(Picture of Ink from Moetan)

On any given night, around 1:30 AM or so, a surprisingly large amount of anime programs will air on a variety of Japanese television channels.  The majority of these programs, most likely, are oriented to the only people who would be awake to see them: otaku.  Otaku, an honorific that is particularly distant and formal in Japanese, which is saying something, was widely used by a variety of so-called nerds and became the name with which they are identified.  This term, generally believed and used in America to mean “anime fan” is in fact applied to any sort of “fanship” be it anime, the comics known as manga, or mechanical devices.  There is, however, one specific area that has taken the anime industry by storm and swept over otakudom: moe.

Not a member of The Three Stooges, “mo-eh” is, in part, what may be the peak of the Japanese obsession with cuteness or things that are kawaii.  The widespread nature and implementation of cute character design in everything from food products to Japanese Self-Defense Force promotions is highly unusual to most Americans, who have a mixed response at best to such upbeat motifs.  As kawaii is such a dominating force, it is surely a major part of the way of moe, but it is only the surface element.  The next important element involves youth.

Youth is an important element in Japanese society, as it is usually an essential factor in cuteness, but it is also much more related with sexual appeal than in Western society.  Sexual morays in Japanese society are widely known to be different than the US, especially in the much reduced and even what can amount to a total lack of hypocrisy when in comes to the appeal of underage girls.  While Americans like to act like females have no sexual appeal until they turn “legal,” the Japanese do not.  To put it another way, Americans like imitation schoolgirls, Japanese go for the real thing.  Another important distinction is how young Japanese tastes may lean to.  The concept of the Lolita is surprising unknown in the US as is the whole concept of sexual appeal as related to preteens aka the Lolita complex or lolicon, in Japan.  Whereas, in America, professing the appeal of the Lolita is a quick way to get labeled a pedophile and be offered an extended tour of our latest prison facilities, Japanese people with at least some degree of lolicon interests are pretty easy to find, especially amongst the aforementioned otaku.  An important distinction is to be noted that lolicons and pedophiles are not synonymous: a pedophile is an abusive predator, a lolicon is not.  In fact, many lolicons profess no interest in underage children at all.  The important factor of their interest lies in the next element of moe: fiction.

While it is occasionally used towards actual living people, proper usage of moe is explicitly towards fictional characters, most likely from anime, manga, visual novels or videogames.  It is through fiction that moe characters can gain defining character elements that may or may not have real life analogs.  Meganekko (glasses girls), tsundere (hot & cold personality), yandere (timid, loving and psychotic) and nekomimi (cat-ears) are but a few of the fetish-like characteristics that moe characters may have.  Japanese sexuality has a history of fetishism, as seen in classic Japanese artwork such as Hokusai’s The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, and it continues through today.  The important distinction between the fetishism of lolicons and “moerers” is that the proper usage of moe is in reference to nonsexual love.  

A simple way to describe this love is, as mangaka (manga artist) Ken Akamatsu states “moe is a maternal affection which…males have been left with.”  To expand and perhaps finally clarify, moe is a burning passion to love and protect cute female (sometimes male) characters.  It is a one-sided love, in that the character does not (cannot) love you back outside of the context of the mediums they are contained in.  This relationship is also highly positive in that it is an adoration that will never be betrayed and there are no ulterior motives.  It is worship on a scale beyond the religious and a feeling to be admired.  It is also a scourge that is destroying all it comes across.

Surprise, it’s a twist the likes of a Twilight Zone episode directed by M. Night Shyamalan!  I’ve defended it; now to destroy it.  Moe is a product of alienation in that is a reaction to it.  Otaku are often rejected by other people in society, even in the Mother Country, and their interests are usually solitary pursuits.  This can combine with other factors and escalate to the point of becoming a hikikomori, a person with essentially zero face to face social interaction.  When you are rejected by so many, what better thing than to latch onto people that will not treat you that way?  

Naturally, it is also a force that has swept otaku interests.  In April 2006, for example, fifty new animated shows premiered; the majority of which being moe-oriented.  Incredible numbers for any medium and even more incredible that so many of them trod the same area of generic moe-oriented little girl designs.  A glut of such similar product makes the common and unfounded argument that all anime look the same perilously close to coming true.  The medium has, in a way, devolved, in that while there are still many excellent works being made, the majority has been subsumed with works that are mostly self-indulgent tripe.  One of the tenets of moe, as stated by Shingo of the site Heisei Democracy is “The First Law of Moe-A moe character cannot be aware of her own appeal.”  By pandering with characters that are just walking fetishes, they create only ones that are fun for a few and then forgotten.  Moe as a creative element has really already reached its likely apexes in such series as Azumanga Daioh, Yotsuba&!, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu and the Lolita heavy Kodomo no Jikan, so it is perhaps likely that the obsession will lessen soon, but there are few signs of it doing so.

Should mo-eh go-aweh?  As an otaku and near hikikomori myself, I certainly have a valid opinion that it needs to be reduced drastically as it has subsumed what otakudom is.  Just as valid is the plain fact that these are Japanese works that are rarely officially released from their homeland and so we American fans have little to no right to complain or tell them what to make or watch.  We’ll just have to wait for that message from another time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzy1RNJBUo4