The Anti-Moé Brigade are experts at spinning an argument in their favor. Granted, the moé fandom doesn’t speak up as much as they should, but to an extent, I can understand the aversion to debating the subject with the Anti-Moé Brigade, particularly because of the way they approach it.
There’s something to be said about a show that can draw a genuine emotional response from the viewer. When every element of a show, from the story, to the characters, is working to make the viewer feel a certain way, and succeeds, it’s a testament to the kind of power a well-crafted anime has. At times, moé is a major factor in playing with the viewer’s emotions.
Two anime in particular, Clannad and School Days, have managed a strategic use of moé that, coupled with the show’s story, tugs at just the right heartstrings at just the right time to elicit a true emotional response out of me.
This article with undoubtedly contain hardcore spoilers for both Clannad, Clannad: After Story, and School Days.
Hit the jump and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
There’s a big debate surrounding the subject of moé and sex. The Anti-Moé Brigade is adamant in the notion that moé is a sexual thing. The moé fandom, on the other hand, can’t seem to agree whether moé is partially sexual, or completely nonsexual.
This time, however, the Anti-Moé Brigade is facing in the right direction. Of course, their rhetoric is still misguided.
The Anti-Moé Brigade, for all their touted intellectualism, has, for the most part, been very resistant to any actual discussion about moé. They’ll certainly talk about how much it moé sucks and how horrible it is that we aren’t getting more REDLINEs and Cowboy Bebops, but when it comes to actually discussing moé, intellectualism seems to take a back seat to plain old anti-otakuism.
(Bonus content at the bottom, courtesy of the Anti-Moé Brigade)
I recently watched (and reviewed) the 2009 anime film, REDLINE. Pockets of the Anti-Moé Brigade have showered it with massive amounts of praise, so much that I decided to check it out and see what the hype was all about.
This film deserves none of the praise that was given to it.
Code Geass is one of my favorite anime, and as with all of my favorite anime, the characters are a big part of what made the show for me. Code Geass had a lot of characters, most of which were very well-implemented, but one in particular stands out to me as possibly one of my favorite characters.
That character is C.C.
Yosuga no Sora helped put arc-based harem anime on the map, with its branching episode structure. Its four heroines each have very well-done, fleshed-out paths, and bring the branching style of eroge to anime.
Sora Kasugano is the twin sister of main character Haruka Kasugano. Though she’s spoiled, jealous, and possessive, she became my favorite character as I watched the series.
Howdy!
Time Enforcer Anubis here with more on moé!
No matter what your personal definition of moé is, I’m sure everyone can agree that the purpose of moé, generally speaking, is to make characters appeal to the viewer. It’s a group of strategies employed to endear characters to the viewer. According to the Anti-Moé Brigade, however, moé is killing anime. How is it that a simple group of tropes meant to make characters more compelling to viewers is what’s killing anime? As far as I see, moé can only be good for anime.
This is an old post I originally wrote for the now-defunct Moé Coalition site. The site has since been taking down by the owner, but I’ve managed to salvage some of my posts. This is one of them.
Howdy!
Time Enforcer Anubis here with more talk about moe!
Moe anime and fanservice often go hand-in-hand. Not always, but often, and especially when the Anti-Moe Brigade’s talking about either.
Fanservice is a strange word nowadays. Fanservice used to encompass everything from drawn-out action scenes to elaborate transformation sequences to, of course, pantyshots. Anything that’s a service to fans, really. But lately, it’s been used exclusively to describe sexually-charged imagery, usually with the qualifier “Mindless” to make it sound worse than it is, which brings up a point about the Anti-Moe Brigade.
“Mindless fanservice” is used as a value judgement, as it’s become characteristic of the Anti-Moe Brigade to value “deep” or “thoughtful” anime over all else. It’s the reason they claim moe “enables bad storytelling” despite it having been proven time and time again that anime can exist without a story, but to them, story is everything, and pandering to the fanbase is only okay if that fanbase isn’t the moe fanbase.
It’s actually really convenient for the Anti-Moe Brigade that fanservice has taken on its narrower meaning. It means that they can never be accused of enjoying the “mindless fanservice” they claim is ruining anime. Gurren Lagann remains a great anime, even though it’s nothing but “mindless fanservice,” going by the old definition. However, even on the new definition, there’s a double-standard. How does moe fanservice end up “harmful” to the industry, but BL and yaoi get looked upon as some kind of necessary evil? The “I’m not into it, but I see it’s appeal” type of acceptance. Where is the line drawn? I’ve heard BL and yaoi equated to some sort of “moe for girls,” but there’s no stigma associated with it. Everyone who isn’t into it just accepts that it exists and disregards it like any other anime they’re not into. When something described as “moe for girls” gets accepted as legitimate, while “moe for boys” is something that must be destroyed, that’s called sexism. I really hope we’re not going back to sexism.
The phrase “Mindless Fanservice,” and the complaints put forth about fanservice by the Anti-Moe Brigade, are nothing more than just more swipes at moe, and it embodies multiple hypocrisies and double-standards present within the Anti-Moe Brigade’s rhetoric. While a lot of fanservice anime is indeed mindless, that alone doesn’t make it any better or worse than any other kind of anime.
‘Till next time!
Email: SLCmail.Anubis@gmail.com
