Well they just HAD to prod me didn’t they, they just had to poke this white tiger in the middle of the jungle didn’t they? As you can tell from the title, today’s victim narrative is our ‘friends’ at The Mary Sue. The subject matter? Calling the Moe anime style misogyny (http://archive.is/9ciSi). Since my nickname on the internet has been Anime-Mun for about 16 years I think I’m contractually required to debunk this horseshit. Welcome to the Arena Mz. Amelia Cook. Let’s hammer this in!
To begin we need to define the term moe (pronounced mou-eh, not “moh-eh.” Learn your romanization!) All that Ms. Cook did was state what happens in the style, not the definition of the term. As it is written in Japanese: 萌え, derived from the term ‘sprouting’ or ‘budding’ which while the archetype is based around affection is more specific to the beginning or ‘budding’ of relationships. In actuality, the style saw its origin during the late 80s and early 90s with the stylings of the all female manga-ka (manga author) group CLAMP. These stylings are done in primarily shoujo manga. Shoujo (小女), literally meaning young woman, is a style that’s obviously meant for little girls. So let’s put these pieces of the puzzle together. Moe is a style of shoujo manga that is typically designed by women. In the defining of the style alone I’ve debunked this “depraved misogyny” argument by showing the actual target audience! Feminists, its shit like this that show you don’t do your research! Guess how long it takes to find all these sources in Google, 5 minutes! But since that’s too much time for you to bother with I’ll leave the proof for you, just to be nice:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=77
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=5765
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=3
Does this mean the rest of your article escapes my scrutiny? Brigid no! You stepped into my wheelhouse claiming expertise when you are obviously sorely lacking. You get no mercy from this otaku!
Now, in actual Moe panty shots are honestly rather rare, the appeal being more from the neoteny of the characters rather than the sexualization. So by their very nature moe characters are in no way sexual, hence the little sister or daughter nature of them. You are supposed to want to protect and care for these characters, not fuck them like a pedophile would. But then again, seeing as there are pedophiles among the social justice crowd, I’m not terribly surprised by this blatant misunderstanding. The big breasted fanservice is actually called oppai (おっぱい）or big tits. Now I can pit this to your apparent lack of knowledge but I see what you are trying. You are trying to destroy yet another geek culture in this country. Well I’m not gonna have it, especially not the one where many examples of positive humanity I got during my childhood came from! Like I said, this is MY wheelhouse!
These next two I’ll tackle together because they are the same thought. I’m starting to see a theme here in mentioning TMS, nice native advertising Cook. But overall, this goes back to that aforementioned neoteny which is something you feminists depend on greatly for your shitty narratives to take hold. Glad you did mention that the characters are typically plausible examples of high school girls, especially since middle school girls are the intended audience for these works. Also yes, these works are all heavily commercialized, because like we have all stated: Who has the most spending power? Women and children. Men are mostly tasked with making the money, even in the current herbivore state of Japanese society, a set-up you are looking to exacerbate and use to destroy the culture you despise in multiple developed countries.
Alright, this is just you putting three very different things together under one umbrella. In other words, simple, puerile jealousy of fictional characters. Well, let’s look at your twitter profile, shall we?
Well, that explains some things, not only no face pic in your entire profile but you didn’t have an account till 2016. Also complete shit with your grammar on saying your Japanese is ‘but ok.’ What you meant was ”あたしの日本語は悪いです。” This translates directly to “My Japanese is bad.” Because honestly, from what I’ve seen in your feed it is, and the fact that I couldn’t find ANY face pics means that you are that insecure about yourself. In fact, there isn’t really any confirmation that that isn’t a stock shot. Also considering that your current obsession is the biggest current mainstream title in the form of Mob Psycho 100 (written by a much more talented man in the form of ONE – author of the surprising hit One Punch Man), it’s safe to say your tastes aren’t terribly broad either. But also this spells volumes!
You don’t need to have everything to be in your damned tastes. There are over 7 billion humans on this rock. If everyone had the same tastes that would be boring and not worth living. Pull an Avatar: The Last Airbender if you want to make your own thing, or you could go watch something Canadian like “Totally Spies.” Don’t tell Japanese creators whose country is already in a population crisis what to like. They aren’t your audience.
So again we have to touch upon neoteny. You are pushing an incest narrative about otaku here when moe is nothing of the sort! It’s about having a lovable sister character to cherish and protect. This is actually one of the reasons so many men in Japan have become herbivorous sexually. They have been so disillusioned by so many women there that they decided they would much rather fulfill their protective natures in other ways. Also while incest is a viable roleplay kink for many the amount of incest that honestly occurs in Japan is vastly exaggerated. It’s mostly relegated to mother/son porn than anything. This I won’t source because I am pretty sure most of those at The Mary Sue would chomp at a chance to spin it into “Oh they love raping their mothers” or some shit like that. But I digress…hold up, Kotani Mari? Where have I heard of her before?
Oh yeah, that woman. Couldn’t just call it plagiarism and libel, Feminism – making up bullshit terms since Seneca Falls. What’s more is she actually got the defendants to pay her a year’s living salary from something that would be technically under fair use here as it would be considered conjecture and opinion according to what I looked into there in the past. From personal, anonymous sources I pulled from my Japanese friends, they said “Who?” So more or less the entire reference from her is simple cherry-picking to support the narrative. So what’s next?
Seriously? The next quote you include is from a fanzine publisher? What’s more is it makes your entire article invalid from here on out. “The deeper you pursue moe, the more you understand that it is about fiction.” That very last word there is the crux of the entire sentence. Fiction; in essence, fantasy, meaning escapism. You don’t want anyone to ever escape your propaganda because if they can then your entire movement collapses due to the busted cheap underwire used to hold it up. Yes, I made a big breast joke because this seems to be all you are good for, plus that picture helps too. Since the final three paragraphs are on the same subject lets just finish this whole thing up now. I’m getting annoyed.
Alright, so the first is a brony reference because you admit once again how its main target is little girls yet admit that the tenets are enough to be accessible to adult men (probably so the fathers can spend time with their children affectionately). You show once again you don’t comprehend the culture you are talking about by applying that very broken Bechdel test of yours then forgetting once again that these are fantasy works. Then to tie up your inane blathering mention the klutzy girl that you don’t think exists. Guess what, she does exist and I’m married to her! How is that for hilarious? So you wanting to change Moe to your vision? You can go shove it! I’ve been in and out of anime conventions for over a decade. The anime otaku community is the most inclusive and diverse fanbase next to gaming. Always has been! If you want to talk to someone that proves this I’ll direct you to someone who I had a falling out with at the beginning of #GamerGate: One Jan Scott Fraiser, a transgender producer and translator of anime who has been in it for nearly thirty years.
In short, get over yourself. You aren’t changing anime! I’m done….oh fuck, next week I tackle the Cosplay is not Consent crowd by giving a history lesson on Glomping. Till next time remember to Game Freely. (Alright make it quick so I can restore my spine!)
- Breaking the Narrative Episode 124: Nice Try Kotaku! This Won’t Work Though! - July 8, 2019
- Breaking the Narrative Episode 123: We Shouldn’t Go Straight to Mars! How Anime Got Space Right! - July 1, 2019
- Breaking the Narrative Episode 122: You’re Reviewing What Now? The Dissenter Web Browser! - June 10, 2019
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If you think you’re ever going to get a properly researched ANYTHING from a feminist; think again!
I’ve yet to meet a *true feminist* that was also an insider.
Be it comics, cartoons, games etc; the majority of feminists will always be on the outside looking in.
If they ever embraced the culture they rant about, they wouldn’t rant about it!
I don’t think I’d get something honest from a feminist at all. The history just doesn’t show us such an event. That just gives me more reason to put the reality to shut down the lies.
Agreed!
yay #OperationMoe to the rescue! appabend has a simple but nice video about this article (+ it has pretty fanart)
i might be wrong since i’m not watching many anime this season but isn’t Sweetness and Lightning an anime that has a very interesthing story about a single dad rasing his daughter after the loss of his wife? but of course it has a cute looking art so somehow it’s ‘fanservice’ therefore should be ignored at all cost
Not sure, haven’t watched it myself yet but that would explain them finding it ‘problematic’.
Ok, apparently I have to put this here now because someone was dense enough to make this strawman argument.
I’m not anti-anonymity. I have to say this because I mentioned how she wouldn’t show her face… but she posted her real name on her article and profile both. Therefore this is not an anonymity issue as her real identity is present through the entire work and her profile. Didn’t think I would have to explain this but apparently I do.
To be fair, 日本語でもOK is not broken Japanese, でも can be used in different ways, the sentence basically means “I’m fine with speaking in Japanese”, it’s more or less informal language.
The rest of the article is spot on.
I thought that might be the case so I had checked with native speakers that I talk to regularly. They made it known to me that it was poor grammar and primarily used by children and people who don’t know the culture as well. The phrasing that native Japanese would expect if she meant that would be 日本語はいいだな。I looked into some of her other usage through her twitter and other articles for some verification and her usage screams second year usage. As in she doesn’t know all her tenses yet and has probably annoyed any native teachers she might have with her disrespect of the culture.
Its like that scene in “Kung Pow” they purposefully taught her horribly, as a joke. Thats why I made the joke implying her usage was bad. Because it was apparent that she was either self taught or taught very poorly.