I like moe and I’m not going to pretend that every now and then I don’t become infatuated by a character or two (<3 Felli) but lately I’ve been noticing that 1. this is becoming less and less the case and 2. having moe characters in a show isn’t enough to get me to support it. I’ve kind of stopped caring about a character’s appearance beyond whether their design isn’t repulsive; they don’t need to have some sort of gimmick (i.e TWIN DRILLS or zettai ryouiki) to get me to like them any more (not that that doesn’t help.) The same could be said for typical moe character traits. There are a few reasons why moe is having less of an effect on me than before.
Moe Is Everywhere
Every season you can count on the fact that at least 25% shows are going to have some form of moe characters in them and that at least half of these characters are going to be in high school. Then there’s the fact that for the past 2 years I’ve been watching whatever I could get my hands on including these moe + highschool combos. Just like if you watch enough violent shows you’ll become desensitized to violence, if I watch enough moe shows it’s only natural that after some point the moe’s going to have less of an effect on me. It’s just the fact that I’ve already had my numerous doses of moe characters that I still ❤ to this day; seeing NEW MODELS with ORIGINAL PARTS still doesn’t change the fact that I’ve seen most of what the “moe” theme in anime has to offer. Unless they simply present blobs of the pure essence of “moe” (oh wait, they already did that. PURE LOVE.), I want something with a bit more variety than clumsy girl falls over and I feel pity/THE URGE TO LAUGH PROTECT. Which brings me to my next point:
Moe’s A One Trick Pony
There’s only so much you can actaully do with moe before it gets stale (at the very least to some people) or irritating. After a certain point the dim-witted ditzy character stops being cute and starts being annoying. If they simply stay like that throughout the entire show, then will you still like them as a character? Not me. It’s kind of like commercial advetising: the basic message for moe is LIKE THIS CHARACTER like the basic message for advertising is BUY THIS PRODUCT, no matter how many bells and whistles you decorate it with. In my opinion, moe needs to be a way to make a character appealing at first glance so that after we’ve grown to like that character we can identify with them more when the emotional parts come along, or even just maybe having them do something that isn’t solely done for the sake of being moe. Clannad (eventually) did this well, as did Toradora. Hell, even Azumanga Daioh did it (being more quirky and amusing than moe). This kind of thing works and doesn’t seem as patronizing as the basic moe template where I’m expected to like a character based on the facial expressions they make.
It’s Not The Moe, It’s Me!
But this is all kind of subjective anyway. Through my development as an anime watcher I’ve come to look for different things in the shows I watch and though I still remain fairly open minded, moe’s one of the few themes that I just don’t find interesting anymore. I’m just looking for something a bit more substantial than moe these days. I’m sure that I do (and will) appreciate moe in controlled doses where it’s used to make a character endearing (again, ❤ Felli) but otherwise as a stand-alone tool to get me interested in a series, it’s getting to the point where it’s not enough.
And yet I’m still watching K-On. Weird.
omisyth is even tsundere for moe, how cute :p
Whether or not we like it, watching K-ON (or any hyped up Kyoto Animation show for that matter) is our duty as anime bloggers.
I don’t get the point: we know K-ON is crappy, we can admit it, analyze its flaws and strengths, and we can fanboy too. Is it a sin to be a balanced person?
No. Only a fan can do that. A fanboy, by definition, is going to be blind/kneejerk/etc.
@lelangir
is it a sin to say k-on! is crappy? Yes it is. Go and confess to the Holy Kyoto Church. Tell them I sent ya (I’ve been sending loads recently).
If you’ve been desensitised, I ought to be extra-sensitive to the stuff (I’m reminded of this, for some reason), since I don’t watch a lot of modern anime involving school-age characters.
Though it does amuse me to claim moe for things which aren’t even characters, like the ATM-09-ST Scopedog (unless you paint its shoulder red).
Moe is an amazing phenomenon that only (I think) anime is capable of invoking in viewers because of its visual nature. To lose interest in moe is to lose interest in anime!
Alright, fine.
I do not whether moe is a bad thing in anime but I have to say that anime shows are capable of surviving, even without using moe to invoke affectionate feelings in the audience. Maybe I am wrong, but I believe most works of the past are better preachers in good ol’ storytelling and they are pretty entertaining even without moe.
Try watching less moe-ish shows (they tend to be older works?), just good ol’ storytelling, and allow your moe tank take a break. Maybe by doing so, you can go back to appreciating moe orientated shows.
Eh, I agree. Moe’s alright but there’s too much of it and it’s really not needed. Moe just started to suck right after Maria+Holic.
Moe has been watered down to be so derivative and superficial now. In a lot of cases, it is all little more than just the character designs and the basic behavioural patterns (dojikko, tsundere, etc). The advertising analogy is a really good way to put it, since it does feel like in a lot of the worst cases that you’re having “you should like this character” barked at you (I had that strong feeling with Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu last year, which is why I almost felt repulsed by it before the end). There are cases where moe is more about rapport, growth and genuine charm, as I wrote about recently [/shameless self plug]. I know you didn’t think it was a form of moe, but I still consider it to be moe, just not so manufactured and formulaic.
@The Animanachronism
Yeah, but if you’ve never been affected by it to begin with, then you’re sensitivity to it will probably be just as low as it always has been. It’s a bit like diminishing returns. If you expose yourself to a crapload of it, it’ll probably never induce the same response as the first time, because people just naturally get tired of the same thing over and over. Anyway, the only reason why you’d expose yourself to a crapload of it to begin with was if you really liked your first experience with it.
Moe has changed. It’s no longer about lolis or even other anime fetishes. Moe has changed…
For the most part, I find myself hnnnnngh’ing a lot more these days; I really need to set a standard as to who to fawn over and for what ┐(‘~`;)┌
@nazarielle
Hauu~
@Baka-Raptor
If we don’t we lose respect and credibility. Which is an awful awful thing.
@lelangir
What jpmeyer said.
@animekritik
K-On is crappy.
@The Animanchronism
I’d doubt it, as if you haven’t seen many school-anime/moe and the like yet, it’s probably just not what your interested in. Perhaps you have Extra Moe Tolerance Syndrom. Or something.
@The Soujourner
When moe becomes a requirement for an anime to succeed, I will burn KyoAni to the ground. Because it will ALL be KyoAni’s fault.
@Aizen
Maria+Holic wasn’t moe, it was just lesbians and traps, neither of which are moe IMO.
@Sorrow-kun
Does anyone actually know where the word “moe” originated from? Perhaps then we’d be able to define moe. Though at this point in time I think it’s too late.
@Shin
Well, yeah, but that’s because you’re Shin. Shii~n
If you don’t like moe as much as before then try Higepiyo =]
@omisyth That’s where you’re wrong. K-On! was NOT wasted potential, the show did NOT use a by-the-numbers character setup, and the show certainly was NOT mediocre. You are mediocre. K-On! defined itself plenty effectively (as others have pointed out), and “Kaoishin-sama” was an incompetent blogger, same as yourself. Moe series in 2020 are more successful than any other genre not because of the aesthetic, but because the stories themselves are meaningful.
@baka-raptor Thank goodness your blog is a shadow of its former self. Your YouTube channel is similarly performing poorly. No one cares about your experiences and opinions, so you’re not fooling anyone when you claim you watch shows so we don’t have to.
@Sorrow-kun Go take your pseudo-intellectual nonsense and fuck yourself. Behind the Nihon Review is dead now, and with it, your deluded belief that you alone knew what was best for the anime industry. In fact, Behind the Nihon Review’s “editorials” on moe were manufactured and formulaic: it seems you and your incompetent writers couldn’t write a sentence without using the words “mediocre” or “bland”.
Well said, on all fronts. It seems like it took a while for people to finally see the good in K-On!, but I think more and more people are starting to see it’s strengths nowadays.
But alas, these blogs and comments are relics of their time; let us leave this banal crap to collect metaphorical dust.