Ask John: Is Stella Jogakuin C3-bu the Next Moé Hit?

Question:
I’ve been enjoying Stella Women’s Academy High School Division Class C3 so far. It’s got the “cute girls doing cute things” vibe and it’s from GAINAX, the studio behind Neon Genesis Evagelion. I was wondering, is C3 the next moe hit ala Girls Und Panzer or K-On! ?

Answer:
Judging by the first three episodes of Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu, I’m going to conjecture that no, the show is not destined to become the next big moé anime hit. K-On, for example, grabbed audience attention from the outset with highly attractive art design, smooth animation, and most importantly affective characterizations. The cast of K-On was entirely comprised of girls that teen and young adult male viewers would want to have as either girlfriends or little sisters. The girls of K-On are all adorably cute, and each of them has a subtle vulnerability that makes them particularly “moé.” Similarly, Girls Und Panzer revolves around a masculine concept but remains highly feminine. Petite girls aren’t normally associated with militarism or manning a tank in combat exercises, but the Girls Und Panzer anime inverted convention by depicting militarism as a means of developing femininity. Although the animation and art design of Girls Und Panzer wasn’t quite as crisp or striking as K-On, it was still impressive, and moreover, the female cast of Girls Und Panzer still had that same K-On style characteristic of moé vulnerability. C3-bu, however, lacks the subtly typifying characteristics of K-On, Girls Und Panzer, and even Lucky Star, Strike Witches, and Sora no Woto.

Despite having Gainax animation, and we should recollect that Gainax productions including Medaka Box, Shikabane Hime, and Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai have not turned into breakout hits, C3-bu does not have the crisp, sharp, realistic art design nor the unusually fluid animation of K-On or Girls Und Panzer. C3-bu has an aesthetic much closer to this year’s excellent but widely overlooked Kotoura-san bishoujo anime. Similarly, C3-bu may be called visually and stylistically comparable to last year’s Upotte television anime, which was successful but not a breakout hit. The cast of C3-bu refer to themselves as “hentai” girls, strange, non-conformist girls. They’re not vulnerable, feminine girls that inspire a moé impulse to hug and protect them; they’re outgoing, aggressive girls, which is the antithesis of conventional moé. Protagonist Yura Yamato does have some anxiety, but her fear of exclusion isn’t pitiful; it doesn’t inspire moé pity the way Tomoko Kuroki’s fear of exclusion does in WataMote. The girls of C3-bu congregate because of a shared enthusiasm, not because they compliment each other and compensate for each other’s weaknesses as the casts of Lucky Star, K-On, Strike Witches, and Girls Und Panzer do. Lucky Star became a smash hit in part because it revolved around otaku girls. The C3-bu girls are also otaku, albeit airsoft otaku instead of anime otaku, but the difference is that Konata Izumi and Kagami & Tsukasa Hiiragi still had vulnerable feminine quirks that made them appealing and attractive to male viewers. Pardon the bluntness of the expression; the cast of C3-bu is boys with tits. The cast of C3-bu is girls that male viewers empathize with, want to be friends with and play with, not girls that male viewers want to hug and pet and snuggle.