Did weebs exist before normie internet?

[I can't imagine]

Weebs existed in the 1970s and it kind of exploded in the 1980s with the fansub and tape trading scene. If you can figure out how you can search Google Groups Usenet for posts dating back to the early 80s about anime. Weebs were using abnormie Internet - if you were posting on Usenet in 1985, you sure as hell weren't a normie.

I remember seeing Laserdiscs of Tenchi Muyo going for like $50 a volume, and TM was considered to be some of the normiest anime there was at the time. (It was popular, but I could never get into it. I just don't "get" harem anime)

Anyway, look up Fred Patten and Frederik Schodt.

Another name that I'd mention is Toren Smith. The word obviously wasn't around back then, but even in the 80's, he was a total weeb. Decent guy, though; his passion for the media is probably why I got into it in the first place, back in the days of BayCon many years ago.

 

[Kulee Baba]

I learned from a good friend who grew up in South America that the old school anime Cobra was aired over there and while he has usually normie tastes he really is a lover of Japan at heart.

I gotta say despite being nearly 40 years old Cobra was pretty damn cool. I imagine there actually is more old school weebs around the world as opposed to America which pretty much only had more tame family friendly content like Astro Boy and Speed Racer. The classic weebs are likely more well rounded individuals since they didn't have the feedback loop of nerds over obsessing shit.

 

[Braito-san]

I feel damn bad for the 80-90s western weebs. We get it very easy nowadays, with dozens of groups translating every anime imaginable, and we still complain when they take a day or two to do so. Anyways, how old were you when you discovered Speed Racer is an anime?

 

[Dom Cruise]

I feel damn bad for the 80-90s western weebs. We get it very easy nowadays, with dozens of groups translating every anime imaginable, and we still complain when they take a day or two to do so. Anyways, how old were you when you discovered Speed Racer is an anime?

Yeah, it's crazy how difficult it was to obtain back in those days.

I can't remember exactly how old I was, but I do remember my dad telling me when I was a kid that Speed Racer was from Japan once when they would air reruns on Cartoon Network.

 

[melty]

I don't know why people are answering the question "did people like anime before normie internet" instead of "were there weebs before normie internet". Not the same thing.
I agree 2005 was the peak year and it was because of Naruto. Prior to that, there was some cringe but Naruto really upped the ante.

 

[L50LasPak]

I'm not old enough to have been there but based on how much I gab with the old timers on the subject pre-90s weebyness was just generally lumped into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy nerd culture. Like maybe you'd know a guy who picked up Akria on VHS, but occasionally there'd be that nerd in your group who regularly shelled out $50 in import fees to buy two VHS copies of the subtitled Dirty Pair or Gunbuster or whatever was popular at the time.

These people definitely existed, but not in any one high enough concentration. So they were often forced to hang out with other Sci-Fi/Fantasy nerds and diversify their nerdiness at least a little. Inevitably they'd have to pick up an interest in something else like D&D, Warhammer, Star Trek (back when it had a tabletop scene), Traveller, etc. Videogames eased this up a bit.

I do agree that modern weeaboos are a somewhat different beast. The oldschool weebs were usually older kids that got into watching anime in their teens and even adult years, while there's a kind of new wave of people who have been playing Pokemon since they were 6 years old and thus have probably been innundated with it all their lives.

 

[Uranus Pink]

80ies cartoons regardless of where they were from or who made them were consistent at meeting minimum standards of being watchable. Another point is everyone every where were throwing everything at the wall to see what is successful or not with the viewers and their toy buying parents. Thirdly 80ies everybody was doing coproductions with Japan which blurred the line of what is anime. Finally before Reagan fucked the Yen almost everything was animated in Japan.

 

[I can't imagine]

I feel damn bad for the 80-90s western weebs. We get it very easy nowadays, with dozens of groups translating every anime imaginable, and we still complain when they take a day or two to do so. Anyways, how old were you when you discovered Speed Racer is an anime?

Having been around for the bad old days when "getting to watch anime" meant going to a room party at a sci-fi convention where you'd watch 4th generation VHS tapes of Urusei Yatsura raws while a guy with three semesters of college Japanese attempted to explain the jokes...let's just say the culture of the fandom has changed quite a bit in the last 30+ years. There was definitely more of a camaraderie to the community back then, but that was mostly because accessibility was so limited.