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Moe`

Common look for characters that an otaku might consider "Moe". Picture from UFO Princess Valkyrie

Moe (萌え, Moe? mo'e/, pronounced "mo-eh"/ literally 'budding', as with a plant) is a Japanese slang word originally referring to fetish for or love for characters in video games or anime and manga. For example, 眼鏡っ娘萌え, meganekko-moe, "glasses-girl moe", describes a person who is attracted to fictional characters with eyeglasses. Since then, the term has come to be used as a general term for a hobby, mania or fetish (non-sexual) — 鉄道萌え, tetsudou-moe, "train moe", is simply a passionate interest in trains. A moekko is a character who could be considered stereotypically attractive — youthful and cute.
"Moe!" is also used within anime fandom, and even in some anime itself, as an interjection referring to a character the speaker considers to be a moekko. As with most aspects of fandom, manga and anime itself can be critical or supportive of moe otaku depending on a specific writer's opinion. Bishojo anime and "moe" are occasionally treated as synonymous 'genres', although this usually depends on the perception of how blatant the designed appeal of the show seems.
Both the spellings moe and moé are used in English. Readers of English unfamiliar with Japanese words may be inclined to confuse the standard romanization moe with the name Moe and try to pronounce it as one syllable. Some writers add an accent mark in an attempt to indicate that the word should be pronounced as two syllables.

Moe Features

The most common features include youthfulness as a physical trait (young age) or as an emotional trait (naive or innocent outlook) and some obvious sympathetic weakness the character works hard to correct.
However, most artists define moe not as a reference to a character so much as any personality that elicits a protective or loving response from the audience. Appearance aside, the personality of moekko can vary widely; a tomboy or a sarcastic cynic could be considered 'moe' given a specific audience. Some of the more popular moekko actually have a few traits that do not traditionally fit into the label, and others have gained such a following by accident.
For example, Kyoko Otonashi, Yomiko Readman, and Mizuho Kazami are in their twenties or older, yet are often technically considered moe although they are not very young girls. In more unusual situations, Guilty Gear's Bridget and Gundam's Loran Cehack (who are both very convincing male crossdressers) have famously been accepted by many moe fans as they fulfill many of the typical traits found in moekko.
Due to the upraising of female otaku, or fujoshi, the term may also be applied to male characters as well, commonly in shojo such as Ouran High School Host Club.

Perception

Although moe is strongly (sometimes negatively) identified with male fandom they can share characteristics of female lead characters in shoujo, especially uncertainty, cuteness, and innocence. Just as yaoi relationships usually feature an uke paired with a seme, moekko style girls are typically paired with oneesama in yuri. In addition many series have characters and themes which are remarkably similar to Shojo, although moe style series are initially aimed squarely at adult males due to most being on television during late broadcast hours.
"Moe" focusing on younger characters is often confused with or even equated with lolicon, and shota but for many fans there is a subtle yet distinct line that separates them. To many moe-loyalists, the point is on supporting and watching rather than to imagine being actively involved with the character, with sexual implications being awkward or distasteful. This is sometimes explained as having a 'big brother complex' (which ironically can also have sexual connotations). More generally, many fans insist moe is implicitly non-sexual but, like most types of manga and anime, is sexualized after the fact by other fans again.
Critics complain moe fandom tend to embrace characters who are nonthreatening and cute, or embrace a warped interpretation of some female characters in the form of a self-created idol.

Origin

The term's origin and etymology is unknown. Anime columnist John Oppliger has outlined several popular theories describing how the term would have stemmed from the name of anime heroines (such as Hotaru Tomoe from Sailor Moon or Moe Sagisawa from the 1993 anime Kyoryu Wakusei) . Others believe that it was a wordplay on "to burn" (燃える, moeru?), figuratively interpreted as "to burn with passion" (in other words, to be madly in love).
Some say that the popularity of the concept may have started with Hayao Miyazaki's Clarisse from his film The Castle of Cagliostro in the late 1970s. She was the first female character to be parodied in doujinshi, which later became a common practice for later female idols. The concept kept growing and reached its current form with the wave of fanservice-heavy shows in the anime market. These shows are often called "moe" shows.

Criticism

Famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, a feminist, is completely opposed to the often submissive qualities that these idols are portrayed with. His idea is to have female protagonists who are cute but who are also portrayed as very strong and resourceful as a response to more traditional gender roles. This view asserts that the otaku tended to assign a more traditional role to women often as a form of wish fulfillment. In response to the otaku fetishization of cute female characters Miyazaki stated:
"It's difficult. They immediately become the subjects of lolicon fetishism. In a sense, if we want to depict someone who is affirmative to us, we have no choice but to make them as lovely as possible. But now, there are too many people who shamelessly depict (such heroines) as if they just want (such girls) as pets, and things are escalating more and more."
The difference between the otaku view on cute females and Miyazaki's ideal (which was used as a basis for the otaku ideal) has been examined by some superflat artists, such as Cannabis' (aka Tatsuyuki Tanaka) "Linda^3" series in Cannabis Works, or according to some theories much of the imagery deconstructing the moe fetish (with Rei Ayanami being the idol in this work) in Hideaki Anno's Evangelion series.

Tagasaki	Latest page update: made by Tagasaki , Nov 13 2006, 8:52 AM EST (about this update About This Update Edited by Tagasaki view changes - complete history)
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