Moe as an Insult

[kirarakim]

So this website I need to do this project is down so I decided to post on here instead about something that is bothering me. Lately I have been seeing more and more people call cute/sweet natured charactes Moe as an insult (and admittedly I am probably guilty of this myself.) I am talking about characters like Nia, Hagu, Ranka, etc. Okay don't get

Comments

[rukawagf]

ROFL that's kinda dumb if you bash ranka and nia for being 'sexually attractive' and not say Sheryl and Yoko has none. Sure their "moe" is different type, more mature specifically but to say they have no sexual appeal while ranka and nia are obviously "made" for sexual appeals bwahahahaha

that's pretty dumb. if that's what some of the fans are doing.

[kirarakim]

Well it's not so much they they deny Sheryl and Yoko's sexual appeal it's more that they don't seem to realize that Sheryl and Yoko's brand of fanservice is really similar in the end to Nia and Ranka's. It's a different type of fanservice but it is all still fanservice. It's a double standard in a way. They complain about one type of fanservice but not the other.

[rukawagf]

well yes. personally i think sheryl and yoko's appeals are more OBVIOUS but hey~ exactly what you said, double standards....

[kirarakim]

I like both Nia and Yoko because they are well written characters. But I dislike the "fanservice" aspect of both characters. So if you are going to bash Nia for being Moe but ignore the way Yoko is written this is what bothers me. And I see a lot of fans doing this.

[wao]

I'm THIS tempted to say it's some kind of western cultural thing against the "exploitation" of "submissive" girls, but I think it's too crude to just classify it as that. Nevertheless, there's obviously much less of a problem with this in Asian fan circles as far as I can see... at least among Asian males.

I can't stand it when people dislike cute-ish characters for that aspect alone either though - I'm certainly not a moe fan, but it reminds me of ignorant jerks who say "oh geez not more sissy japanese crap" because Japanese entertainment tends to portray girls differently. Talk about being narrow-minded... I dunno.

Also vaguely reminds me of when my eldest brother (who doesn't watch anime and is very standardly male) KEEPS saying "kawaii~~~" in this irritating, annoying voic whenever he sees me doing anything Japanese/anime related. And he totally ridiculed me when he saw my Princess Tutu boxset ;_; Granted, I was asking for it by leaving it out there.

[kirarakim]

I don't like when female characters are objectified for being submissive or when they are just "sex objects". Both are negative and to complain about one and not the other means you are missing the point about what is wrong with "fanservice" to begin with.

But I agree with you there is probably a cultural difference at work here.

And he totally ridiculed me when he saw my Princess Tutu boxset ;_; Granted, I was asking for it by leaving it out there.

But you are a girl, what's wrong with that? :)

Although I am surprised with how many guys I know who do really like Princess Tutu. In fact I am proud of the guys who can look past the "this is too girly" and who give it a chance. I really respect that.

[wao]

Yeah. 90% of Sheryl vs Ranka wars are really so full of hypocrisy it's hilarious...

As for the second bit - because it's Princess Tutu... well at the age of 18 (this was early this year), there's few girls displaying stuff like Princess Tutu, and much less anyone like me - I'm not very sterotypically girly. He probably found it hilarious that I had an anime with cute girls in tutus in it. And heck, the name "Princess Tutu" - I remember the days when I was ambivalent about watching it because of the name, oh what a good thing I watched it till the end because a friend insisted I had to...

[kirarakim]

Well okay that I can understand. I admit the title turned me off too at first because I thought it would be too sugary sweet. It wasn't until I saw "Hold Me Now" that I was like wow there is more to this then I thought. And of course Princess Tutu is very cute but there is an underlying darkness to the story as well. Actually I am not a big shoujo fan but the shoujo I do like tends to be a mixture of dark and cute. My other favorite one is Fruits Basket.

[csakuras]

WORD.

[schellibie]

(yeah I just had to use this icon)

It annoys me that you don't get as many well written female characters in popular media. I MAKES ME A SAD PANDA, because I love awesome ladies.

[kirarakim]

Well for me I don't like the whole Moe thing but I can like Moe characters if there is more to them besides this aspect.