Ask John: Will America Ever Appreciate Moé?

Question:

Is there a way to change haters of moé opinions? I feel like I’m walking up an escalator that’s moving down in trying to get the vocal minority of moé bashers that moé is not vapid garbage. What titles would change their opinion? Am I just wasting my time?

Answer:
To quote the cliché, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The moé fascination is a personal, heartfelt compassion toward a cute and innocent child or childlike person. Moé is almost exactly the same feeling people feel when observing baby seals, panda, or koala bears; it’s an impulsive desire to cuddle, collect, care for, and adore, not a sexual attraction. Humans naturally feel this complex urge when looking at something small, furry and cute, like kittens. But only a select variety of anime fans can arouse this same feeling for animated fictional characters. The instinctive, compulsive arousal of this sensation isn’t something which can be taught, nor can it even be effectively encouraged or nurtured. The sensation of moé is one which only predisposed individuals can develop, and that development requires time, exposure to anime, and natural predisposition.

I don’t want to suggest that moé fans are inherently more attuned to anime than other otaku, but moé fans may be more experienced anime fans and older anime fans. Modern anime existed in Japan for forty years before “moé” emerged as a distinct concept. The roots of moé have always existed in modern anime. The emergence of the Japanese moé concept may be attributed by the increasing prominence of anime and anime fans in Japan in the 90s and early 2000s. Fans that had grown up with anime became unashamed to express their affection for anime. As the fascination with anime began to emerge from underground cult circles and take over Akihabara, Japanese otaku allowed their affection for anime to flourish unrestrained, resulting in an unabashed admission of affection and adoration for the cute & petit. Fetishes like moé and tsundere emerged when Japanese otaku stopped being embarrassed about being anime fans and allowed their compulsions and honest instincts to emerge.

In some regards, the American otaku community has always trailed behind Japan’s. But the lag time for America is not as big as it’s been in Japan because American otaku have been able, over the past twenty years, to look to Japan’s fan community and follow their lead. Shonen children’s anime has a long history in Japan, but during the 1990s it was practically absent from America. Anime titles including Dragon Ball, Detective Conan, and Crayon Shin-chan didn’t significantly penetrate the American otaku community until the 2000s, a decade after these shows had become popular in Japan. Galge anime were likewise popular in Japan years before they reached America. While titles including ToHeart, Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka, Clannad, Kanon, and Kimikiss seem natural in American release, these sort of dating simulation anime were largely unknown in America prior to 2006 when FUNimation took the tremendous risk of releasing “Rumbling Hearts” on domestic home video. So examination of precedent suggests that America may possibly still not be entirely ready for the moé invasion.

Certainly select moé anime have appeared on American DVD, including Cardcaptor Sakura, Rozen Maiden, Tsukuyomi, and Ichigo Marshmallow. But a significant movement to accept and embrace moé requires a willingness to accept anime wholeheartedly, without embarrassment or shame. And the majority of America’s anime community may not be quite ready for that commitment. That degree of devotion and acceptance requires time, exposure, and a sense of ease with the self that frequently develops only with maturity. For Americans, watching, enjoying, and admitting to empathising with action anime is easy because shows like Afro Samurai, Gundam, and Dragon Ball Z are exciting and stylish. Admitting an affection for intense, bleeding edge escapism animation is cultural, progressive, and rewarding. Admitting an affection for shoujo or even yaoi is fashionably counter-culture or provocative. However, admitting to an affection for cute and petite little girls or boys – even if the affection is entirely asexual – is still suspicious and deviant in America. Moé otaku in America have to be comfortable and confident enough with themselves to admit, without embarrassment or shame, that they like cute anime. And that sort of psychological courage often develops only with age and experience. Broadly speaking, America isn’t comfortable with anime enough yet to unabashedly admit that anime can be engrossing and fulfilling without being prurient or adolescent. Japan is able to sustain an open and comfortable tolerance for moé because Japan acknowledges all varieties of anime, and Japanese culture itself has different attitudes toward personal interests and expression than America does. America doesn’t widely acknowledge or embrace all varieties of anime, nor does America have as liberal tolerances for personal interests as Japan.

Not every American anime fan will like moé anime or develop an affinity for moé characters. American otaku who do have a predisposition to enjoying moé may be still developing and solidifying their appreciation of anime and relationship with anime. These otaku may not yet be comfortable enough with their own personalities and peers to admit something potentially embarrassing. I know from first-hand experience that a conscious affection for cute anime and cute characters is something which develops naturally, at its own pace. I distinctly remember when, in the late 1990s, I became consciously aware that my interest in anime was beginning to expand to include concentration specifically on individual cute, moé characters to the addition or even exclusion of the shows they appeared in. I don’t know if moé will ever become as prominent and accepted in America as shounen anime, robot anime, galge anime, ero-anime, or even yaoi. But if moé does ever become widely accepted in America, the development will happen collectively and spontaneously rather than as a result of any particular anime title or any singular effort.