The Origin of Nattosoup
As I meet more and more people online, I find it curious that no one asks the origin of my screenname anymore. Five years ago, when I was an internet nobody, any time I signed up for a new service someone would ask me what "Nattosoup" means. Maybe it's the circles I run with now, or the demographic of the internet has changed, but I still feel compelled to explain my userhandle to the internet at large.
When I was seventeen, I was going through my first post-weeaboo stage. I'd finally realized that most of the manga I read was crap (Pita-ten, anyone?), and I was staging a personal rebellion. One of my first major rennovations was to try and sell off all the terrible manga that filled my shelf, and the second was to come up with a screenname devoid of anime characters.
I'd originally wanted FriedRice, but of course, that was taken. After much thought, I finally settled on something that had to do with natto. For those not in the know, natto are fermented soybeans, that when eaten PROPERLY leave a horrible snot like strand trailing behind each beany bite. Faannntastic. At the time, I thought something like natto soup would be implausible, since a soup would ruin all the fantastic qualities that make natto a super food. I have since been disabused of this notion. Anyway, these characteristics made Nattosoup seem like a stellar screenname- it was weeaboo with a wink, a nod to my past self and tongue in cheek. Like I said, I was seventeen. Not too smart.
Through the years, I've become fond of the handle Nattosoup. For a few years, I'd wanted to work androgenously, I wanted my comics to be appreciated as comics, not as 'comics by a GIRL'. Somehow I didn't take into account that internet detectives could hunt me down and reveal to the world that I am, in fact, female, and do, in fact, tend to dress 'like a girl'. Note to self: Don't give them a challenge. They LOVE a challenge. Now I am wiser, I still like the handle Nattosoup, and it connects all my internet persona. My AIM, my blog, my Twitter, my Etsy, even my Something Awful account are all Nattosoup. It's a nod to who I was years ago, a rebellious little anime fanatic, that's not so embarassing anymore.
When I was seventeen, I was going through my first post-weeaboo stage. I'd finally realized that most of the manga I read was crap (Pita-ten, anyone?), and I was staging a personal rebellion. One of my first major rennovations was to try and sell off all the terrible manga that filled my shelf, and the second was to come up with a screenname devoid of anime characters.
I'd originally wanted FriedRice, but of course, that was taken. After much thought, I finally settled on something that had to do with natto. For those not in the know, natto are fermented soybeans, that when eaten PROPERLY leave a horrible snot like strand trailing behind each beany bite. Faannntastic. At the time, I thought something like natto soup would be implausible, since a soup would ruin all the fantastic qualities that make natto a super food. I have since been disabused of this notion. Anyway, these characteristics made Nattosoup seem like a stellar screenname- it was weeaboo with a wink, a nod to my past self and tongue in cheek. Like I said, I was seventeen. Not too smart.
Through the years, I've become fond of the handle Nattosoup. For a few years, I'd wanted to work androgenously, I wanted my comics to be appreciated as comics, not as 'comics by a GIRL'. Somehow I didn't take into account that internet detectives could hunt me down and reveal to the world that I am, in fact, female, and do, in fact, tend to dress 'like a girl'. Note to self: Don't give them a challenge. They LOVE a challenge. Now I am wiser, I still like the handle Nattosoup, and it connects all my internet persona. My AIM, my blog, my Twitter, my Etsy, even my Something Awful account are all Nattosoup. It's a nod to who I was years ago, a rebellious little anime fanatic, that's not so embarassing anymore.
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