Moe Loading
I have a few hypotheses about moe that I want to toss out there. They’re fun to think about so maybe this will be entertaining.
Throughout this post I will talk about Bayonetta as an example. Bayonetta is a relatively new video game out in Japan and soon in America, Europe and Australia. The title character (of same) is this tall, model-figure European(?) woman, with ankle-length black hair. She is a witch and she fights her enemies with guns akimbo (and more). If you ever played Devil May Cry you might find the concept familiar.
Moe is misunderstanding. I think before we do anything about moe we have to define it. But what is it? Before most of us were aware of the term, and definitely before almost all the bandwagoners, the Japanese were already debating hotly about what it is, and what attributes are associated with moe. Maybe we should take a clue from them…
Well, let’s take Yamakan’s answer for example. We can probably all agree to infer that the man had given it thought. He is both instrumental in creating what some call “moe” anime, and as someone who seems to fall into that kind of otaku demographic. If not, at the very least, he knows what makes otaku tick. It may be fair to say that his contribution to anime fandom both help to define moe and his works are also influenced by what is considered as moe, since they tend to be popular.
The man was unabashed during his Otakon 2009 visit a nary 5 months ago. Nonetheless, his answer to the question “what is moe” is basically the defensive answer given by many other creator-types for the press–it’s whatever you’re into.
Well, “if you like it it’s moe to you” is a fairly vague and broad answer, but let’s take a step further. Assume for a second it is an honest answer and not a PR “no comment” kind of answer, this must mean that the substantive descriptions of moe will run a gamut. Would it be fair to classify Shin Mazinger as a moe show using that definition? It certainly isn’t out of the question. How about Moetan? I think we all can agree. Hajime no Ippo? Sure. In fact, <insert your favorite thing> can be a moe show/thing/element/etc., for you. That is the kind of answer that Yamakan gave.
Of course, my favorite things are going to be different than your favorite things. So when I say Bayonetta the character is moe, you might think I’m talking out of my rear end, because what is moe to me is different than what is moe to you.
Moe is an aesthetic. Is Bayonetta moe to some people? Absolutely. As a game, it’s a stylish arcade beat-them-up/platformer. Students of John Woo’s school of cinematography might enjoy it. In fact, if we compare it to Devil May Cry, it is basically the “next version” to that line of games. People into DMC will enjoy it, I would safely guess. And surely you can safely guess that I am going to talk about Bayonetta the character right about now.
I don’t know if you know, but Japanese people’s sexual mores are different than many other cultural groups. I don’t know too many kind of giantess films (then again why would I?), but Japan is definitely a cultural outlet for that. In fact they made video games, anime, manga, and models(!) based on the idea of giant girls rampaging around in some city. Sometimes they only wear just a bikini, if that. It’s stuff of some people’s nightmares…and some people’s fantasies. It’s really odd, and it can also be really funny at times.
Here is where I mention that Bayonetta, the character, is ZOMGWTH tall. She’s not the height of apartment buildings, but some eager internet folks noticed how tall she seemed before the game’s release in Japan, and measured that she’s about, like, 10 feet tall, using promotional artwork. Japan is known for its cute visual aesthetics, but it is generally expressed through some kind of an ephebophilic appeal (for example). You know how it is, some cute girl that can be mistaken for a 8 to 14 year-old, but can be between a few days old to 100,000 years old (plot hole pending). But there is no 10-foot-tall Caucasian, adult woman that could channel that sort of aesthetic, 2D or 3D.
So let us move on to the other commonly known mode of defining what is moe–the aesthetic. I sort of described it as what is NOT Bayonetta, from above. It will definitely create a misunderstanding to talk about moe without separating these two ways of looking at the concept. When you read about moe as someone being innocent or worthy of being protected or asexual, you’re reading about the aesthetic side of it. On the other hand, it’s more confusing when you read about people talking condescendingly about moe, because they could be criticizing the aesthetic or the notion of anime that pander to specific groups of fans (the Yamakan definition).
Moe is more than an aesthetic. Here is where it gets interesting. We can take a poll at any given time, and see which anime or manga girls Japan’s otaku love best. For results, we will get a range of characters, each character with a set of attributes. Let’s say if you want to make a best-selling anime or manga, wouldn’t it be prudent to include some characters in your story that has these popular attributes? (Especially if the author him/herself also likes these things?) If you take that to the next logical leap, it means that the Japanese otaku-market will be filled with anime/manga/games with characters with these attributes. The actual methodology to determine what is popular can vary (I used a poll for example, reality is probably more crude), but in order to make stuff people like, creators will tend to stack the odds, so to speak, by loading on characteristics that please a specific demographic. It becomes some kind of feedback cycle that gets increasing specific as to how a work can cater to a specific category of fans.
[Thinking it through, it makes one thing clear about “harem” style stories (probably best typified by Love Hina). Late 90/early 2000 shows stack for odds by spreading out the odds instead of putting it in a focus category. This is why for about half of the decade we got shows that were “harem-feely” because you have all these characters that are quite different, and generally missing a lot of interpersonal chemistry once removed from the context of the protagonist. I think it’s a fair observation, maybe worth investigating.]
What does this mean? It means that the stuff a lot of otaku are into (ie., what is moe for them) are becoming a movement as seen in actual works (ie., moe anime). While it’s unclear if we can draw a line to define what the moe aesthetic is, a large category of shows that are similar share a large number of similar characteristics! It may not be a very rigorous similarity or overlap between all these shows that are aiming at the same otaku fanbase, but there is a similar vibe that many people can pick up, otaku or not.
Now, real criticism against “moe” to me means a criticism against this particular creation/marketing methodology. It’s not against the aesthetic. That’s silly–free speech and all, right? But at the same time, if we understand how this moe anime thing comes about, the term “fad” comes to mind because ultimately, what drives moe anime is the market. As long as there are people buying your favorite show to poop on, more of that kind of show will get made. But more importantly, as long as people are NOT making and buying the next best thing, there will be nothing to replace what is already proven popular. Thankfully, history shows that the next best thing will always come along, sooner or later.
And think about it. Bayonetta is DMC, the next generation. DMC originally is a fairly novel game, as it is first of its kind, in that very specific niche of 3D, style-based, platformer/beat-them-up. Now they slap some gun-touting, gorgeous babe on it and make it run on the next-generation consoles (and of course, making it better than ever in the process)… It’s only fitting of the times, right? Take what the market segment likes (in this case, as much as it is westerners as it is the Famitsu-4.0-hometown crowd) and slap it on a formula that we know that worked before. I just find it amusing that, being a fully Japanese game, Bayonetta (the character) is still carved out of well-known attributes that we can match from otaku shows. The Euro-giantess dark-haired goth-loli-ish witch. It’s both a compromise and a subversion, isn’t it?
So what is moe? It’s what the marketing gives to the fan, and the fan gives back in return something that’s kind of tangible, kind of not, more like something in the middle of a teleportation spell, Star Trek style. The marketing calls it that, labels things with it, and the rest of us accept it as a label, not sure what it means other than how it conjures meaning like what’s found within some bizarre Bermuda Triangle of otaku interests. It’s no wonder people debate it to no end and the likes of Yamakan retreat to some safe answer to make better use of his time.
[Thanks, SDS]
Corollaries:
Let’s take a side tour of casualties. The reason why you and I even care for the moe aesthetic is because it is popular, and it has become iconic. We see it pretty often. It’s gotten to the point that shows that aren’t concerned about moe would insert these things for one reason or another. Heck, it’s gotten to the point that you have an anime about moe, not just using what commonly classified as moe to sell, nor just referring to it on the 4th wall. Moe has got some kind of meaning, even if we might disagree on what it means.
But in the process there are some victims. I feel this is definitely the case for K-ON simply because it is strongly associated with that moe aesthetic, even when K-ON doesn’t particularly care for it. If you like cute teenage girls doing cute things and discovering the joy of playing in their first band, making music together, what’s wrong with that? Yet now it’s going to be associated with some market-generated popularity complex that unnecessarily adds to the overall context of the show. It’s probably not to K-ON or Kakifly’s benefits.
It’s probably a good lesson on avoiding unintentional social contexts? While I think K-ON does exist and makes the most sense in the context of 21st century moe-filled anime and manga scene, ultimately it’s still just a 4-koma manga and a matching adaptation about some high school girls. Maybe it lay on things too thickly.
Perhaps why I’m raising this point is that I think despite the bad rap moe-based show can have, to do well in that space creators still have to satisfy all elements that makes a show do well in just about any other space. In fact, my gut feeling says that the space is overcrowded right now. You can’t make a crappy thing sell just by slapping moe-riffic girls of all kinds on a title. I don’t read Negima, but I think its consistent readership can tell you better than I could why it is as successful as it is. Writing it off only as moe-laden junk is doing you a disservice.
Maybe people are just moe about battle manga, or koshien manga, or murder mysteries. /shrug.
Trying to define moe is a trap. Because you can’t really do it beyond a personal context, so unless you’re planning to do it empirically (would be pretty awesome if you do), it’s just much ado about nothing. It’s partly why I’m against writing about moe myself, and this post is probably written against my better judgment. The subject does make great troll bait however. It’s a much more preferable form of “your favorite anime things suck” if we reduce the formula further.
Database animal sees, database animal does. I think it’s quite the “database animal” behavior to talk about moe in a deconstructive way. Not going to name names, but it’s always laced with irony when I read discussions about this kind of stuff, as an attempt to point-and-laugh through systematic deconstruction. That is the wrong approach. The correct approach is more akin to this as we know nobody is taking it seriously, and those who do are part of the gag. I think if I really cared, I would have written an Onion-style piece. It’s hard because I’m not sure which way you would have to yank the perspective to make it sufficiently absurd for all parties involved, as the matter is not that cut and dry. Well, on second thought, it probably isn’t very difficult. HMMMM.
A part of the ambiguity about moe is that in reality moe hate has nothing to do with otaku. Etymologically, moe refers to a feeling, and last checked most humans have them. It’s only in the context of marketing stuff that panders to otaku that moe makes sense as a criticism, but then it’s a criticism toward the industry, and not to the fans. How can you really put on a straight face while blaming companies for making things people love? Did they miss the memo about the whole “lol animu is a marketing thing etc.”? I mean if I really love honey, nobody is going to call Haagen-Dazs moe pandering POS if they bring back their honey vanilla ice cream next summer, save for the most extreme of purist food snobs. Well, I guess that’s the kind of people that are raising a ruckus here too? That Onion article idea looks better than ever!
But then you have people point and say “Eew look at all the gross things on the internet!” as a way to justify why moe is bad. Wait, is this a valid counterargument? That there are gross people out there? Really? Well I guess I don’t have to write that Onion-style article if it’s already being written by itself! This is almost reminiscent of an exchange I had years ago with good o’ Avatar, about why industry people don’t want to have a big web presence (despite it was commercially foolish not to at the time IMO), because they have to deal with trolls, stupid fans who don’t have a clue how things work, people who have a cause (LOL dub or no sale LOL), and people with an axe to grind. Well, that’s a fair point, but it would be silly to say that everyone on the net falls into one of those categories, or even a large majority of these folks. I mean, for every gaggle that you can put in your log of anecdotes of “Bad Fans” there are probably a dozen more Subs or DotDashes out there, fighting the good fight. (No reasons why I singled those two out besides being level-headed people.) I think ADV/Section23 is relevant here because looking at their catalog, a lot of that stuff is blatantly the kind of shows that perpetrate the moe aesthetic, no matter how you define it. The Avatar man has reasons to fear, perhaps.
I think at some point in the discussion it feels like ultimately, we’re playing elitist on what kind of mind porn people are allowed to watch and like. It just has a bad vibe to it. I guess you could make a good case why (mind) porn is bad for you, but good luck tilting at that windmill.
One thing I always wanted to discuss (and it’s not so much a corollary) is how marketing through moe increase and change the composition of anime adaptations. Far most anime today are some kind of cross-market, media-mixed marketing scheme. “Selling toys” is the simple way to put it, but it’s more so “selling manga and novels and related IP merchandise.” It has all to do with how the print industry is still kind of the base line over in Japan. I think if a particular “moe oriented” title can guarantee an additional x copies sold if an 13 episode anime is produced, presuming it doesn’t become the next Saki and not the next show nobody cares about (ie., an average series), then there’s a gap where it becomes a good “bicycle” to churn out a stable number of anime with similar elements, based on similar titles, and it will give a steady cash flow. Well, even if one or more titles bomb, other titles have a chance to become a hit and recoup those losses. Is the industry overly reliant on these bicycles? Are there other bicycles that may be better or similar, that nobody is riding, because certain allegedly moe-invoking elements were in vogue earlier this decade?
Well, I don’t PERSONALLY have anything to fear, but I got laid off back in ‘05, and nobody complains to the contractor. ;p It’s worth mentioning that the subsequent collapse of just about everybody seems to have taken place with total disregard to companies’ particular marketing strategies.
The only problem with “moe proliferation” that I can see is that too often, you get it as a substitute for the things a show should have - plot, characterization, conflict, etc. Gravion is a good example of this… a show assembled by a marketing committee which carefully made sure each check box on its list was marked. Loli, check. Big busted girl, check. Ambiguously slashable guys, check. Maids, over nine thousand. Even competently done, there’s a ceiling on how well you can do with that sort of thing, and it actively prevents people from getting into the hobby - if you don’t already appreciate some parts of it, and have a good amount of tolerance for the rest, you aren’t going to be able to stomach it.
I don’t think this is the problem that it was, however. Sure, we still have moe, but recently you get more shows who tackle it as something they’re aware of - there might be a marketing committee somewhere in the background, but then a writer came in with the objective “okay, maids and lolis, but make it good!” There’s still some pure crap out there, always will be, but people are taking a post-modern look at moe and figuring out how to pull it off with style.
Or maybe they’re just calibrating their tsunderes correctly. Kagami and Taiga rather than Shana or Louise?
Well, I wasn’t sure about your personal circumstances, maybe I should remove the blarb now that you’ve commented.
And yes, they are getting better, in more ways than one. I think it’s because they have to be better in order to stay viable. But the struggle between written-by-committee and “getting it right” by whoever is a constant factor in any kind of mass media commercialization these days. Maybe we’re just seeing a side effect when it’s amped up by the magnitude that we’ve seen in terms of the flood of anime that came out the past 5 years.
I don’t really have anything to say about this post, not for the usual reason (having no idea wtf your talking about) but because you were so thorough and I agree so hard - awesome post.
In regards to Avatar’s post, remember, though, as part of the trend, a lot of people into moe don’t care about plot. PArt of the reason I was able to easily get into moe is because I don’t give two shits about the plot in a show, I need characters and voice acting and directing and music and all that other jazz. If moe can dance on my more important interests, it will exceed even the most plot-heavy shows out there (after all, I’m a guy who will take my Hidamari Sketch over my Legend of the Galactic Heroes any day.)
When this defense is put up, the only argument that can be pulled is that I ‘have no taste’, but I think the flaws in that argument are inherent in it. Point is, if people like me don’t want plots, and we are the majority, plots will not be delivered. Now, plots are coming back, and it’s coming in just the right way. The way anime is going right now is exactly what I want out of it, personally (especially with the Advent of the Lesbian)
First off, I think you’re spot on with pretty much everything here, Omo, especially the thing about creators learning more and more how to work within this “moe” environment to produce better shows.
As for Avatar’s comment, I think where it falters a little is the idea that Gravion is a “moe” show. It may have maids and young pale girls with blue hair and all, but Gravion is less a “moe” work and more of a “Masami Obari” work, in my opinion, and it has a quality to it that extends to nearly everything the man touches. What’s interesting here though is the idea that “fanservice” and “moe elements” have become somewhat conflated. Moe can be used in fanservice and vice versa for sure, but not every usage of a maid is a kind of moe, and the idea of a sexy/cute girl servant is something that I think extends even beyond anime.
What I’m basically saying is that as moe has become more iconic, we are seeing people associate things with moe that they would not have in the past.
To add to my last comment, not that I think Avatar himself is doing so but it’s interesting to watch moe become a sort of effigy upon which people can lay blame for the problems of anime over the past 10 years.
You already know that this is one of the things that gets me about what detractors say about moe, but yay for putting it in there. And as others have said, great post. :3
And I think bouncing off on what SDS said, I have to wonder how much the apparently more obvious “attempt to sell x products” in shows nowadays feeds the anger of people who dislike moe. I guess anime in earlier years were able to hide that “WE’RE IN IT MOSTLY TO MAKE MONEY” aspect that has been prevalent in the industry for a damn long while. Or were these older shows presenting a “more pure” aesthetic that it seems like people are also indirectly saying has disappeared now?
>What I’m basically saying is that as moe has become more iconic, we are seeing people associate things with moe that they would not have in the past.
I’ve fallen victim to this, but now that I think back, was that OK? I believe in the past the term had to describe some specific, otherwise they wouldn’t have picked 萌 but some other character or no character at all. Now that I’m reading this wall of tl;dr, it seems as though the term can’t be used to describe any set of aesthetics because its meaning has no common limitators. Moe is a dead term.
>> Moe is a dead term.
I think I was trying to say this in the very beginning.
For what it is worth your complaint about the industry is something that always has existed against a lot of Japanese business methods since the Bubble burst.
I tend to agree that there is some sort of industry & fan feedback loop currently operating, which is frankly not a bad business strategy if a company is focused on generating what it thinks is reliable revenue (see the rise of talent-centric, popularity-focused competition reality TV shows) but may not do much to inspire “thoughtful” programming, whatever that means.
I hope you don’t mind if I use the term “mind porn” in the future.
[…] Stop making it into something scientific and complex. This isn’t rocket science. Especially tl;dr. Sorry, I have a pet peeve for when people take something like a little stupid cartoon concept and […]
Wow you wrote a lot about something that probably could have been summed up as moe = fetish because that’s basically all it fucking is. It’s what people find attractive. The industry is just pandering to people’s fetishes and to hate it is to hate this fetish pandering. If it’s something other than that please explain it next time without so many words and easier for idiots like me to understand.
It’s not just a fetish, although it could be seen like a fetish.
I disagree that Yamakan’s answer is safe or vague or defensive. I think it’s actually fairly profound. It’s one of those simple, elegant definitions that initially seems to be too broad, but the more you think about it, the more you realise that it’s exactly right.
Completely unrelated, I find Bayonetta’s design absolutely repulsive, so I guess that particular game is outside my personal moespace. :P
EDIT: @Koji Oe: Fetish is a type of moe, but not all moe is fetishes.
Having just watched a bunch of episodes of “Know your Meme” (how did it take me this long to find it) I can’t help but draw comparisons to the cycle and propagations of memes; at least by the cycle that is presented during the mini webisodes Moe somewhat fits.
Introduction- I can’t even guess at the past history of moe since I am a relatively recent fan of anime. By yamakan’s definition it may have been around for a long time without a name given to it. Hell the name being given to it may have been what caused the next stage.
Overexposure- I like to think of this as saturation as well. The advent of what might be called strictly moe shows as well as the backlash of those who felt unhappy with the pandering it received. i.e. The K-On backlash. The exploitability of moe is without question. I feel like this would be the current stage of the moe meme.
Parody+Remix- At a gut reaction I would say I have seen some of this. As for examples I really can’t give you any. Certainly in random fan MADs and the like we might see this but as for an actual anime show I think the chances are significantly lower until they know they have a fanbase that would appreciate moe in a different context…or maybe this has already happened but the parodies are too close to the real thing that we can’t tell the difference so we purchase anyway.
Equilibrium- fuck if I know
When I look at it a little more critically the moe as we use it in this context may be a bit too broad to call a meme. I think somewhat it can be said though that so far it has followed a memetic cycle.
[…] the delicious perks of liking it. Maybe this is one aspect of moe that I’ve been hearing somewhere. Marketing strategy? Something to degrade the genre into something that would benefit the […]
I haven’t seen Know Your Meme so I can’t comment on that, but the thing about moe is that it’s a loose construct. Calling it “fetish” is shortchanging it, so it might be correct as to what NegativeZero is saying about moe encompasses fetish-based reactions but also more than what can be seen as fetishism. But that is a matter of “what is moe to you.” Again, maybe some people are moe about battle manga and koshien. I would hardly call either a fetish unless one’s love for them are manifested in some extremely odd ways, beyond my imagination.
This is very different than a meme. While meme can be used in a “growing” number of context, they generally are well-understood and universally-understood things for people that invoke them. I’m not sure how much of that applies to moe. And of course, the way meme spread is very different than how moe comes into the popular consciousness.
And I’m not sure how you can be “overexposed” to what. Moe is just what you like by one definition. If it’s not moe to you, it’s … not moe to you. If you use the term to refer to some over-used aesthetic, then sure, it’s overexposure. But it wouldn’t be right to consider it like a meme. Unless of course, the term itself can have some sort of meta-memetic nature.
You can’t be moe about something other than things that turn you on. You can’t be moe for battle manga, trains, mecha. We have an English word for this. It’s called interest. Enthusiast.
I just can’t see moe as something other than a fetish or quirk of a type of character people like. They’re called moeblobs for a reason. They’re superficial and have no value than the sum of the things that turn fans to them.
I think if we’re going to use English words that are rough translation of elusive Japanese terms (LOL), then moe would be better translated to charm points than fetishes. I mean it’s about cuteness or appeal than fetishes. The latter is not even an aesthetic half the time. Fetish is closer to genre or whatever people sort their porn by, and moe is a broader term than that.
And you can definitely feel moe about battle manga. There are a sizable number of people in Japan whose manga and anime diet consists solely of these kinds of titles. Yes, enthusiast is a word for these kinds of people, but you can see why any simple English terms would fail to define moe by themselves. And hey, it turns them on. The whole “moe is asexual” thing is actually rooted in that a lot of what turn people on is not considered pornographic or sexual on the surface.
In other words, your definition of moe is pretty much shit. In fact, you might as well just stick to those English terms, since they describes what you’re saying more precisely with no confusion.
Similarities or not you should check out Know you meme on youtube. It’s surprisingly informative and even funny at times. If you wanna know how things like Numa Numa started, the various parodies, it’s crossover to mainstream media, the meme’s exploitability, and it’s larger effect on the culture and history of the internet and memes themselves; then you should check it out.
So, basically, moe is basically “deep fanservice”? Where old-style Evangelion-era fanservice being a sort of surface gloss to the main product, moe is structural?
I think there’s some merit to that statement. Well, if we go by the emotional response line of thinking then “fetish” or “deep fanservice” both can achieve a “moe” effect. But that’s kind of thinking about it backwards. I think it doesn’t even have to be like that.
But you don’t fucking fap to battle manga. You have a strong interest in it. This is what I’m not getting. You people are associating having strong sexual interests in something with having a strong asexual interest in something. I don’t fucking say, “Japanese is moe because I really like the language.” What the hell does that even mean? Moe is just a fucking slang term for liking a particular type of anime character.
And, I think your definition is shit omo because I can’t even fucking understand what the hell you’re writing about. SDS’s article makes more fucking sense than this.
I’m sorry I don’t use fappability as a moe matrix, but I mean, isn’t it absurd to have this conversation? It’s like saying “no, otaku are not all dirty pedophiles!” (me) to someone who defines otaku as dirty pedophiles (you).
Put it this way, Yamakan’s definition wouldn’t work with yours. Or perhaps that’s the problem–you are defining what is moe to YOU, where as I’m not even trying to define what is moe. You probably thought I was.
[…] like Akamatsu Ken wanted to define as an irregular male feeling. Clearly, this goes against modern proposals. But why moe came into prominence to begin with was because anime fans wanted to express this […]
Nah, he’s defining moe as what it means for others, since he’s clearly all about defining the Other. As for battle-manga, though, he does have a point. People use a different bit of slang for that particular emotional complex - “gar”. Although I think he’s wrong about it being nonsexual. Especially since it originated in a textual corruption of “gay”. I’d argue that both concepts are about psychosexual displacement, sublimation. Most standard definitions of moe are protective in character, while gar is emulative. Different emotions being sublimated?
What I am saying is that I think he’s saying what he think what moe is, and that’s the definition of the word for him. I don’t really care if he thinks everyone should agree with him on that or not.
GAR is really a big joke. I don’t really think it’s worth mentioning beyond being an anecdote of the whole situation, or as a joke. If we go the route of “what emotion is moe?” then perhaps you are right.
Hell, “moe” is pretty much a big joke, too. It’s just a matter of who the joke’s on, I guess.
And I don’t think I agree with your statement. For some folks, definition is about self-analysis, self-understanding. For others, definition is an aggressive act - a form of control. And some people think of definition as communicative - building bridges. For the first group, subjectivity is not only acceptable, but inevitable. Commonality is only incidental to the search for light, and that light is only important for what it tells you about you. For the second group, subjectivity is a lie, and definitions are weapons to be forged and used against a hostile world which is conspiring against the besieged self. The last group feels the need for objective definitions, because they’re of an expansive mind-set which both needs to feel connected and needs to understand the world.
I have this one friend - with a post-grad math degree btw - with whom most serious conversations eventually terminate in a long debate on definition of terms. I pointed out this discussion to him, but I doubt he’s reading - I think he’s staffing AnimeUSA this weekend. But I’ve never been able to define moe to his satisfaction.
There’s definitely a humorous approach to moe. Or a dozen. It’s also the cash cow of a lot of people, so it’s by nature less of a joke. Not so with GAR.
I understand by what you mean with definition and bridges but it’s besides the point, which is why I don’t care.
Finally, a post about moe that’s unbiased and makes sense! Thank you for posting this. I think there’s several people out there that need to take a nice long look at this article.
[…] who are struggling at this time. For example when I watch anime shows I don’t really watch moe shows because that just doesn’t appeal to me much, at least not any more. Now growing to be nearly […]
[…] Omonomono on ‘moé’, an interesting read […]