After watching Ore no Imouto Episode 7 and the past incidents with a certain commenter on my blog started posting strongly biased comments against the moe genre. Well in reality, most anime fans don’t really care about the moe but care about the characters, story, animation and/or music. Also, the strong elitist hatred towards a genre could be destructive for the whole Anime Fandom.
As demonstrated in the arguments between Kirino and Kuroneko over the kind of shows they watch, it shows the obsessive side of the fandom. Nevertheless, genre elitism is harsher in real life with bashing of titles, making fun of/bullying fans of a genre, have strong feelings of hate and saying that anime is dying because of it. Moe seems to get so much unnecessary blame to the point that I feel the need to defend the genre even though I am completely neutral to the genre.
What is “moe” exactly? Moe is a feeling of cuteness over a specific quality of a character. This can range from the stuff they wear (e.g. glasses, maid outfit, cat ears), appearance and behavior. So, why would haters hate something that is so cute? Well there are reasons ranging from the lack of manliness, shows that lacks plot (categorizing slice of life with moe), disgusted by the 2D otaku interests or finds it stupid. It’s okay for people to express their opinions about the genre in a rational and intelligent way. However, bashing it by spreading false information or FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) to scare fans from watching it is neither rational nor intelligent; I think it’s pretty foolish.
I view moe as the whip cream of a sundae. It is not a significant factor when I decide what shows to watch. The enjoyment, character development, animation, and plot are the things I look for when I watch a show. Like the whip cream on a sundae, moe is simply an enhancement for a show. For instance, Suzumiya Haruhi and Hayate no Gotoku incorporate characters with moe to drive the comedy in an effective way. For instance, Mikuru being forced to wear specific outfits for a movie for the club and the numerous times Hayate is forced to crossdress. These moments are meant to appeal to the viewer while maintaining their interest.
Moe being viewed as a mindless genre of Anime is simply a myth. Like every show in any genre, they can have a deep and emotional storylines. For example, even though Air had a lot of cute girls, each girl has an emotional and deep story. Misuzu had the most tragic and sympathetic story with the origins of her curse as shown with her affection towards her mother and reaching her “goal.” While some shows that have moe like Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh does not have a real plot, it simply doesn’t represent the genre. Moe like slice of life is a genre that does not stand alone, but go along with other genres like comedy, action, drama, mystery and so on.
Since I mentioned Slice of Life, most haters of the genre seem to pair it with moe as a mindless genre. The issue is, slice of life does not mean moe as I stated in my editorial on the Slice of Life genre a few months ago. This means that any show including action and mecha genre can use the slice of life format to tell the story. Some might not even realize that slice of life plot development is a lot slower compared to shows that have different method of storytelling. Therefore, I think the arguments that slice of life is mindless genre is not valid.
The problem I see with the hate towards genre is the “it is popular, so it sucks” attitude. It was resulted in the moe genre rising towards popularity during those years, especially after 2006. As a result, shows with the moe element became a punching bag for all the anime problems from the genre elitists. Reasons ranged from the lack of action, hot blooded and mecha anime. I think the problem lies with the person’s prejudiced attitudes or hatred for the moe element since they are closed minded, they never tried it or against their interest.
Moreover, I don’t agree that fans of intelligent anime think that moe sucks because it is so ironic. It is more like anti-moe elitists who cannot tolerate moe hates the genre. It is not fair to just blame a genre of shows for all the Anime problems just because you hate it. It has to do with the economies of scale, which ultimately decides what shows studios should produce. In addition, the Anime Industry is still suffering from the wounds of recession. So, how you will feel if someone come up to you and say, “Intelligent fans hate hot blooded shouen anime” or “hot blooded shouen anime is the cancer that is killing anime” because there is a lack of romantic harem comedies? You will probably be upset too. Lastly, I think the anti-moe elitists have a feeling of insecurity based on the things I mentioned previously. They feel the need to bash moe so they would feel better about the shows they love.
Likewise, I see the blame of “x is the cancer that is killing anime” in a different perspective. I do not think moe is the cancer that is killing anime; it is the elitist genre haters that hate a specific genre religiously are killing anime and the fandom. They do not realize that the animation companies are not catering for the western crowd, they are catering to the Japanese audience. There are still going to be action and mecha shows out there, but most of the resources are going to focus on moe comedies, romantic/harem and visual novel adaptations. So, I don’t really see the point of wasting energy on bashing/hating a genre when there are still shows they could still watch.
In the end, I think it is better off to stop hating and stick to the genre of anime you like or watch western shows. Then again, I highly doubt this will happen so it is better to ignore that part of the fandom and just enjoy the shows that you enjoy. Everyone needs to agree to disagree and stop making preview post bashing a show in a certain genre or bash a genre just to get attention. The blogosphere is chaotic enough already with the outrage from the Otaku Elimination Game, Amagami SS controversy, OreImouto Episode 4 fanservice and the hate; we don’t need any more drama.
Just to be fair, I don’t hate any genre of Anime out there. There are only a few genres I don’t care for like mecha for instance.
I totally agree, what else could I say? I’m used to many elitists belittling me. I decided to stop writing about this topic because it was getting too negative, because when you focus on haters it always gets negative.
It’s become even normal for elitists to crudely insult fans, and not only in forums or blogs. Tim “Maughan” Mahjong said in ANN’s spring preview that a certain show was for “sexually immature men-children” And it’s perfectly fine for ANN to have that in their preview, it’s as if it was just the natural thing to do to insult moe fans, or fans of certain genres that are not considered to hold a certain status
As you say, the anime industry is facing certain circumstances. I don’t know much about the economy or the anime industry in particular. But to blame moe for this? I wonder who’s a more negative influence, those who actually watch and enjoy anime be it moe or anything else, or those who seem to not enjoy any anime. Because some blogs are only about making fun of shows (usually moe) and their viewers, they hardly ever write a post saying “I loved X show!!!”
I feel pretty sympathetic to what happen in your past… Fortunately, I haven’t received elitist bullying me (besides one) for various reasons. I participate mainly at the AnimeSuki forums, which surprisingly has a lot of people who like moe. I only came across a few posts that hated moe, but does not give a reason why they don’t like it such as in this post. I tend to brush the negativity off since I tend to ignore bullies since I was bullied in the past in High School…
Moe as the blame of the Anime Industry problems are ludicrous and irrational. Stories with moe can still be badass, such as Shana. The problem lies with the few genre elitists who hate the genre, since I haven’t heard much about it except a few bloggers… unless I’m not looking close enough. Blaming the problem on one genre is just idiotic.
In the end, all genres going to have a strong and weak point. Its better to just enjoy what you like to watch and just forget about negativity since the elitists are going to be viewed badly at the end, not the fans.
As a fan of both types of anime, both moe-themed anime and the Evangelions and Cowboy Bebops that the anti-moe elitists are always clamouring for, I’ve gotta say that it pains me to see so many anime fans, as well as a lot of big-name anime journalists, so bent on belittling the moe fandom, because somehow their cartoons are better.
And it comes to a head when you see major journalistic entities in the anime world like OtakuUSA and ANN publish articles like this (The Kissxsis preview in particular) with this kind of ignorant, condescending language, written by people with a clear agenda against moe.
These people, at least the ones who aren’t just jumping on the bandwagon, actually believe they’re doing the anime community a favor, and the major journalistic entities seem to value the opinions of these people moreso than that of anyone who enjoys moe, whether reasonable or not, and we thus get a biased outlook on moe from the major journalistic powers, perpetuating the growing anti-moe contingent.
Its pretty interesting that fans aren’t the only ones that are guilty of this, but journalists who write for ANN and OtakuUSA write negative stuff like you mentioned, which is basically spreading FUD. Also some of reasons why Americans don’t like Anime explains why Americans would have a hard time getting to Anime… From the articles you mention, I think its crosses the line, not reasons of Anime being different, but not being open minded and think its immoral to do X or do Y.
The problem is, the stuff shown in the Anime is fiction, it’s not going to happen in real life. Perhaps the journalists won’t listen or give biased opinions since they are motivated by money to write stuff about anime, even if its negative. I think the Anime Blogosphere is a better voice of the Anime fandom than ANN or OtakuUSA since we understand and love the stuff we watch.
I’m going to have to disagree with this quoted line highly. If elitist hatred can go as far as to destroy something, then I would have to conclude that whatever was destroyed never had a strong support base to begin with. I do firmly believe that if an art form can endure repeated bouts of harsh criticism and still come out of it alive, then it’s a testament to some trait of the art form, be it a strong plot or whatever its proponents see in it, that assures that it can survive the test of time.
To draw from music, when Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was first performed, it caused a riot! People were enraged and felt so strongly about that work that it caused public disorder. And yet, here we are, nearly 100 years later, and that piece has survived on its own merits as people began to appreciate how musically adventurous it was.
You have a good point there… since popular titles like Lucky Star and K-ON in the moe genre frequently gets highly criticized by the haters… but they still remain highly acclaimed and popular… There is a strong fan base compared to the number of haters, which is nil. So, I guess it’s a lot stronger than it was originally conceived to be.
But that is only part of the argument. Fear, uncertainty and doubt against the moe genre with the journalists is a big problem like spreading false information about the iPad to make people not buy it even though it’s a great device (I know since I own one). False information about the genre gives the fan who doesn’t know much about the genre repeat/take in the same false facts and makes the fandom angry… but besides from that, the moe genre is strong and here to stay despite criticism from the haters, which is a minority.
Why is everyone trying to insinuate that OreImo is a moe anime anyway? Strange…
Anyways, I am also one who stands for neutrality. Why can’t we all just get along and enjoy OreImo for what it is? It shouldn’t be that hard, right?
I don’t know why either…. I guess the elitist hates moe so much that they need to insinuate it. This comment is one of the people who tried to pull this crap… If they don’t like it, why just leave it alone? Maybe because they like to seek attention to piss people off…
I agree, everyone needs to enjoy it like it is and stop complaining on every gritty detail… it isn’t that hard to do… but yeah, haters gonna hate.
I meant to comment on this post sooner but it’s been a crazy week for me =P
Anyway, I’m planning to write a similar post one of these days, so I won’t say too much here. Basically I agree with most of your points. Anime is meant to be enjoyed by a Japanese audience and is not meant to always be intelligent, artistic entertainment in the eyes of Westerners. If having moe elements in shows is marketable, companies are going to do it. Some of the best anime combine fan pandering elements together with creative storylines and developed characters. Some plot-less ones like K-ON! and AzuDai are just meant to relax with. But the point is that anime, like TV, has a variety of genres and there’s nothing wrong with preferring another genre over moe. But anime fans are already looked down upon as it is, so all this extra hate for moe within the fandom itself is not a good thing.
Can’t wait to read it once it comes out, but I do agree with your points. Plotless shows are usually the enjoyable ones that don’t require that much explanation to enjoy it.
I think the hate is unnecessary considering how much hate there towards Anime. Its like having a wave and another wave go on top of that.
Thanks for this editorial. I think another possible reason for the hate against the moe genre could be the elitist desire to make anime more acceptable to the general population, which in turn would bring in more fans. And I can certainly understand shows depicting cute girls doing cute things, even without the fan services or suggestive themes, would not appeal to those not having any understanding of this medium. Since these elitists cannot control what is being produce in Japan or what fans like, they are resorting to making their bias opinion as loud as possible hoping it will tilt the situation to their favor.
I agree. No matter what the elitists do, Anime is still a niche. Sure there are several mainstream titles like Naruto and Bleach, but Anime is just those two titles. There are many obscure titles that could be entertaining and have a great story line. I think they should just let it go and just watch the shows they like since there is no persuading the companies to make titles they like. The companies are just doing titles that will make money and do well in their bottom line.
Cool now I know whats Moe and slice of life. I was wondering what the heck that was. But let me say this, I dont really, really like Loli-con or Echii. I think those genres are really disgusting D: especially Loli-con. I think certain things do not need to be tolerated just because it’s Anime(which I like soo much) and it’s “kawaii”
-Concerned person for some of the otakus that like those Genre
While I could take a certain amount of fan service, I tend to avoid most series that are mostly ecchi since sometimes I find it pretty distracting to the overall story. However, there were some certain exceptions that I toughed it out since it was at tolerable levels.