Moe, Revisited

The characters of K-ON! a recent popular moe series.

Every once in a while a butthurt fanboy (there haven't been any fangirls that I know of, yet) will get on my case because I make it quite clear that I don't like moe. I'm not ashamed of that. I know it's sort of trendy to hate on moe these days, especially since it's become a genre in and of itself rather than an aspect of certain series. Honestly, though, I'm not trying to jump on some bandwagon just for the sake of slamming a certain (extremely vocal) section of the anime fan-base. I have my own good reasons.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about when I say "moe" (and no, I'm not talking about the barkeep on The Simpsons; the "e" is pronounced as well - mo-e), it's a Japanese term referring to the protective feeling one gets when presented with something small, cute and vulnerable. Like a little sister. At least, this is the traditional definition. As time went on, characters began to be boiled down to what traits made them moe. Things like cat ears (nekomimi), glasses (megane) and even personality traits (tsundere) were distinguished as being especially attractive.

Senjougahara defines her own personality with a common moe trait in a comedic moment.

The problem that I have now with moe is that, more often than not, characters are defined by their moe traits rather than actually undergoing character development, and just the idea of that completely grates on my nerves. Moe has become just a lazy shortcut to get people who are in love with a certain character type to watch the show and buy merch. I'm not going to fault a company for doing what it needs to do to make money, but on the other hand, I'm not going to congratulate an anime production or rate it highly for being artless and pandering and taking the lazy route as far as its characters are concerned.

Before I conclude the post, though, I will say that there are a few series that I would classify as "moe" that don't completely drive me insane. One is Lucky Star, which I enjoyed simply because it's very self-aware - Konata, the main character and otaku extraordinaire, sees the world (including her own friends) through moe-colored glasses and the humor comes from the fact that she's not really what one would call the "typical" moe fan. The venerable Azumanga Daioh, which many modern fans might not even classify as "moe" even though the main characters run the gamut of moe traits, still stands as one of the most charming and heartfelt slice-of-life comedies out there.

Lucky star, a comedic moe series that plays around with moe character types.

Unfortunately, most moe series remind me of that scene in Welcome to the NHK where Satou and his friend are trying to design a main character for their eroge and end up making her some sort of alien loli robot maid from the future - for the most part moe is an appeal to certain demographics for the purpose of attracting consumers, nothing more. And I don't have to be okay with it.