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Moe Anthropomorphism

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That's No Moon! That's adorable.

Moefication of either characters who are not normally moe, or objects and concepts which are not even alive. Very popular with Fan-Art and merchandise. Often referred to as "gijinka", the Japanese word for "anthropomorphism".

The mecha musume — basically, battle vehicles or Humongous Mecha rendered as cute girls — are a common form of moe anthropomorphism. Can also overlap with Cute Monster Girl if the moefied character is a monster. If the original character is male, Gender Flip may be a component, although boy implementations do occasionally happen.

Could easily be Nightmare Fuel for some, depending on what is changed, what it looks like, and its gender.

Compare Anthropomorphic Personification, Sexy Whatever Outfit.

See also Humanity Ensues (technically unrelated, but can be compared as an in-universe variant thanks largely to the utilization of Morphic Resonance).

Examples: (Note: As all of the below are by definition in an Anime Style, and almost all of it is fan-art created for the web, they have been sorted by the source material they are based upon.)

    open/close all folders 

    Based on Advertising 
  • The notorious OS-tans are moe versions of operating systems and programs; their boob size is often proportional to memory requirements. Windows ME-tan is the Ensemble Dark Horse, who became a popular character for her good intentions but decidedly unstable nature (and her cute Idiot Hair). Windows 2000-tan is a professional, reserved woman, Windows XP-tan has excellent graphical capabilities, and Windows Vista-tan has transparencies and even more memory requirements (except for Basic-tan who's a tsundere little girl). Windows 95-tan is a Yamato Nadeshiko carrying a katana, destroying Microsoft's PC competition once and for all, and eats very little memory. Norton Anti-Virus is portrayed as a lecherous, ghostly doctor who makes the girls strip naked even for the most minor ailments; McAfee as a faith healer; and AVG as a handsome student doctor. Also with theme song.
    • There are Linux-tans as well. Linux-tan herself is a bit of a Shrinking Violet, and Slack-tan is a Wrench Wench. There are also Unix-tans, with UNIX-tan herself being somewhat a tsundere. (Here is a pretty good lineup of the major ones.)
    • In Japan, a campaign run by Bing (MSN's search engine) from December 18, 2009-to January 18, 2010, which has closed on February 18, had five mascots: Nanae, Nana, Nanako, another Nanami, and Nanao.
    • Windows 8 now has two official mascots, Madobe Yuu and Madobe Ai (You and I).
    • Microsoft's cloud based Windows Azure platform has Claudia Madobe.
    • Microsoft Singapore turned Internet Explorer into a Magical Girl.
    • This seems like a new trend for Microsoft. Hikaru Aizawa for Microsoft Silverlight and Inori Aizawa for Internet Explorer.
    • Microsoft announced the new OS tan for Windows 10, she doesn't have a name yet. Fans can submit name suggestions.
  • Akikan!! does this for soda cans. These soda girls need carbon dioxide infusions (through kissing) to live. Japan really can make anything moe.
  • Okayama Prefecture in Japan has anthropomorphized their prized homegrown-jellies into moe girls.
  • A few Vocaloid characters have elements of this, and one plays it completely straight. Ryuto◊, also known as Gachapoid, is a male anthropomorphism of beloved Japanese children's tv character Gachapin. Hatsune Miku's design is heavily based on the Yamaha DX7 and DX100 synthesizers. Kagamine Rin and Len have elements from the Yamaha EOS keyboard in their design. Kamui Gakupo has many elements of digital music, such as spectrograms and equalizers, portrayed as samurai gear, and Megurine Luka has elements of brass instruments in her design.
  • Fruity Loops (a music synthesizer program) has FL-chan◊, popular among the Vocaloid fandom. Some of the official plugins have these, too, like Harmless-chan◊ (a Cute Monster Girl, ironically) and her counterpart Harmor-chan.◊
  • Several Japanese railways have their trains Moe-fied.
  • Ryohoji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo-suburb Hachio-ji City successfully raised attendance by anthropomorphizing its patron deities into moe mascots.
  • A magazine ad for the Asus ROG Crosshair IV Extreme motherboard has it in the form of a short-haired brunette in a techno-fetish costume, holding a BFG three times her size and based on the device's design. Not very "moe" but still.
  • Habanero-tan is a cute loli pepper thing based on a habanero-flavored snack chip. There is also Jalapeńo-tan, Habanero-neesan, and Milk-san. Jolokia-tan, the hottest pepper in the world, is the Alpha Bitch.

    Anime and Manga 
  • The Witch forms of former Puella Magi (ex: Candeloro, Gretchen, Oktavia, Gretchen Homulilly) are anthropomorphized. Of course this is Justified as all the Puella Magi are young girls.
  • Kämpfer does this in its eyecatches for the Creepy Dolls that grant the heroines their powers. While in doll form they look like cute animals that just committed suicide in a variety of ways, in human form they look like Petting Zoo People, focusing more on the cute than the creepy.
  • Binchou-tan is an anime about Anthropomorphic charcoal in the form of chibi girls.
  • The anime series Yatterman did Obama-kun and Hilary-chan.
  • Nanako, the partially-anthropomorphised form of the Seventh Scripture in Tsukihime. Ditzy little half-unicorn girl that is only visible to those with intense magical potential, have spilled their blood on it, and weird people like Shiki.
  • Parodied in Nyoron Churuya-san with "Dust-chan", who is shortly disposed of via vacuum cleaner.
    • She always comes back. *shudder*
  • Toei Robot Girls, which is exactly what it sounds like. Toei Animation Super Robots turned into cute girls.
    • Robot Girls Z adds even more girls to the lineup, namely ones styled after the titular robots of the Mazinger franchise.
  • The "Angel Chromosome XX" line of Neon Genesis Evangelion merchandise portrayed the Angels as cute girls, including portraying Lilith as Rei Ayanami.
    • Tabris is a female Kaworu Nagisa.
  • Koihime†Musou for Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
  • Gundam has MS Girl or MS Shojo, published in the Gundam Ace monthly magazine since 1982 by Mika Akitaka, making them the origin of mecha musume. The first collection artbook was released in 1994.
    • In 1985, Bandai released the Armored Lady Original Characters for Z-Gundam and Macross, Mecha Musume that predates the 1994 artbook. [1]◊
  • Ark Angels features personified versions of various endangered animals as well as of the planets of our solar system (plus Earth's moon).
  • Genderswap a few character from Saint Seiya... and voila! Moe versions of the western zodiac signs!
  • The Seven Sisters of Purgatory from Umineko: When They Cry are demonic stakes given the form of teenage girls. Plus, they are each an Anthropomorphic Personification of the Seven Deadly Sins. Nightmare Fuel for most, Fetish Fuel for some, including Battler, who refers to them as "the ass nee-chans."
  • Money and Soul Has Msyu, the moe personification of the protagonist's future. Yes, that's right: This show makes an abstract concept moe.
  • Chintsubu makes penises cute. Sentient talking penises possessed by other male spirits. Yeah. They're actually pretty cute.
  • Sentou Yousei Shoujo Tasukete! Mave-chan is an entire show based upon Moe Anthropomorphisms of the aircraft from the anime Sentou Yousei Yukikaze.
  • Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita has moe deep space probes. Well, Pion is moe, Oyage is more bishounen.
  • The heroines of Strike Witches become something like this when donning their strike units based on real-life WWII tanks and fighters.
  • His Coool Seha Girls features the "Sega Hard Girls", moe versions of Sega video game hardware as protagonists.
  • What about rifles and machine guns made into elementary/middle/high schoolers? That is the premise of Upotte.
  • Even Pokemon has had plenty of gijinkas created for it. There are comics and more than one group on DeviantArt.
    • Pokémon RéBURST is the most prominent example of this. However, the manga subverts this by using technologies to turn humans into Pokemon gijinkas.
      • It is the first official Pokémon manga to have Pokémon gijinkas.
  • There are gijinka of Shizuku-chan characters in the series fandom. During the run of the 2012 anime, there was an official contest where winning gijinka designs would be featured on iPhone covers.
  • Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren't They? has Black Percher being the Moe Anthropomorphism of The Black Death, with her real name being Pestilence/Pest.
  • Silver Spoon takes place in an agricultural high school. Nishikawa, who is from a crop farming family but also an anime and gaming otaku, tends to use this trope:
    • When he's given the task to decorate a sled, he decorates it with anthropomorphized moe artificial fertilizers, and names them "NPK48", a pun on AKB48 ("NPK" standing for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium).
    • Much later in the story he presents breeds of potatoes anthropomorphizing them as various types of girls.
  • Because the fan can't exactly recall the details of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in Vaguely Recalling JoJo, he replaces a few characters with cute anthropomorphic versions.
    • Cursed Devo's Ebony Devil looks like a cute little boy with antennae and is wearing a teddy bear costume.
    • Jotaro gets another Star Platinum, who is probably a cosplay for the Runaway Girl.
    • Mariah's Bastet gets turned into a version of Taokaka with outlet paws.

    Comics 

    Based on Film 

    Based on Folklore 
  • Entaku Seitokai (Round Table Student Council) does this for the King Arthur legends. Heroic knights of old turned into the cute girls of today. A liberal amount of Gender Flip is also applied in this instance.
    • The visual novels Knight Carnival! and 12+ also provide moe versions of Arhurian legends.

    Based on History 
  • Axis Powers Hetalia is a notable example of male moe anthropomorphism, featuring countries in human form.
  • This book (site has some NSFW ads) about Moe countries, 74 Countries Turned Into Bishoujo, continues the Hetalia tradition, only all-female. And yes, North Korea is included.
    • It's hilarious how England looks almost exactly like Louise.
  • Moe Moe Niji Taisen does this for World War II planes and tanks. They battle by causing Clothing Damage.
  • Along the lines of Axis Powers Hetalia the webmanga and web novel series Miracle Train ~Chūō-sen e Yōkoso~ about the Japan Railways Chuo Train Line has five of its major stations (Zero Tokyo, Shintaro Shinjuku, Riku Nakano, Takuto Kichijōji, and Luna Tachikawa) personified as bishonen. We're not kidding, official site here and Anime News Network report here. The characters have even been given voice actors.
  • There's also an anime called Miracle Train, though it focuses on the Oedo line instead of the Chuo line.
  • Strike Witches: Probably the most well-known example for military Moe Anthropomorphism.
  • There's a bunch of models for AP'd WW2 planes as little girls with the appropriate national costumes and plane parts as clothes/prosthetic limbs. Surprisingly not very moe, or at least their eyes aren't.
  • Afganisu-tan, a Japanese online Yon Koma about the history of Afghanistan. Infamous for presenting the September 11th attacks as a rogue cat (Al-Nyada) biting Meriken.
  • Green Dam, the Chinese censorship/nanny tool once said to be a mandatory installation on all the country's new computers (until the government apparently backed down), was Moefied as a protest. Mildly NSFW link here.
  • The Japan Self-Defense Force even had their own moe mascots◊. So much for fighting lolis.
    • Connected with that is Mari-tan◊, the personification of the U.S. Marine.
  • There was some fanart floating around that moe'd several World War II◊ figures.
  • Moe Hayabusa space probe! Yes.
  • Just to prove that yes, nothing can avoid moe anthropomorphism, we present you with Japanese-made gijinka of a Chinese slur for the Japanese (ads and much of the other parts of this site are NSFW).
  • Japanisches Kaiserriech Mitternacht Marine is a webcomic revolving around the various personifications of World War II weaponry, like planes and tanks.
  • Hitler had already gotten the moe-treatment, but other dictators aren't safe either.
  • As an extension of the above, some World War II generals like Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Rommel and Zhukov are also given the treatment, from the same company that brought the "Moe Dictators" series.
  • Touken Ranbu has the player bring historically famous Japanese swords to life as handsome men and cute boys.

    Based on Literature 

    Based on Live-Action TV 

    Based on Military Aircraft 

    Based on Military Warships 

    Music 
  • "German Bold Italic": by Towa Tei, with Kylie Minogue playing a... font?

    Mythology 
  • Various deities from religions around the world are personifications of certain concepts or locations. Not all of them are cute, though.
  • Egyptian gods are occasionally depicted as trees or normally inanimate objects with human arms or heads attached.
  • All of Spirits in Date A Live based from Tree of Life's sephirots.

    Based on Sports 

    Based on Tabletop Games 

    Toys 

    Based on Video Games 

    In Video Games 
  • There's an eroge called MonoGokoro MonoMusume that has moe-anthropomorphized objects as most of its principal cast. Objects turned into cute girls include a computer, a pillow, a Humongous Mecha toy, a washing machine, and a pair of panties.
  • A good portion of Touhou characters feature this to some degree or another; for example, Nitori, a Kappa, having the turtle shell and head plate of the actual mythological beast turning into a backpack and a cap, or Yamame, a giant spider monster, being a girl with no monstrous features except for design elements of the dress she wears. Some of the girls, like Kogasa, the Tsukumo sisters and Hata no Kokoro, are tsukumogami, which are basically personifications of inanimate objects, so they are kind of this in-universe as well as out.
  • There's also the free-to-play MMO TPS CosmicBreak, where a part of robots are your usual mechs while others are mecha musume.
  • The Triggerhearts from Triggerheart Exelica are designed to resemble mecha musume.
  • All of the Real Robot series in Super Cosplay Wars Ultra is done by a girl with only the Gundam Wing cosplay being the only exception.
  • There are humanised versions of the romanceable birds in Hatoful Boyfriend, visible in a brief portrait when you first meet them. The game claims this is the work of the ICPSS system showing the "birdiest bird" as human, though it fails with Okosan. It's clear from the text that the characters are still birds, and the manga even states that the human appearances are just there to help beginners feel the bird-moe, but this doesn't stop some fans.
  • Dododonpachi Saidai Oujou: Ladies and gentlemen—meet Lolibachi.
  • Neptunia is built around this concept. The four main characters are personifications of the seventh generation game consoles (the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii, with the main being the hypothetical Sega Neptune), with their "little sisters" representing handhelds like the PSP and DS. The series also features anthropomorphized versions of companies like Gust and Nippon Ichi, and later games add in girls representing specific game franchises like Pac-Man, Dynasty Warriors, and Street Fighter.
  • Gum Kare! personifies chewing gum brands into hot, dateable young men. Played with in terms of the protagonist- She's supposed to represent the mouth eating the gum, so she's portrayed as a moe photorealistic tooth.
  • There are a number of mods made for Mine Craft that do this to the in-game mobs. From usually faceless and oftentimes dehumanized farm animals to horrific undead monstrosities, apparently to some modders absolutely everything needs to be an adorable girl.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 

    Web Animation 
  • Someone has managed to personify Adobe Flash. As in the animation program.

    Web Original 
  • The Other Wiki has Wikipe-tan (along with Commons-tan and Quote-tan). TV Tropes itself has Trope-tan, while Encyclopedia Dramatica has AE-tan and Uncyclopedia has Uncyclo-tan.
  • OC Re Mix uses OCR-tan, with a new one for every forum version. The youngest, Ocr1-tan, is the first incarnation of the forum.
  • Most of the boards of 4chan have a moe anthropomorph. For example, /a/ is a Meganekko under-age Trap with an Ahoge.
  • The CWCki Wiki of Sonichu has CWCki-tan, and the majority of that "art" will likely make you cry inside, especially the one for Valentine's Day.
  • On the Final Fantasy Wiki, there's FFWiki-tan, a Viera librarian that takes care of the Chocobo in the Wiki's logo.
  • Firefox-ko for Mozilla Firefox.
    • There's also Opera-tan, for the Opera browser.
  • Captcha-tan◊. The spambot that 4chan had to implement the captcha for (leading to Captcha-tan's creation) was also anthropomorphized as "Cornelia".
  • Skewered in this Anime News Nina comic.
  • Fantendo now has their own Fan-Tan.
  • Starting with Episode 20 of Dave Madson's Looney Tunes Intro Bloopers, the characters, whose voices are provided by Speakonia and to a lesser extent, Robo Soft, are giving rather cute human-like designs.

Alternative Title(s):

Moe Personification, Gijinka, Mecha Musume

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