| Part of a series on |
| Anime andmanga |
|---|
 |
 Anime and manga portal |
Moe (Japanese:萌え;pronounced[mo.e]ⓘ), sometimes romanized asmoé, is a Japanese word that refers to feelings of strong affection mainly towards characters inmanga,anime,video games, and other media directed at theotaku market.Moe has also gained usage for feelings of affection towards any subject.
Moe is related toneoteny and the feeling of "cuteness" a character can evoke. The wordmoe originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Japan and is of uncertain origin, although there are several theories on how it came into use.Moe characters have expanded through Japanese media, and the concept has been commercialised. Contests, both online and in the real world, exist formoe-styled things, including one run by one of theJapanese game rating boards. Various notable commentators such asTamaki Saitō,Hiroki Azuma, andKazuya Tsurumaki have also given their take onmoe and its meaning.
Moe used in slang refers to feelings of affection, adoration, devotion, and excitement felt towards characters that appear inmanga,anime, video games, and other media (usually Japanese). Characters that elicit feelings ofmoe are called "moe characters".[1][2] The word has also evolved to be used regarding all kinds of topics.[3][4][5] Included in the meaning of the word is the idea that "deep feelings felt towards a particular subject" is used in cases where a simple "like" is not enough to express the feeling.[2] The common feature in all feelings ofmoe is that the subject of such feelings is something that one cannot possibly have a real relationship with, like a fictional character, apop idol, or an inorganic substance. It can be considered a kind of "pseudo-romance",[3] but it is not always seen to be the same as "romance".[3][5]
The term's origin andetymology are unknown. Anime columnistJohn Oppliger has outlined several popular theories describing how the term would have stemmed from the name of anime heroines, such asHotaru Tomoe fromSailor Moon (Tomoe is written as土萌, relevant kanji is the same) or Moe Sagisawa from the 1993 animeKyōryū Wakusei.[6] The term first became popular in 1993-94 among users of Japanesebulletin board systems.[7][8]
PsychologistTamaki Saitō identifies it as coming from the Japanese word for "budding", moeru (萌える).[9] Ken Kitabayashi of theNomura Research Institute has definedmoe as "being strongly attracted to one's ideals".[7] Kitabayashi has identified the wordmoe to be a pun with the Japanesegodan and ichidan verbs for 'to sprout', moyasu (萌やす)/ moeru (萌える), and theirhomophone 'to burn' (in the sense of one's heart burning, or burning with passion), moyasu (燃やす)/ moeru (燃える).[7]
Anthropologist Patrick Galbraith cites Morikawa Kaichirō, who argues that the term came frominternet message boards such asNIFTY-Serve and Tokyo BBS in the 1990s, from fans discussingbishõjo (beautiful girl) characters.[10] Galbraith argues thatmoe has its roots in the development ofbishõjo characters in Japanese subcultures in the 1970s and 80s.[11] This was exemplified in thelolicon boom of the 1980s, a "fertile ground" for the "budding desire for fictional characters".[12][11]
Comiket organiser Ichikawa Koichi has describedLum fromUrusei Yatsura as being both the source ofmoe and the firsttsundere.[13] The character of Clarisse fromHayao Miyazaki'sThe Castle of Cagliostro (1979) has also been cited as a potential ancestral example,[14] with Lupin acting like an older brother to Clarisse and taunting Count Cagliostro for marrying someone half his age. According to culture criticHiroki Azuma, asRei Ayanami fromNeon Genesis Evangelion became a more prominent character among fans, she "changed the rules" governing what people regarded asmoe-inspiring. The industry has since created many characters which share her traits of pale skin, blue hair and a "quiet personality".[15]
.png)
Moe characters have expanded within the Japanese media market. In 2003, the market formoe media such as printed media, video, and games was worth 88 billion yen; roughly one-third of the estimated 290 billion yenotaku market in Japan.[16] In 2009, Brad Rice, editor-in-chief ofJapanator, said that "moe has literally become an economic force" saying that more products use some element ofmoe in order to sell better. Rice also goes on to say thatmoe is used to get anime and manga works out to "hardcore fans who buy excessive amounts of items related to the character of their desire."[17]
John Oppliger fromAnimeNation traced the first decade of the 2000s as the time whenmoe became increasingly popular and recognized. Commercialization was a result of interest that followed, andmoe evolved from being a non-sexual desire to being a sexually sublimated fascination with cuteness. Oppliger goes on to say thatmoe shifted entirely from an interchange between character and viewer, to a focused fetish of viewers. Examples used by Oppliger include the series;K-On,Lucky Star, andMoetan where he points out they are "revolved around adorable, whimsical, clumsy, early-adolescent girl characters in order to evoke, enflame, and manipulate the interests and affections of viewers." Rather than evokingmoe feelings, they were literallymoe characters that had defining characteristics of themoe style. Oppliger referred to these girl characters as "adorably cute, just a bit sexually appealing, and self-conscious but not yet cynical" going on to say that they demand notice and adoration, rather than passively earning it.[18]
Withmoe anthropomorphism,moe characteristics are applied to give human elements to non-human objects. TheGradius video game series features a spaceship namedVic Viper. For a spin-off game,moe is applied toVic Viper to createOtomedius.[19]
Sometimes feelings ofmoe towards fictional characters include "sexual excitement", or are understood in the context where "lots of beautiful girls and boobs appear."[20][21] In these cases, feelings of pure affection that gradually become stronger over time can lead to these feelings oferoticism.[22]
Queer theorist Yuu Matsuura says that sexual desire oriented to such characters differs from a desire toward humans.[23][24]
Moe, however, is also considered to be distinct from pure lust. While small amounts of lust is generally consideredmoe, a feeling that focuses too heavily on lust is considered outside the scope ofmoe.[22] According to commentator,Tōru Honda [ja] who considersmoe to be "romance within one's head", the ideal kind of love withinmoe is "romantic love".[25]
Several informal contests or rankings for characters considered to bemoe exist on the Internet. One such contest is theAnime Saimoe Tournament, organized by members of the textboard2channel, which ran every year from 2002, until its cancellation after the 2014 contest due to declining interest.[26]Moe characters from thefiscal year starting 1 July and ending 30 June the following year were eligible. Each tournament had at least 280moe characters.[27] Spin-offs of the Saimoe Tournament include RPG Saimoe, which has video game characters, and SaiGAR, a competition between the "manliest men of anime".[28] In 2006 and 2007, the Saimoe Tournament became an increasingly international event; 2channel users obliged foreignotaku by putting up an English version of their rules page.[27] TheInternational Saimoe League, also known as ISML, is another onlinemoe popularity contest that is for a worldwide audience.[29] The contest started in 2008 and was held annually. Initially, only female characters were eligible, a male exhibition tournament was added in 2011, which would take place after the end of the main tournament. It was made into an official tournament alongside the female characters in 2015.[30]
Moe contests also exist in magazine publications, and in the real world. The Moe Game Awards are given annually tobishōjo games published that year in various categories, such asbackground music,character design,fandisc,graphics, anderotic content. They were started in 2006 as the Bishōjo Game Awards, but their name was changed to Moe Game Awards in 2009.[31][better source needed] It is sponsored by the Japanese game rating boardEthics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS) and is described by them as "an R18 game industry version of theAcademy Awards".[32] Magazines that havemoe contests in them include the Japanese magazineDengeki Moeoh which runs a column called "Moeoh Rankings" (萌王ランキング) and features the top 10moe characters of the month, as determined by reader votes.[33]
There are various interpretations of the concept ofmoe,[3][34] and the subject has been heavily discussed.[35] PsychologistTamaki Saitō considers themoe used byotaku to be the embodiment of their particular kind of sexuality.[36] Saitō points out that whileotaku creations fulfill an abnormal impression of sexuality, fewotaku actually apply this impression to real life.[36] He thus argues thatmoe is something that sustains the otaku's sexuality within a fictional world, with the fiction itself being their subject of desire and having no need for reality.[37]
On the other hand, criticHiroki Azuma rejects Saitō's argument as "too complicated."[38] Azuma argues that "tomoe" is simply the act of analyzing each of the character'smoe characteristics and expanding on those characteristics within the mind, and thus differs from mere feelings of empathy.[39] These characteristics can be physical ones, such ascat ears or amaid costume,[40] or a personality archetype, such as that of the characterRei Ayanami.[15] Azuma sees this process as anotaku's act of satisfying their desires among their limited relations, and considers it to be part of a broader trend of "animalization," or the fulfillment of small desires isolated from the context of agrand narrative.[41] Azuma, therefore, simplifies Saitō's idea ofmoe into the idea of attaining signals of sexual excitement within an isolated environment, similar to the act of training an animal.[42]
In contrast, Tōru Honda argues against the idea thatmoe is simply "the act of arousal in response to signals, and thus animalization" and argues that this interpretation does not allow one to recall the essence ofmoe.[43] Honda considersmoe to be the act of remembering ideals among the background signals, an act of necessity that arose as the romance rejected by religion continued to be supported by materialism, and thus interprets it as a mental activity relevant to the contexts of mythology and religion.[44] Furthermore, Honda asserts that this "animalization" phenomenon only arose after the "economic bubble" period of Japan, when people consumed real romance- and sex-like products,[43] and says that sincemoe is commonly interpreted to be in competition with the act of searching for romance in real life, it is thus the antithesis of male-dominant machoism.[45] Also, while Saitō does not distinguishmoe from more violent types of sexual abnormalities and speaks ofmoe in the context of "sentō bishōjo" (beautiful fighting girl),[46] Honda on the other hand treatsmoe as the polar opposite of the hunter-ish kind of sexuality featuring in more fiendish works like those byHenry Darger.[47]
Anime directorKazuya Tsurumaki definesmoe to be "the act of filling in missing information about characters on one's own." Accepting this view, writerJunji Hotta [ja] explains that characters are born from human instinct, which is the exact reason why one can be charmed by them much more than one could by real people.[48]Toshio Okada says that while he himself has not fully understoodmoe, he defines it as not simply being stirred emotionally by beautiful girls, but also as the meta-viewpoint of seeing oneself falling into such a state.[49]
InThe Moe Manifesto,[50] anthropologist Patrick Galbraith definesmoe as an affective response to fictional characters or representations of them. The applications of this definition are widespread to political, economic, and cultural discourses. For an example in practice, Matthew Brummer describes how Japan's Self Defense Force utilizes popular culture and themoe that it engenders to shape public perceptions of the military establishment: The Manga Military.[51]
