The Moé Manifesto Read online

After Gundam came Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (1982 –1983), again praised for its realistic robots, but at the same time featuring extended scenes of melodramatic romance. In his book, Bishojo no gendaishi (Contemporary history of bishojo), published in 2004, Sasakibara Go goes as far as to argue that the narrative drive of Macross is the love triangle, not the battle with invading space aliens. For all of their attention to mechanical design and battle sequences, Macross fans pay equal attention to the beautiful character designs and idol performances included in the work. The production of this mash-up work, and its popularity among anime fans, can be seen as evidence of interest at the time in both robots and bishojo.

  While anime specialty magazines such as Gekkan Out, Animec, and Animage were publishing articles about the booming interest in bishojo characters in the early 1980s, fans were seeking out cute female characters in TV anime such as Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982–1983) and Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (1983–1984). Creators were shocked that the number of adult male fans had swelled to the point that THE MOE

  ´ MANIFESTO

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  they were forming fan

  clubs for favorite char-

  acters and appearing

  at promotional events.

  Enthusiasm for bishojo

  characters gave birth

  to magazines like

  Lemon People (from

  1981), and games and

  animation like Lolita

  EIJI

  Syndrome (1983) and

  SUKAT OY

  Lolita Anime (1984).

  EST

  UR

  An important fo-

  OC

  rum for expressing

  affection for fi ctional

  characters was

  provided by Manga

  Burikko (1982–1985),

  a subcultural maga-

  zine that included

  manga in various

  Manga Burikko

  styles, from realistic, gritty drawings to

  cute illustrations of bishojo. From June to August 1983, Manga Burikko published a column by Nakamori Akio, mentioned above, that made fun of fans of Azuma Hideo, Minky Momo, and lolicon fanzines (so-called Lolita-complex works, which feature youthful or young-looking characters), calling these fans otaku. This was the fi rst time the word had been used in the media to describe manga and anime fans, and the criticism seemed to be aimed squarely at the readers of the magazine. Naturally, there was blowback, and the reader response section of Manga Burikko became a forum for discussing the appropriateness of affection for fi ctional characters.

  INTRODUCTION

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  Because Manga Burikko marketed itself as a “Bishojo Comic Magazine for Dreaming Boys” ( yume miru otoko no ko no tame no bishojo komikkushi), it is not surprising to fi nd that most of its readers supported love for fi ctional characters—what we might now call moé. The author of one letter published in the August 1983 issue goes so far as to call himself, with more than a hint of pride, someone with a “two-dimensional complex” ( nijigen konpurekkusu). In time, Nakamori’s column was canceled, and the fans got what they wanted: more bishojo characters and less fl ack for loving them.

  In another inter-

  esting development,

  the realistic drawings

  that were once part

  of Manga Burikko gave

  way to a softer shojo-

  manga aesthetic.

  Otsuka Eiji, the edi-

  tor of Manga Burikko,

  was a fan of shojo

  manga himself, and

  EIJI

  the magazine regu-

  SUKAT OY

  larly featured con-

  EST

  UR

  tributions by female

  OC

  manga artists such

  as Okazaki Kyoko,

  Shirakura Yumi, and

  Sakurazawa Erika.

  Manga Burikko was

  also a platform for

  male artists who

  were appropriating

  the style of female

  Takanezawa Moé in Manga Burikko

  THE MOE

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  artists, much as Azuma Hideo did in the 1970s, and this resulted in further evolution of the bishojo character.

  Take for example the August 1983 issue of Manga Burikko, where Hayasaka Miki, a male artist, uses four color pages to introduce a girl character named Takanezawa Moé (notice the name). On the third page, Moé’s elder sister, a female manga artist, is revealed to be in charge of taking some photos of Moé for this spread in Manga Burikko. What the viewer is seeing on the page in the drawings by Hayasaka are the “photos” taken by Moé’s elder sister. In drawing what the older sister saw through the camera’s viewfi nder, Hayasaka is not just drawing a girl in a style inspired by girls’ comics, but he is also visualizing Moé from the viewpoint of a girl.

  Character design and desiring reached new heights in the 1990s with the manga series Sailor Moon (1991–1997), which, though written by Takeuchi Naoko—a woman—for young

  women and girls, explicitly calls its main heroine a bishojo.

  The cute, round character designs that were used for the TV anime (1992–1997) attracted many adult male fans. Also in the 1990s, the bishojo character moved from niche, subcultural, otaku publications to mainstream manga magazines.

  Bishojo games, in which players “date” bishojo characters—

  often called dating simulator games outside Japan—also reached a non- otaku market when Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial was ported to the PlayStation in 1995. Finally, the success of TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996) saw an ex-ponential growth in demand for fi gurines of its main female characters. As stores began to carry bishojo games, fanzines, and fi gurines, the Tokyo district of Akihabara transformed into the center of moé culture.

  In 2004, a report by the Nomura Research Institute revealed that sales of manga, anime, and games were strong in the 1990s, despite an economic recession in Japan, and called INTRODUCTION

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  AMAMAA

  OKOKYBY

  TION BTIONAR

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  DTD., ILT

  CO

  IO CO., LIO

  NRA

  © SANR©S

  P OOP PY PYPYB B

  ON ITTIONARATRSTSULULLLIL I, I,S

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  Astro Boy and Hello Kitty

  y

  revamped as moé characters

  cters

  THE MOE

  ´ MANIFESTO

  TO

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  for the “revaluation” of otaku. Japan was ready to reconcile with its outcast sons, as can be seen from the social excite-ment around the Densha otoko (Train Man) novel, fi lm, and TV series (2004–2006) about true love between an otaku and a career woman. The fi nal episode of the TV series drew an astonishing 25.5 percent of the national audience, and Japan scholar Alisa Freedman notes that otaku were now positioned in the media as potential dates for lonely women. At the same time, some otaku protested the normative message of Densha otoko—grow up and get a date!—and planted signs in Akihabara reading “Real Otaku Don’t Get Hot for the Three-Dimensional” ( somo somo shinjitsu no wota wa 3D ni yokujo shimasen).

  Regardless, following memorable scenes of the protagonist of Densha otoko blissfully saying “Moé!” the word became popular in the media in 2005. What followed was a “moé boom,”

  where nationally beloved characters such as Astro Boy and Hel
lo Kitty were recast as moé characters, which is to say revamped by artists popular with otaku.

  Newsweek Japan in its March 21, 2007 issue devoted its cover story to the spread of manga, anime, and games around the globe, a phenomenon it called the “moé world”

  ( moeru sekai). But American fans preferring sci-fi and mecha were not so sure what to make of all these cute girls in their anime. The April 2009 issue of Otaku USA magazine features a special report on moé in which American otaku experts give their opinions. One of them, Daryl Surat, calls moé “a sham, a heroin substitute to the narcotic they call ‘love’” and “the Dark Side of the Otaku Force.” In a separate blog post, manga critic Jason Thompson writes about feeling ashamed by moé, which he associates with a Japanese obsession with cuteness and youth. Many of the debates hinge on moé media’s melodramatic emphasis on human relationships and the INTRODUCTION

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  shallowness and

  excitability of moé

  otaku, which recalls

  the disdain that

  traditional sci-fi

  TD.

  fans held for fans of

  O., L

  S C

  Mobile Suit Gundam

  TIONAC

  decades ago.

  This book, The

  MMUNIO

  Moé Manifesto, has a

  KYU C

  title that brings back

  C., HANN

  memories for me. I

  K, IEE

  remember marching

  SWWE

  with the Revolution-

  © N

  ary Moé Advocates

  Alliance ( kakumei-

  teki moé shugisha

  domei) on the streets

  of Akihabara on June

  Moé in the headlines

  30, 2007. I remember

  men and women,

  young and not so young, dressed up as anime characters or in the classic attire of Japanese student radicals of the 1960s.

  I remember people joining the march, and their numbers swelling to fi ve hundred people. I remember singing and dancing as well-practiced political slogans trailed off to be replaced by the growing roar of the crowd. One group near me shouted over and over again, “Let me keep my Haruhi!”

  referring to the main female character of the anime series The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. Many women, and some men, were dressed up as Haruhi.

  This revolutionary moé alliance came together in shared love of fi ctional characters, and in protest to developments THE MOE

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  in Akihabara aimed at curtailing public displays of affection for characters (in which people would dress in character costume and make a spectacle of themselves singing and dancing in the street), which were said to be disturbing to businesses and tourists. What these protesters wanted was to maintain the space where they could publicly express their love for bishojo like Haruhi. Years later, I was at an anime convention in the United States, and saw fi rsthand the criticism of so-called moé otaku, who there, too, were thought to be somehow disruptive and disturbing.

  After all this time, I still can’t quite understand the position of the anti- moé camp, which calls certain fans “moé pigs”

  or worse. Why should it matter so much if someone is in love with a character and wants to share that love with others?

  Such actions aren’t harming anyone, and in fact might be both helping the individual and invigorating the manga and anime industries and fan communities. Love is never an easy thing to understand, and it can be embarrassing to watch the silly things that people do when they are in love, but I for one think we should embrace love rather than condemn it.

  I decided to call this book The Moé Manifesto in hopes of capturing some of the spirit of camaraderie that I felt on the streets of Akihabara in 2007. Let me speak as an advocate of moé, and propose an alliance between all those who love manga, anime and games. It is no secret that I love anime; beginning when I was fourteen years old, I started tattoo-ing my favorite characters, all bishojo, on my body. I personally fi nd that I have a lot in common with Japanese fans of moé media. It’s too easy to draw lines in the sand and point fi ngers at those who are different; sci-fi fans did so with Gundam fans, Nakamori Akio with otaku, and some American otaku with moé otaku. Rather than push others away, I wonder if it might be more fun to enjoy manga and anime together.

  INTRODUCTION

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  Think about Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, an anime that brought mecha and bishojo fans together, and that brought me together with some of my best friends, none of whom are into moé. Manga and anime spread around the world because of fans who love and share them. Let’s not turn to hate.

  When I was younger, my hero was Okada Toshio, an anime producer who was once called the King of Otaku. I still respect Okada, but I increasingly disagree with him. For example, Okada has made it clear that he does not like moé, which he considers merely an obsession with cute girl characters by superfi cial fans. To me, that characterization is unfair.

  Few people are as sincere in their love of manga, anime, and games as those I encountered in Akihabara. Even if their love is for characters rather than the work as a whole, why should that make them superfi cial? All this talk about love brings up OO

  CHY

  NNA DY B

  PH

  RAGOTO

  PH

  The Revolutionary Moé Advocates Alliance marches in Akihabara THE MOE

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  my second problem with Okada’s critique: I don’t think the moé phenomenon can simply explained as ogling cute girls.

  That doesn’t explain Hayasaka Miki drawing from the perspective of his character’s elder sister, or men dressing up as Haruhi on the streets of Akihabara, or the impulse to marry a fi ctional character. Something else is going on here, something that we’ve missed in our rush to judge and trivialize.

  The Moé Manifesto aims to provide a space to linger on the issue of love for fi ctional characters. It provides interviews with artists and creators, cultural critics, fans, and scholars. The focus of the interviews is primarily Japanese men considered otaku, because the image of the Japanese male otaku crystallizes social anxiety about moé. When talking about moé, the interviewees often take a political stance; some are critical while others are supportive. The reader will notice that I have also included interviews with women, for example Ito Noizi, who draws Haruhi. Women have long been involved in the production of bishojo characters (which therefore can’t rightly be described as male fetishes), and they have interesting things to say about Japanese male otaku and moé. The point is to expand the range of opinions that we hear about moé so that we can see beyond stereotypes and open up room for discussion. Contrary to the opinion expressed through James Franco in 30 Rock, moé is not something that we should just have a laugh about and move on.

  In a book of this size it is impossible to offer a complete survey of all aspects of the phenomenon, but I hope that The Moé Manifesto provokes a debate about moé and the possibil-ity of a different kind of love.

  And so it begins.

  Patrick W. Galbraith

  INTRODUCTION

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  Interview with

  Ito Kimio

  Ito Kimio, born in 1951, is a

  pro fessor at Kyoto University

  Graduate School of Letters.

  His area of academic specializa-

  tion is cultural sociology, and he

  is one of the founders of “Men’s

  Studies” ( danseigaku) in Japan. Ito


  believes that although gender

  roles have changed in the post-

  industrial world, this is more true

  for women than for men, who

  still tend to be defi ned by a nar-

  row set of expectations. The ideal

  man in Japan, for example, re-

  mains the salaryman, who is pro-

  ductive at work and a provider at

  home. In this interview, Ito recalls

  his personal anxiety about mas-

  culinity as a young man growing

  up in the 1960s and 1970s. At that

  time, surrounded by a militant

  student movement and on the

  NNA

  cusp of adult manhood, Ito took

  CHUM S

  pleasure in things feminine, such

  ZT

  FRI

  as shojo manga (manga for girls),

  Y B

  PH

  and sought in them an alterna-

  RAGO

  tive to masculine bravado.

  TO

  PH

  MOE MANIFESTO

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  From

  Social Movements

  to

  Shojo Manga

  An Alternative to Masculine Bravado

  Patrick W. Galbraith (PG): What do you research?

  Ito Kimio (IK): My research is on politics in a broad sense. Not political parties and voting, but rather the everyday politics of oppression, resistance, and compromise. I observe issues of authority and power relations in culture. I mean culture in a broad sense too—as in the way of thinking about and looking at things.

  So my work at the broadest level is about politics and cultur p

  e,

  ,

  and I’m particularly interested in the

  the

  effect of politics and culture on men

  en

  and masculinity in Japan.

  PG: You have also written on popular

  ular

  culture.

  IK: I have written several books on

  n

  manga and anime as part of my

  larger interest in boys’ culture.

  SEUMU

  You might not be aware of this,

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