Nonetheless, very interesting essay, particularly for it’s Miyazaki quote. I’d like to see more discussion about the merchandising and modern commoditization of moe. The rise of the moedern otaku moe phenomenon’s coincidence with the Eva-dojin and ero-game boom is something I’d like to understand better, especially as it relates to my own (still somewhat hazy) ideas on how to understand moe and it’s relationship to anime culture in general.

I do object (mildly and diffidently) to the characterization of moe as commodity form it’s inception. I think as it is related to the rise of “modern moe”, the “commercial moe” is inexorably linked. However if we think of moe as emotion or that which elicits emotion, then moe is no more intrinsically a commodity than “love” and “loveable”. Certainly the publication of “Love Story” in the 60s (or was it 70s?) sold it’s audience on the idea of “romantic western love reaffirmed” by it’s very title. Heart shaped Valentines Day chocolate boxes likewise trade in the commodity of love. Yet the concept of love is primarily an emotional, relational, and narrative entity. “Romantic western love” as a commodity only exists to be bough sold and advertised after it has been communicated, internalized and understood. I suspect the same is true of moe.

If we restrict the definition of moe to the hyper commercialization and celebration of a previously existing tendency in anime culture, which itself was a specific Japanese cultural expression of a more universal human tendency, then I buy it (pun intended). Personally I’d like to take the opposite tack and use to convinient moniker “moe” to speak to the larger phenomenon, and distinguish sub trends such as “modern moe” and “commercial moe”, simply because we don’t have a word for that larger trend. Also because insightful analysis of the “modern moe” such as Shingo’s taxonomy of the Moe image are exceedingly handy in discussing all of these older artifacts, texts, trends and images.

That’s all. ^_^

so yes it is pure evil.

then again plenty of things makes people happy, it just depends on whether or not they’ll end up regretting it or if they’ll hurt someone else.

Has any super-famous person actually written anything about it? Akamatsu is completely untrustworthy, but Patrick Macias/ABe are definitely on the opposite side of biased.

ABe… Well, you could say he’s… Probably quite neutral, maybe against. He did make one short satire about Maids, which is absolutely hilarious.

Has any super-famous person actually written anything about it? Akamatsu is completely untrustworthy, but Patrick Macias/ABe are definitely on the opposite side of biased.

In my interview with Patrick Macias, I asked him about moe. In short, he said it was “evil.”

“moe” is a term that’s rather foreign to the old school otakus (defined by Toshio Okada’s generation)

Thus far, it appears that it’s producers who’re having the upper term at controlling the discourse of moe as compared to the consumers.

Upon reading the most recent piece posted on the site, Moe As A Commodity, I was reminded of a strange self-premonition that was revealed to me at the most inopportune moment: while in Nipponbashi/Den-Den Town perusing low-cost PVC figures.
……

The reaction a person has towards revealing his own weaknesses, even to a fictional one, may be empowering, may be comforting, or may even be erotic.

If you mean characters that are blatently designed to appeal to peoples’ fetishes with the idea of “ero moe,” I think that this is a case of the company trying to dictate that their product is automatically moe and therefore you should like it because it is moe.

There’s a lot more to discuss, of course. Due to the very fact that its meaning is inexact and the fact that it’s tied to Japanese consumer culture which is in itself a gigantic topic, hell, there could be a whole moe dissertation should someone choose to pursue that (not me).

http://textfiend.net/zerohero/index.php/2006/11/17/otaku-evolution-part-iii-universal-century/

Perhaps, SDS should have included GalGames in his analysis of the moe-culture to understand where the pure moe ended and the ero moe began.

Keep the goods coming, Shingo.

(They will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.)

Has any super-famous person actually written anything about it? Akamatsu is completely untrustworthy, but Patrick Macias/ABe are definitely on the opposite side of biased.