all night on gaia online. And for some reason that's a core memory lol

[@bella_daze3092]

Me seeing this video when my middle school self was bullied, in an anime phase, creepypasta phase, and more: I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED

[@FazartOrganization]

16:00 LMFAO that Gaia shoutout brought me instantly back to my weeb years.

[@HelloMomoMomo]

Your life story is my life story LITERALLY!??? also I’m making a comic and I use your videos to focus 🤯

[@SynTech__]

"Do you ever just pick up a new piece of media and you realize it's going to stick with you for a long time?" *me with castoff* yea I think so

[@fizz_bit]

9:29 As an aroace, I felt this on a different level

[@CrazyGreenFluff]

when i was 14, i was obsessed with johnny c from jthm. i drew loads of fan art, ship art, and yes, even ship art of him and myself. i also became obsessed with jeff the killer due to a comic called pasta monsters, so i drew incredibly cringey fan art of johnny and jeff fighting over me. i think back on it now and it gives me a good chuckle, but that j vs j image will haunt me forever XD

[@RandomDuck-Productions]

9:37 UH UHHH THIS IS WAY TOO RELATEABLE 🥹🤣🤣

[@cameronguzman-keller477]

When I was in middle school, I started watching anime, with my first one being Princess Tutu (aside some of the more questionable antics in the show, I highly recommend it!), but afterwards I dove into a really weird phase of horror anime shows. Elfen Lied happened to be a show I really liked, and one day during class I was drawing the cover art of Lucy (iykyk), and this boy I had a small crush on saw what I was drawing and went “EWWW WHY ARE YOU DRAWING TITS???” The way I wanted to just run out of the room and rot away was immeasurable 😭😭😭

[@sleepingatthefrontrow]

My friends and I wore bells to middle school too, but only at lunch because our school wouldn't allow for accesories. One of my friends was really tall and made fun of. Her choker bell would ring and people would ask "is a cat trapped on a tree or smth?" 😢 I would make so much yaoi fanfics for my friends, it stopped at holding hands though it was so cringy, but today I am looking into becoming a comic artist wish me luck

[@-themightymittens-]

8:47 This reminds me of when I was in my Warrior Cats phase and would pretend to be a cat. I made a "collar" and everything XD It was basically just a necklace made with a piece of yarn and a big yellow bead in the middle.

[@shevmo]

I remember when Gaia Online was called Go Gaia. That psychic damage almost killed me.

[@SillyWillyBillyFilly]

Okay okay okay- I am a Gacha kid and my phase started when I was uhhhhh 7 😭😭 I was obsessed with the chibi art style and started teaching myself how to draw it-- and I caused a lot in my life like meeting my online friends, getting into anime…. Etc. honestly it’ll take me a long time to grow out of the phase 😭 and now I have a Gacha life KZbin channel

[@z0m_.b0y_]

My interest in drawing was born from doing gacha life edits, and thanks to gacha life I also know how to animate. It was quite a cringe phase of my life, but it has served me well.

[@sunn1_st4rs]

When you played Bad Boy, my whole childhood flashed back to me. I'ma go cry now lol

[@mikasmthin185]

I still can't believe that when I tried reading castoff all over again, I saw few similarities with a few characters and I had a theor what could happen and when I read the end of chapter 11 it actually happened

[@ihoardjars]

I'm so glad I got over my weeaboo phase before I properly got into anime; for a long time I was just obsessed with MHA, before that I watched a few anime in earlier childhood (like Wolf Children, Yuri on Ice, etc) and I specifically remember when I learned the kanji for 'manga' and I wrote it on EVERYTHING. Now I'm into stuff like Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, etc and so I was able to skip the 10-13 year old cringey weeb phase with them haha

[@SteamiRBLX]

I just got out of middle school and this video brought me some silly memories from when I was in my early middle school years. I had been obsessed with Japan and it's cultures. Eventuallly that lead to me attempting to learn the language through duolingo. I never really got through any courses but it did lead to my current self learning Spanish and German! And the whole thing got me into highschool band! WIthout those times in my life I also wouldn't have grown as much as I did with art and my studies. Its great going back and looking at the old memories from my early middle school years.

[@eliteunicorns]

I'm cringy even as an adult. I feel like I'm going through a second phase of my cringy teens years. I think people are more accepting of cringe in college.

[@Daelightcore]

Crying not the voice recorder for music omg I'm having flashbacks 😭

[@ChidoriAlchemist]

Your last few minutes of your video where you said "love something and love it fearlessly" is the information that I needed to hear about 15-20 years ago. I mean, I have discovered this myself in my adult life, but oh how I wish I could go back and tell that to myself. I was always teased for liking Warrior Cats, anime, manga, all of that fun stuff- I should have never been afraid to love it.

[@W1llowm]

I used to watch anime in class, try to teach Japanese, move to japan and this kinda stuff. I remember how i used to fall asleep while wqtching haikyuu with my pc in one arm and a volleyball in another. Haikyuu was one of my first so I made it my personality. Haikyuu is the reason i like volleyball. Even though i didnt do something extra its still something i look at happily since its such a big part of my childhood

[@midnighthybrid1]

Oh man, when you started talking about nightcore I felt so old- I didn’t even realize people didn’t know the name of that anymore until rn 😭 I didn’t even start using KZbin very often until well into my middle school days, so it just feels so weird to think that I would sometimes listen to the ‘relics’ of a past KZbin Generation. No idea if it would be better or worse for the internet if we taught TikTok about the proper ‘nightcore’ term, though 😨😂 Awesome vid Star, I didn’t have a huge weeb phase myself but I had other cringy phases that this video properly reminded me of 😅 keep up the great work!

[@marialagidyne]

NOOOOO THIS VIDEO HAD ME HOLLERINGGGGG the tmm and gaia online mentions specifically 😭 tmm got me to start taking art more seriously (although the style definitely leaned more into chobits after a couple of months) & my friend group assigned mews to each of us and i was lettuce 😂 my weeb phase did bleed into high school but a certain incident with my best friend's sister snapped me out of the most extreme part of it pretty quickly so i understand the laughing hard enough to cry LOL

[@SuperKitten176]

As I was watching this I was drawing goofy art of my favorite game and I am not afraid to be the biggest super fan ever. For context I’ve replayed the game about 6 times and I still love it all the same

[@hirolyk]

15:18 I USED TO DO THAT TO RECORD ANIMATION MEMES! oh my lords, my animation memes phase, it felt amazing at that time, not gonna lie.

[@andytherobot]

This made me remember my "fan comic" from when I was around 8 years old and I was a fnaf kid and all of the ninja cats comics I drew on loose pages and stapled together

[@mcrmakesmedance]

finally, youtube recommended me a good youtuber with a large catalog of videos that I can binge while eating

[@Archive_7802]

25:33 For me… it was Dragon Ball, from all the way back in middle school, to my current career where my coworkers also talk about it a lot.

[@MegaRonTV]

Holy cow, I totally forgot that anime DVDs were a complete ripoff back in the day.

[@anticlaws4105]

I can change the like count from 4.2k to 4.3k. *Oh* *the* *power* . I now understand how it corrupts people

[@christopherparkes]

Ohhhhhh I feel this hard, It was an Undertale phase for me, still have tons of posters and a couple of plushies. Undertale fanart was what got me into digital art though! That game has a special place in my heart to this day, but I don’t work a reference to it into every sentence anymore. Maybe just every other sentence...

[@riatsila144]

Albuquerque and Azumanga Daioh. Sounds like my childhood! Thanks for the story time! Things were wild back then, but as much cringe as it was at times, they were good times.

[@StrawberryNova]

I just flashed back to early mornings watching Yu-Gi-Oh and other anime in parts before school on my Mom's computer. ALSO I discovered SO MANY songs through AMVs. And I LOVED when someone would take a movie musical soundtrack and set anime to it to essentially use the anime cast as a mock version of the movie. My favorite was probably where someone did Prince of Egypt/Yu-Gi-Oh. Also I live in the middle of nowhere so I would have to wait for AGES for the videos to load back then. EDIT: OMG GAIAONLINE. I remember back before the fishtank gold-getting game exploits did some HUGE damage to the economy of the site. I *swear* that's what did a huge amount of the damage.

[@kilo_studios]

I feel so called out here in this video LMAO, I use to go crazy with comics / manga comics to where I begged to go to a place to get it and get the whole set. The worse thing ever was when I got into high school I was looked at as THAT KID, and usually when its Christmas and usually you get stuff like secret Santa people would ALWAYS get my manga books and random animes that I have never heard of and would get really interested in. The first ever animated Anime I have ever watched was actually "Ponyo" to then other Studio Ghibli stuff that I just adored so hard, I recalled after watching stuff like that and realised about the whole KZbin side with Subbed and Dubbed anime things, I then ran into my still most favourited anime till this day called "Angels Of Death" which to be honest was the worse thing ever because it taught me how to say curse words and such because of how heavy swearing was in it. Till this day I still love anime and manga stuff, but just seem to focus on trying to build up the courage to do my own anime styled stuff!

[@000Dragon50000]

> The 4-kids dub doesn't count Oh gods THAT's a line that takes me back.

[@ThatChronomancer]

The slowly appearing ace flag was. A little too relatable

[@mossimur]

You bringing up Tokyo Mew Mew unlocked so many memories for myself. I completely forgot that this was infact, one of the first 3 animes I watched way back when. Just seeing the image made me feel like I warped back to 2007. A simpler time. (':

[@bailey1368]

With all the kindness in my heart, I would be surprised if you WEREN'T a Giant Weeb growing up.

[@KatAlystsStage]

Thank you for telling these stories, they were an absolute delight to hear, I enjoyed it. Took me back to when I was in middle school in the 2010s. Not the same scene as the early 2000s, we definitely had a lot we learned thanks to those that came before us, but I can confirm, we were cringy too. X'''D My best friend got me into anime in the 11th grade, we had this tech class that was super lax, and we constantly had our work done before everyone else, so we would just, watch anime in the back on some websites she knew of. I got introduced to Tokyo Mew Mew as my first anime too. X''''D Haven't ever watched it in full, as she wanted to switch to Sword Art Online, but it was cool, and I continue to love Magical Girls. We enjoyed a lot of RWBY and Blue Exorcist as a friend group too. I had a few manga books for Shugo Chara, One Piece, and Fairy Tail, but none of those were anywhere near as enticing as my REAL cringy love: Sonic. I was a MASSIVE Sonic fan growing up. I started drawing OCs to try and appear cool to one of our other friends before they moved away, and it continued to be something I would do all the time. I'd get into my first roleplaying space in the comments section on KZbin channels, and later Deviantart would be the home for my art. It's not anymore, but that was a time. It would also kickstart my earliest days of voice acting. So many people are surprised to know I started out as Cream the Rabbit, considering that nowadays, I'm known for Rouge the Bat. That's kind of the funny thing, I was bullied relentlessly in my fandom space for a number of years, told that my art was garbage and that I would never be good enough. It got so bad that when I got to my junior year of college I quit drawing Sonic altogether. But that's the thing, I was out there studying for my graphic design degree, and it was a rough patch, I ended up graduating wondering if I was really ready for the world, afraid that maybe I really was just that bad at being a creative. And while I'm still struggling, I'm happy to report I was wrong about that. I ended up in another fandom space that left me feeling fulfilled and happy: Bendy and the Ink Machine, and that genuinely changed my life. The second chapter was coming out right as I finished junior year, and I fell into it HARD now that I'd left a toxic relationship that had previously shamed me for my passions. I roleplayed with friends, I made OCs (one of which had her 6 year anniversary the day I'm writing this), made an effort to celebrate my fellow fans, and my positivity and passion in the fandom didn't go unnoticed. I'm now one of the Bendy Fambassadors, a group of fans brought together by voice director and actor Lauren Synger to celebrate our fandom and do creative projects geared towards engaging the fandom, and I've made friends with several of the cast members for Bendy and the Dark Revival. I moderate their cast signing streams too. It's, still really surreal, I mean having a voice actor you look up to tell you that you've got a great voice and that they appreciate what you're doing means a lot. But they're not the only ones who have me feeling welcome. I've made so many friends with fellow fans, I love hashing out theories and geeking out with them. I recognize I'm probably still very cringy, but the difference is, I'm happier now. I have people who value me, not for my connections, not for my skills, (i mean they value me for those things too, but that's not ALL they value me for) but because I am in fact a likable person, and my passion is part of what makes me, well, me! It's a part of me worth embracing. And if there's no other takeaway, I hope people reading this at least walk away feeling a little better about themselves. Like, yeah, I needed to learn some social skills over the years, and sometimes I'm not a perfect compatibility match with those around me. Sometimes I have some extra things to navigate as a result of being autistic. But I finally get to be me now, a nerd who loves storytelling. That's seeped into every facet of my life, I am a storyteller, and that's what makes me happy. I still voice act, heck I still do Sonic voice acting. You've probably heard me if you're a fan of Adrenaline Dubs, a comic dubbing channel, I'm regularly there as Rouge. I do original stuff too now thanks to people I know through Sonic fan projects too, like voicing Venus on the original webcomic series, Tales of Annualia, something I remain immensely proud of! I can finally draw Sonic stuff again without hurting over it, and happily enough, my skills have gone way up in all my mediums. Things got BETTER, I found good people who want me BECAUSE I'm passionate. Who cares if you're cringy? So long as you're not putting yourself or others in danger, go do what makes you happy.

[@chickenanddoodles]

i didnt really have a weaboo phase but i did grow up with my brothers watching anime like Pokemon and Dragon Ball z in the computer room, my 11 year old obsession was Link from the Legend of Zelda i had a google drive full of pictures of him and i still like him a lot to this day just in a different way it brings me comfort to remember how much i used to like him

[@shhinysilver1720]

25:30 the latest moment like this for me was when i discovered lackadaisy from the pilot back in april.

[@ampheia]

LOL our stories are so similar! I was OBSESSED with Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Pokemon in middle school. My parents didn't like anime and outright banned me from watching Cardcaptors because religion. But I was able to get my fix through manga my best friend had. She even got me one of the bendy Sakura dolls for my birthday that I then had to hide from my parents. I had exactly 1 manga until high school and it was the Sailor Moon manga with the little short stories, the main one being the one where Luna gets to be human for a bit. I read it so much that it completely fell apart. My best friend also printed off two scans of Clow Cards for me and I lovingly cut them out and hand laminated them and kept them tucked away under a pile of books on a shelf in my closet. Then Yu-Gi-Oh happened and me and all my friends had OCs that were dating canon characters and we wrote ridiculous stories about them in a notebook we would pass around and each write passages in. We also drew them obsessively and I can still very clearly picture mine...Misty, who married Seto Kaiba at the ripe age of 16 (because that felt so grown up to my 13 year old brain on anime crack). We thought we were the EPITOME of cool. Things calmed down some in high school just due to us being busy with extra curriculars, but my friend let me borrow all of her How to Draw Manga books (many of which I have managed to collect over the past few years for nostalgia's sake). I got my hands into making a few AMVs around then, and then years later met someone who actually loved one I made, which was WILD. I still have the dream of making my own comic. Maybe someday I can make little middle me proud and finally make that comic.

[@Glenningway]

Y'know, back in my day we called them "otaku", and AMV's were all the rage, which was the style at the ti- goddamn I'm old.

[@attackonicecream8557]

During my middle school age, I was a rebel. I left girl scouts and decided to be a cool kid when I joined martial arts. A movie came out and it was rated MA and I knew I had to be the first one to watch it out of the whole class. After throwing up and full of adrenaline I knew I had to have more. I started getting a lot of horror movies and surrounded myself with Gothic items. I was even into witch craft and did some pretty damn weird things xD To this day I love horror and even taking courses to become a horror movie special effects artist, but I definitely won't try to curse anyone ever again.

[@lawnmower16]

I didn't get into anime until I was like 21ish, and I definitely had a cringey weaboo phase, but if I'm being honest, I'm still kind of a cringey weaboo even today. Main difference is I've learned not to cringe 😁 I love anime, I will probably always have an anime profile pic, I will always have parts of me shaped by anime, and I'm not interested in being friends with those who look down upon me for it!

[@dustystripe6949]

The “oh shit” that I utterly when you said tokyo mew mew lmfao

[@bug_castor]

best thing i can remember doing in middle school was i would randomly use Google Translate to speak Japanese at people, and i even at one point put an entire Japanese translation on a school project that i had to present in front of the class. why? i have no idea

[@neongreenlizard]

the amv part gave me flashbacks to ajmvs (animal jam music videos) and i was OBSESSED WITH THEM.

[@MimicksRiot]

i was shocked to hear you didn't ever mention cardcaptor sakura

[@kendra7697]

I remember my weeb days. I know it's cringy, but it's also kind of nostalgic. I still have some of the manga I bought as a teen. At some point you have to tell us that story.

[@B0ySkylark]

The absolutely inhuman noise I made when you mentioned Gaia;;;;; I'm right there with you Star, we probs wouldve traded items on there at some point in another timeline!

[@jxllxannx]

Okay but Mom needs a raise for buying and being dragged into everything

[@TheBatQueen-e2q]

How are there no comments about the *MYSTERIOUSE FLAG* that popped up when she was talking about fake crushes (Ik it was the aromantic flag). But srsly tho- there was a soon-to-be-not-cis character in castoff and it got me so exited- "SHES AN ALLY--!", and - now- wow!

[@TheBatQueen-e2q]

(Aromantic - Not feeling romantic attraction) (NOT AROMATIC)

[@centipedemuncher]

ik this is off topic and stuff but for some reason i feel like you would make the best miles edgeworth fanart ever

[@AzuraiFrostwing]

I feel your pain. I too was a teenage weeaboo and seeing messages I sent and conversations I had makes me cringe SO hard. I've grown up so much! But also! Oh BOY I hope nobody ever sees those ever again. I too had a collar, but my friend thought it was funny to buy me a collar. Still wore it til the end of my Sophomore year.

[@NonnaPossum1312]

When I was like 20 I used Gaia to watch public domain horror movies with friends, it was one of the earliest and easiest ways to do that at the time. You and your friends avatars would be sat in a movie theatre and you could chat while the movie played on the screen. I've been trying to remember what the hell that website was called for going on twenty years now, so thanks for that.

[@ShadowGingerdapple]

Don't worry Star- I ALSO tried to learn japanese with my friend. You are not alone in shaking your head at mini self- but I'm glad mini me enjoyed what they enjoyed despite what was going on in their life.

[@sejgonkaa]

IM SO EARLY ! I used to have the SAME phase and ive had to have EVERYTHING anime themed. I had all my walls in manga pages, i had a lot of anime clothes, figurines and i used to make my own cosplays... my cosplays werent so good but i was happy. I miss that era when i didnt care that i was cringe and enjoyed it.

[@10glowsicksinatrenchcoat]

i was a weeaboo tween, mid teens now, my first anime was miss kobayashis dragon maid (i was 8, FAR too young for that) my second was toyko mew mew, and my third, the most haunting, my fairytail phase, i made little colour pencil 4 panel gajevy comics for insta. this phase, regrettably, isnt really over, the jellal funko i bought 2 months ago judges me for my sins. (also ‘aliens are drop dead sexy’ recreation looks like a tumblr shit-post)

[@ADZ_CatznArt]

Dude this reminds me of my also crazy anime phase, but I was ALSO a furry 💀💀💀. I would wear those sparkly cat ears headbands and like me and my friends would get these ribbons(?) meant for sports and put ‘em in the back of our pants to resemble tails 💀💀…

[@cass_gacha._x3]

As a furry I died laughing seeing this 😭😭😭💀💀💀

[@Spawnofademon]

This video is reminding me of my weaboo phase and I’m cringing inside 😭 (I still listen to nightcore and watch lots of anime)

[@kiwilemontea4622]

A lot of this stuff is a mirror to my own teen years as a weeb. Augh, I remember the financial pain of anime only being available three or four episodes at a time. Looking back, I am genuinely amazed my parents bought me about 30 Pokemon VHS tapes. I didn't make myself a cat ball choker, but I wore a pair of black cat ears for about five years before eventually losing them on the bus. I idolized Japan. I even did that thing where you make online accounts for a fake friend that I claimed was totally real. Since I was already an artist at the time, I made my fake friend be an artist too, and even gave "Leith" an art style radically different from my own. It actually helped me improve my drawing skills a lot, faking a wildly different style... Anyway, one of my real friends, uh, developed a crush on my fake Leith persona... so I told her the truth about him not really existing, and uh... we ended up dating in real life. Wild times! Like you, my love of anime in my youth led me to become a comic artist.

[@sanhinamori9098]

This uh, this username was from when I was twelve years old and I combined the names of San from Mamotte! Lollipop (the manga I was hyper obsessed with,) and Amu Hinamori from Shugo Chara... I also carried around manga volumes with me to school and read them over and over again! My copies of Mamotte! Lollipop and Fall in Love Like a Comic are very well loved as well. I read Tokyo Mew Mew as well and loved it! I may at some point have worn a lollipop hairpiece for a while in sixth grade because it reminded me of Mamotte! Lollipop. I also wore my hair in pigtails for all of eighth grade because anime... I'm so glad I'm not the only kid that did this lmao

[@SoliacTrahkorsky]

Cringe is dying in my heart tbh

[@supernovablade]

Ah, this was such a fun video to watch and it really made me think a lot as well. It had been so long since I had last heard of Gaia Online, not going to lie. I had a few stories with that, but most of them are lost in my memory. But from what I do remember is a little before I stopped using it, I turned my entire head into an eyeball. I don't know what the hell was going through my head when I did that, but, I was young, and I was a creative.....kid back in the day. I also remember my sister friending one of the NPCs. I never had as cringy of a weeaboo phase as most people since I didn't get into anime until high school, even though I was aware of it as far back as elementary school, since I had a large Pokémon phase back in the day. I got into anime as a teen as a way to "fit in" with my online friends. I used to meme about it a bunch before I really got into watching it regularly. My first time dressing like a character from an anime was the costume of Rosario+Vampire I did in my sophomore year of high school, when my interest greatly increased the most. As time moved on, I got invested in more and more even when my high school's anime club subsided into nothing. And now all these years later, I am still an avid anime watcher and am now the secretary of my university's anime club, but it is interesting thinking about where it all started.

[@4thDan]

Imagine being a newly-forged anime fan in the early 90’s! There was little to NOTHING available unless you were happy with the kiddy version of Robotech or some other botched dub on VHS, no less! Fortunately the media stores started carrying anime tapes and me and my pals were finally able to see some quality dub/subbed OVA’s and series!

[@neonovica]

I was a warrior cats kid... Like full on hissing and meowing and roleplaying on the playground in 5th grade....

[@Korishiva]

I remember I used to upload the FMA anime and AMVs to KZbin when I was in my young teens, guess who lost their channel eventually because they didn't know about copyright laws yet... 😅😂

[@VVilde36]

I am trying out gaia for the first time this week and its been really fun! I think its a cute daily log in game, like ACNH or things, but it does appeal to a gambler aspect, lots of things come in random form so far!

[@SpaceShip-Orion]

Not being a weeb can be just as crazy. I was this close to making a Danny Phantom & Luigi's Mansion crossover as a kid

[@braydoboss9505]

Took me back to my middle school days. The first FNaF came out the exact same day as my first day of middle school. I had so many OCs, but one was a yellow rabbit. Needless to say, when FNaF 3 came out, I was a happy camper

[@Starry_ghost_boo]

22:19 me in the year 5. It was not a good time

[@SeraphMT]

Was not a weeaboo until the age of 13 (it was a very casual interest), had a monster high, then a mlp-creepy pasta phase (yes, I enjoyed the 2 series separately and together), fnaf, and then a very short cat-girl phase that was destroyed by an undertale phase. I then never got interested into anything ever again because everyone on the internet (specifically youtube) went into an era where fandom bashing got very popular, so I haven't genuinely enjoyed anything for at least 4 years, because I killed my cringe fun side so I wouldn't be viewed as cringe. Don't kill your cringe side you will get depressed.

[@leo-mm7vx]

Okay, so I am a Sonic weeb. When I was really young I would run like him, most of my appearance was Sonic merch, and because of that no one liked me. I was scene as that weird kid who liked Sonic, and since it was 2012 Sonic was still scene as the laughing stock of the video game industry. However nowa days I fully embrace it. I often tap my feet when I wait, and when I'm preparing for something I often stretch and take a running stance, even if what I was doing had nothing to do with my athletics.

[@semiatolanigan7066]

It must be wild remembering your childhood in such detail. I just know somehow in elementary school I decided Anime was amazing and needed to watch all of it (action exclusively)

[@myalfawolf]

An old friend from high school sent me a link to my Gaia journals... I took the damage hardcore

[@lolduck3445]

I had a very cringey phase where I would continuously draw a ship these two characters together from any anime because I thought it was cute, an example of this fanart was nezuko x Zenitsu because younger me was like this is soooooo cute ahhh my heart ect… even tho that part of me has died down a bit (lies I look at fanart of certain ships from time to time) I do this thing where I would ask any new person I talk to if they watch anime which I cringe at sometimes

[@sauceakure]

this exact video made me wanna read your comic recently, i really love your artstyle a lot and your comic is actually really something that made me happy, congrats on everything man love you.