Rise of Moe shows

Before I start, I want to clarify that:

I DO NOT DISLIKE MOE SHOWS.

I don't watch them much so I don't know if they are bad or not. I'm merely curious in that how just few years ago*

]], shonen action series was prevalent but now shows focusing on shows so called "Moe shows", which I define as mostly Slice of Life show focusing on characters with Puni Plush designs.

Anyone has any idea how and when the popularity of such genre became evident?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Moe is not a genre!

Moe is an audience reaction, you can find a character moe, a character could be designed to attempt to gain a moe reaction from the audience, but trying to claim that there is a "genre" of moe is ridiculous.

Trying to define "Slice of life with cute character designs" as "moe genre" is ridiculous, since you can find moe almost anywhere.

Those shows are, well, Slice of Life. You don't need to come up with an entirely new genre for them because of their character designs.

As for why the are successful, well, because they are? What difference does it make?

edited 15th Aug '11 9:38:34 PM by SakurazakiSetsuna

The reason? Because moe is cute. And like the one said above... Moe isn't a genre. It's an emotion and a feel. A style that invokes this feel. Ken Akamatsu wrote an article about this....

edited 15th Aug '11 9:39:55 PM by djmaca

...a little brother should belong to his older sister, right? - Orimura Chifuyu

The early 2000s were dominated by merchandise driven shonen, the 80s was chock full of mecha drivel, the 90s had tons of action shonen. Trends are trends.

Well, those shows do have rather simliar themes and target audiences.

Exactly. I want to know about the history of THIS trend.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:39:41 PM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Moe can be taken as a 'genre' regardless. It is for shows which its main appear is to provoke 'Moe' reaction (and these shows are quite common). You can't define a show purely as being 'moe', but that doesn't mean you can't label a show 'moe'.

It is not different from Bishoujo Series. Logically, the term 'bishoujo' can't apply to anything it is not a girl. Yet, people apply it to shows as well. You just need to not take too much literally.

Oh, and you can apply 'moe' to characters as well. People have been doing it for years now. The jargon evolves, you know.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:41:51 PM by Heatth

Well you could say its the rise of Puni Plush art style but really Moe? isnt a genre.

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Surely you can excuse people for using it as a shorthand for "character traits which are designed to to elicit such reactions from their target audience".

Eh, details.

One of the earliest shows that contributed to this trend that I know of, which admittedly not a whole lot, are Hidamari Sketch (when was it released?) and Lucky Star.

I THINK that some of the prevalent conventions applied to the series are originated from Azumanga Daioh, which I'm sure (well, not really) is the Trope Codifier for Schoolgirl Series, which overlaps with a lot of the series I mentioned above.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:43:40 PM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I cannot find the original post Ken did so here's a review of it from the "whatever" that must not be named.

http://4-ch.net/anime/kareha.pl/1122583157

...a little brother should belong to his older sister, right? - Orimura Chifuyu

Murrl LustFatM

There were quite a few School Girl Series in 80s that never made it to the US. Most of it Shojo Series

As well as well Class S Yuri Series.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:46:39 PM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

@Heatth

But its a silly classification that tells you almost nothing about the show other than "you are supposed to feel for the characters". Bishoujo Series is similarly meaningless. Yeah, its an established term, but when you can apply it to Queens Blade, Saki, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni and Kanon, its not particularly useful as a descriptor.

Calling a show a "moe" show is similarly almost farcical in terms of description, and by and large just gets used as a way for people to blithely dismiss a show without even giving it any actual consideration.

And by the way, I felt intense moe for characters from all four shows I listed. Does that make them "moe" shows? And if so, isn't that completely pointless?

edited 15th Aug '11 9:45:48 PM by SakurazakiSetsuna

Hmm...would it be reasonable enough to say that the shows that I'm talking about has some roots on those Bishojo Genre works?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

It doesn't matter if the classification is silly and pointless (I agree with you here). The point is there is a meaning for the term and you can understand what it means. Nitpicking just hidden the discussion.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:51:13 PM by Heatth

I know about the definition, as in connotation not denotation which I doubt even exist, of Moe but eh, most people know what shows I'm referring to anyways.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:53:06 PM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Though it's a word with negative connotations, I wasn't actually using it as an insult in that case. I tend to add that suffix to various things, not necessarily conciously.

But lookie there, it got thumped. Never happened~

Murrl LustFatM

I would disagree, nitpicking this is important. As has been demonstrated in this thread already (I'm so sorry Maddy, we're causing you so much trouble tonight ;_;), people like to use this as a way of bashing things. Actually using the proper terms to describe shows, and to attempt to salvage "moe" as an actual, useful piece of terminology, seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:53:12 PM by SakurazakiSetsuna

Generally sticking "shit" onto the end of words is not, precisely, an endearing trait.

x6 Well the whole girls in a show made for the Seinen crowd dates back to Sailor Moon when it had a good sized male fanbase and spun off from there where works started appearing for just that.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:54:25 PM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

I don't know about pinning it directly to Sailor Moon.

Setsuna's thumped post was rude, but meaningful. I agree calling the "genre" 'moeshit' is a sing of myopia. Many of said 'moe show' can be very good. 'Moe show' is very vague and it is useless as as sole descriptor so judging a show negativelly by virtue of it being 'moe' is the same as saying, for example, 'shows with hotblooded male protagonist are shit because they have hotblooded male protagonist'.

Oh, I agree this kind of attitude is bad. But just claiming 'moe show' doesn't 'exist' stop the discussion all together. The term 'exist'. It is just not meaningful at all. You should be defending this point to begin with.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:56:20 PM by Heatth

Well it was the first that actually got the attention because of it (IIRC) and how Magical Girl series can have Multiple Demographic Appeal for it and has spun off from there.

edited 15th Aug '11 9:57:59 PM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!