Ask John: What’s John’s Favorite Moe Anime?

Answer:
Before I launch into entirely unrestrained personal indulgence, allow me to share an observation on the appeal of moe anime first. The anime community’s concept of moe is an amorphous and complex one, so for this article I’ll reduce it to simply the attraction to anime starring cute, innocent little girls. I know that any generalization about anime cannot be consistently applied to every individual fan, but I do think that to a large extent the attractiveness of moe anime varies with the individual’s age and exposure to anime.

During my own adolescence I was especially interested in particularly dark, gruesome, violent, suspenseful, and grim anime like Jubei Ninpucho, Yoju Toshi, Battle Royal High School, Dragon Century, Violence Jack, and Riki-Oh. Now that I’m in my later 30s I find that I still respect and appreciate anime like Hellsing, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Basilisk, Shigurui, Darker Than Black, Death Note, and Kurozuka, but I gravitate more toward light drama and moe anime. I believe it’s arguable that grim, violent fantasy anime is especially appealing to teens dealing with natural adolescent emotional instability. When I say that older, more experience anime fans have “outgrown” dark and grim anime I don’t want to imply that such anime is childish. Rather, I think that older, more experienced anime fans no longer necessarily need the emotional catharsis provided by dark and violent anime. Otaku that have been watching anime for many years, otaku that have become intimately familiar with anime, may become more attracted toward more lighthearted, romantic, and heartwarming moe anime because they’ve had their fill of dark and gritty shows. That’s not to say that moe fan can’t or don’t continue to watch morose anime, but the appeal of such shows may not be as strong as it once was.

If this speculation is true, it may explain why anime productions targeted at young girls, like Sailor Moon, Akihabara Cyber Team, Pretty Cure, and Shugo Chara have attracted large followings of adult male Japanese fans. I also want to re-emphasize that this trend, if it is an actual occurrence, isn’t consistent for every anime fan. Having an intense interest in dark and violent anime now doesn’t ensure that you’ll turn into a moe fan in a couple of years. But I do suspect that this gradual, natural evolution of interest does occur in some percentage of fervent anime viewers.

As I mentioned, I used to be especially interested in grim and violent anime. While I do continue to watch this sort of anime – I’ve watched series including Claymore, Black Lagoon, Kurozuka, Garei Zero, and Shigurui to completion – I do find that over the past several years my interest in moe anime has dramatically increased. I’ve sampled a large variety of moe anime including all of Bottle Fairies, Rozen Maiden, Manabi Straight, Lucky Star, the first Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime series, Moetan, Tsukuyomi, and Ichigo Marshmallow. When I think about the moe titles which I’m most enthralled by, though, two titles immediately come to mind.

The 2005 Petopeto-san television series had a brief flicker of cult popularity, but the show has now been almost entirely forgotten. The series aired concurrently with the better known Kamichu, and may be best described in comparison to Kamichu. Petopeto-san can be described as Kamichu with even cuter character designs and the traditional Japanese monsters (in human form) in the leading roles instead of the human characters. I’m personally fond of moe character designers including POP, Poyoyon Rock, Blade, and especially YUG, who provided the adorable Petopeto-san character designs, including the cutest nurikabe (ghost wall) ever. While Petopeto-san doesn’t have quite the affective writing of Kamichu nor the especially impressive animation quality of Kamichu, it does have involving character relationships, heartwarming humor, and a story that’s cute without seeming to pander to moe fetish obsessives. The series also has the most grating, unpleasant opening theme song I think I’ve ever heard. It suits the nostalgic, rural atmosphere of the show perfectly; I just happen to dislike it intensely. I’m particularly fond of the Petopeto-san anime for a number of reasons. I adore the character designs. I respect the show’s emphasis on character relationship building (which makes it a bit different from shows like Ichigo Marshmallow and Kodomo no Jikan). And, as a foreigner, I enjoy the novelty of a show that personifies traditional Japanese spirits and monsters as cute schoolgirls. I love Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro’s Neko Musume. Petopeto-san is like watching an entire series filled with Neko Musume characters.

My other favorite moe title is an equally obscure one. I adore the Ichigeki Sacchuu!! Hoihoi-san franchise that started with Konami’s 2003 Playstation 2 game. In fact, I own the limited edition game with figure, the first printing limited edition Japanese manga with anime DVD, the domestic translation of the manga, a handful of Hoihoi-san trading figures, and the extremely rare Figure Maniax Hoihoi-san action figure (which remains the most expensive single anime collectible I’ve ever purchased). The only existing Hoihoi-san anime consists of a few video sequences found in the PS2 game and a 10 minute OVA that was exclusively released with the manga. The OVA is specifically tied to the manga because it doesn’t entirely make sense to viewers that haven’t read the manga. I simply love the idea of a pint sized robot maid that trots around with machine guns, flails, swords, and even bazooka to exterminate household insect pests. I dearly wish that little “interceptor doll” robots like Hoihoi-san actually existed as cousins to automatic vacuum cleaners and robot pets; affordable, practical consumer robots that collectors could customize and modify. The ID-3 Hoihoi-san and IDX-9 Pest-X miniature robot girls are adorably cute, and I love the idea that they’re practical household appliances. It also helps that the manga and short OVA are both fairly enjoyable as well.

These two titles top my list of personal favorite moe anime, but I’d like to briefly mention that Manabi Strait, Ichigo Marshmallow, Kamichu, Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san, Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime, and Macademy Wasshoi also compete for top spots on my mental list.