I got lost as the first part of the book skittered around so much it even managed to make a cast list for the book confusing. But then it just settled into angsty teen friendship drama with some story-within-a-story and daydream sequences. The main hook is that a couple of the characters are weeaboo, people who are not Asian but are really obsessed with Japanese culture. The story sort of pokes around at the cultural appropriation aspects, but like the rest of the story, including some LGBTQ+ elements, it is willing to wallow in the world of muddle, never really building its way to a point.

Friends fall out and make up. Parents just don't understand. Crushes suck. Pretty standard fare, you know?

The art varies from page to page and character to character, sometimes appealing, sometimes not. I get the impression the artist draws better for the parts and characters she really, really likes. ( )

The artwork is so fun and stylish. I love the visuals with James showing how music can take you to another place. You can literally tell how much fun the artist had drawing this. I also liked the relationship drama between Dan and the theater kid. The struggle with James and his parents is also well-executed. I felt his overwhelming frustration and sadness. And the cringe is IMMACULATE. à la Kawaii desu!

Now, the story’s all over the place leading up to the big anime convention. There’s a weird fixation on James asianness. Toward the latter half, we start getting flashbacks, but it’s hard to tell where the present starts and ends.

But the story is mostly dumb—wonderfully dumb—and it revels in that though it manages to touch slightly on when others stereotype your culture to the smallest parts, fetishization, inadequacy, financial struggles, same-sex attraction questioning, white and Asian beauty standards, racism and/or colorism in the anime communities ( I thought Maya’s race was ambiguous at first. Because y’know many people think dark skin automatically equals Black. Though she had a bonnet, Maya looked more South Asian to me. Her mom and Grandma too.; when will mangakas tire of the Sambo lips, Lord only knows.

Oh yeah, a character tells Maya they don’t expect her to act Black so don’t expect them to act Asian. Whatcha mean there? Let’s unpack that. Battle of the racial stereotypes, bay-bee! Who will win?



Covering all those relevant issues bogged the story down. Many questions are raised but don't really get much commentary. I think, if the book were published into two parts, the narrative would have read smoother, or some issues should’ve been cut for sake of time.

Overall, mostly good. It’s like Chex Mix. The ending ties up the loose ends nicely.

3.5 ( )

Weeabo is a dense graphic novel written and drawn by two people of color, Alissa Sallah and Susie Lee. It's a series of interconnected stories about a trio of good friends during their senior year of high school. As they struggle to accept their authentic selves and what life after high school will offer, their friendship begins to feel the strain.

James is a Japanese-American emo kid being emotionally crushed by his verbally abusive mother, poverty, and family expectations. He faces microaggressions about his hertiage. Maya is an African-American girl who loves the Japanese Lolita lifestyle, but is convinced ther her natural looks aren't beautiful and faces racist internet trolls when they say that Black people can't be Lolitas. This bcomes even more painful accusation to Maya when James accuses her of being a weeaboo. Finally, there's Dan who is having a crisis of gender.

There's so much going on in this book that is very difficult to accept the ending. The character arcs feel forced into a neat box. It is especially difficult as the tribuluations that the three friends face are written too subtly sometimes particularly with Dan. It's not very clear why Dan pushes their friends away. Too much time was spent on the play (the story within the story) that it takes away pages from the main plot. It would have been better if more time was spent exploring how the friends' cosplay and alter egos helped them deal with real ostracization.

Weeaboo is valiant in tackling microaggressions that Blacks, Asians and Women face but the conclusion feels a little hallow for the number of pages in the book. ( )