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Moe

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Urakisuta_Moe_9457a_7678.png
Those helpless eyes are killers.

"Somehow, when I look at her, I feel like I can't leave her alone. I feel like I have to protect her!"
— Chiri Kitsu, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
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Coined in Japan in the late '90s, "Moe" (萌え, pronounced as "Mo-Eh", derived from a Japanese word that means "budding, to sprout/bloom")note  is an ill-defined otaku term that means, amongst other things, "cute", "huggable", or "endearing". While it's sometimes used to describe a series or the phenomenon called Perverse Sexual Lust, it's more about a specific ideal or kind of character, similar to Kawaisa. When used as an interjection, figuratively, it's used to convey that "something blooms inside your heart". It has a basis in the Bishoujo genre.

A common definition is that Moe is the ability of a character to instill in the audience an irrational desire to adore them, hug them, protect them, comfort them, etc. To evoke a sort of Big Brother Instinct or Heartwarming Moments, in men and women. Therefore, Moe characters are, generally speaking, cute.

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Moe characters are implicitly youthful. In Anime, they are mostly of high school age, but adult characters are not exempt if they fit the model of adorability; an example of the Moe Archetype applied for adults is the Yamato Nadeshiko. Their personality will reflect an "innocent" outlook on something vital, such as about romance. A related implication is that moe characters are virgins, though mostly in Japan, where virginity and purity still remains important to a girl's appeal.

The classical Moe character, based on that of Conservative Japanese customs, is highly associated with innocence, shyness, humility, submission, helplessness and woobie characteristics (e.g., Prone to Tears, Shrinking Violet, Extreme Doormat, Cute Clumsy Girl, The Ingenue, the Healing-type genre, etc., usually drawn with Tareme Eyes). However, due to Western influence, modern variations of the Moe Archetype trend towards upbeat, lively, energetic and extroverted personalities that are far more unique, noticeable and recognizable, such as the Genki Girl, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Broken Bird and benign variants of the Tsundere archetype. Other contributions to uniqueness can also come in the form of quirks, reliance on Costume Exaggeration, odd language, strange hobbies and the like. Occasionally, these quirks are completely unrelated and seem a bit disjointed.

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If a character is plain, they are "loudly plain" in the way Hollywood Homely characters are "ugly"; sometimes they're just more moderate than the rest of the cast, and the writers implicitly suggest the audience is kind for liking the character for being plain.

More on these traits can be found here, although exactly "what is Moe" remains debatable.

Such characters are prone to be used to pander to the base. A character with no visible personality traits aside from vaguely cute uselessness is termed the dreaded "Moe Blob". As a result of this, some moe characters are quasi-Animated Actors; the series they star in need not be related at all, being only devices to enable the viewer to enjoy the character. Many of them feature in Gag Series, and only the merchandise for the series shows off its possibly-intended roots, though quite a few merchandise producers use heavy amounts of artistic liberty when designing products.

Also, do note that the Moe aesthetic in itself is generally not considered to be a sexual thing. Saying otherwise will be a Fandom-Enraging Misconception. That is not to say, of course, that Moe characters can never be sexually attractive, and indeed some aesthetics may deliberately blur the line.

Male characters can also have moe traits, and they figure prominently in Shoujo and Josei. Like their female counterparts, moe boys are usually ridiculously cute. The Adorably Precocious Child is a good example. Bishōnen characters (particularly Troubled, but Cute characters) also tend to evoke feelings of Moe in a female audience and are frequently called Moe by both fans and authors.

For the non-anthropomorphic equivalent, see Ridiculously Cute Critter. See also Moe Anthropomorphism, Moe Couplet, Moe Stare; compare The Woobie where the focus is about sympathy. Yamato Nadeshiko has a similar appeal but for older characters. Also see When She Smiles for situations where applicable characters get massive Moe points for finally breaking out a smile. In darker series, very likely to suffer Break the Cutie. Weakness Turns Her On is a sort of Distaff Counterpart that concerns women's attraction to moe males. Contrast Rated M for Manly. What Do You Mean Its Not For Little Girls when someone mistakes a moe show that's meant for older males for a show that's meant for little girls.

Example subpages:

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Moe characters

    Advertising 

    Arts 

    Comic Books 
  • One male example who gets away with it because of his age is Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. Remember when the baby raccoon died? It was also a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
    • It's when he wants to be, and it never works on his parents. Not even "Bambi eyes" work. Of course, "Bambi Eyes" tend to lose the intended effect when one is using them to ask for a flamethrower. It also doesn't work on Rosalyn (the baby-sitter), or Miss Wormwood (the teacher), or... you know what? It just doesn't work In-Universe.
  • The entire cast of Peanuts can all count as this, being children who are all Wise Beyond Their Years. Characters like Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Linus or Sally would definitely count. And then there's Snoopy and Woodstock.
  • The title character of Empowered is a rare example in an American Super Hero comic.
    ThugBoy: She's got this whole adorable, aching vulnerability thing going on... [...] I wanted to comfort her and tap that ass like it's never been tapped before.
  • Delirium in Death: At Death's Door
  • Molly Hayes and Klara Prast from Runaways
  • Ignacia from Wildguard
  • Squee from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac could be an example of this.
  • The original version of Marrina from Alpha Flight was absolutely made of this, at least as long as she was in control of herself. Unfortunately, outside forces kept pulling out her Super-Powered Evil Side, making her good half seem just that much more tragic and, well, moe.
  • Most of the kid characters from Le Petit Spirou easily qualify for this.
  • Gastoon from the comic book of the same name is this. Just look at this album cover.
  • Kamala Khan, aka the current Ms. Marvel. She's so perky and happy all the time!
  • Alex and Freddy, the titular main duo from Mega Robo Bros are downright adorable in their own special ways, especially with Alex's precocious and sensible Adorkable-ness and Freddy's hyperactive tendencies that provides loveable humour that is usually expected from a 6-7 year old. And tell us if one of those Badass Adorable robot brothers emotionally grew on you.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

  • Toy Story 3: Bonnie. Whether she's being shy (around adults) or a cheerful Genki Girl (with her toys) she's always adorable.
  • The titular Trolls are considered this, given the fact that they hug all the time.
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Vanellope von Schweetz is the most adorable character in the movie and also the most abused, whose living conditions were even worse than Ralph's. She is essentially a Dummied Out character in her home game, which is horrifyingly tragic if such a character were sentient. Some of the story team members even grew protective of her.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Glory Adams, the severely autistic girl from the movie Jack of the Red Hearts has her own way of being adorable throughout the film.
  • Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. More so than the book, in which he seems slightly more composed and more mature than his younger Hobbit friends, film Frodo is every bit the doe-eyed, plucky little train-that-could. Whenever action goes down, even the other Hobbits manage to get some licks in. But not our Frodo, who whimpers and faints and plays the Ill Boy throughout. He's so in over his head it's absurd... which is what makes his pluck all the more moving. It's just a good job Sam went with him...
  • David Bowie's character from The Man Who Fell to Earth is a fragile, if stoic, alien who proves highly, tragically vulnerable to the pitfalls of the human world. In his human disguise, he's one of the older examples of this trope (his true form is that of a Rubber-Forehead Alien). It's telling that Bowie fangirls usually refer to Thomas Jerome Newton via his in-story nickname of "Tommy".
  • The ultimate western example would be Audrey Hepburn's adorably innocent Princess Ann from Roman Holiday.
  • Star Trek (2009): Chekov. He's developed quite the female following.
    • He's practically a live-action anime character with his enormous greenish-blue eyes; no wonder he's a Moe! That and his positively adorable accent (especially when the computer acts like a bitch to him).
      • "I can do zat! I can do zat!"
  • Little Nancy in Sin City the movie. She is a lot cuter when seen in full color light in the bonus DVD features than in the black and white of the movie.
  • Raven in Cecil B. Demented falls into this category in a weird way, but then, considering the actress...
  • Both used straight and subverted when Wednesday Addams turns on the charm at summer camp in Addams Family Values. In just a few moments she blossoms from her usual drawn and dour self into a charming doe-eyed lovable little girl.
    • The other children are visibly shocked. One remarks, "She's scaring me!"
  • Child!Hanuman/Maruti from The Return of Hanuman. Big girly eyes, cheeks, innocence, he's just so adorable.
  • Transformers Film Series
    • Bumblebee fills this, despite being a mechanical life form. Due to being the most humanoid of the robot cast, his movements modelled after Marty McFly, the fact his horns are replaced with little bug antennae, he's given Prowl's door wings which act like dog ears, and his childlike enthusiasm at times. There's a reason many cried when he was injured in the first film and when it looks like he's about to be executed by Soundwave in the third. Possibly lampshading this, Laserbeak uses his apparent ability to change into anything to become a human child sized pink version of him to trick a small girl into letting him inside so he can kill her family.
    • Carly in the third film also acts as this, due to being more emotional than Megan Fox's character Mikaela in the first film and more playful.
  • Child's Play: Chucky. Yes, he is a psychotic mass murderer, but he just looks so adorable in his doll body.
  • Syrena from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Come on look at those big adorable eyes. Doesn't hurt that she's a sweet vulnerable non-murdering mermaid.
  • Barbra from Night of the Living Dead (1968). After all of the horrible things that happen to her, she becomes a nervous wreck. And it's adorable!
  • Just about anyone played by Mr. Buster Keaton. Poor guy.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Janie in Another Time, Another Place, especially when she gets the chance to smile.
  • X-Men: First Class managed to make Mystique seem Moe.
  • Aurora in Maleficent. Innocent, Friend to All Living Things, and spends many of her scenes full of nothing but joy. The spell did say she'd be beloved by all that meet her. Being played by Elle Fanning definitely helps. She eventually forms a Moe Couplet with the title character.
  • Like in the book series, Prim from The Hunger Games. Katniss as her older sister would do anything to protect her and the citizens of Panem fall head over heels for her when Katniss volunteers to take her place as the Hunger Games tribute. The second film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire lampshades this after one of gimmicks in the Games arena tricks Katniss into believing Prim had been tortured; fellow tribute Johanna points out that Panem loves Prim so much that if it were real, the Capitol citizens (the prime audience that regularly enjoys seeing children of the Games slaughtered) would riot against the gamemakers and President Snow. Prim becomes less of a Moe from Catching Fire onward, as she takes up to helping their nurse mother treat starving and injured patients, and thus has to grow up too quickly.
    • Katniss also sees her Hunger Games competitor Rue as this, as, aside from being black instead of white, she reminds Katniss of Prim in every way, including being around the same age. Rue gets killed in front of Katniss (and all of Panem) and dies in her arms, and Katniss decorates her body with flowers to show she actually cared about Rue. She remains a driving force throughout the series behind some of Katniss' motivations to fight against the Capitol. The film also adds an extra scene showing people in Rue's district District 11 rioting against the Captiol soliders after she gets killed.

    Music 

    Podcasts 
  • The caricatures of the two hosts of Fat, French and Fabulous have a distinct, cutesy animesque art style that belies the dark, disturbing comedy of the podcast itself.
  • About the best way to describe why Hailey Solomanari of Kakos Industries is so well liked among fans. Even with only her voice to convey her character, she's so damn naive and bubbly it's borderline infectious. She's especially this compared to the other characters who tend to carry a more obvious sense of intimidation while she keeps her own Evil capabilities under a pretty pink gauze of innocence which makes her both incredibly "moe" with plenty of Cute and Psycho to boot.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Roleplay 
  • Survival of the Fittest:
    • Sierra Manning in , a cute emotional girl whose cuteness is only amplified by her lisp.
    • This trope could also easily explain why Orn "Dutchy" Ayers is so popular on the board. Dutchy is an Icelandic, free-loving comic book nerd who watches soccer and cries Tender Tears over the plight of third-world countries among other things. Add in his in-game posts, which makes many handlers see him as The Woobie, and his habit of wearing a Pointless Band-Aid over his nose, and you have a character who most of the board adores.
  • The Doomy Adventures of Irken Doominess:
    • Melissa as a smeet was a total Moe being shy and withdraw, often having others feel the need to protect her.
    • while we're on this subject, San too who was in pretty much the same situation as Melissa but wasn't shy or withdrawn but so socially awkward that most people avoided her.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Warhammer 40,000 fan-character Cultist-chan turned into this once she got de-aged. Yes, a cultist of Chaos.
  • Eberron's female religious leaders are adorable.
  • Fighting Fantasy books including Deathtrap Dungeon, House of Hell and Sword of the Samurai were redone in a moe art style in Japan.
  • The GURPS advantage Pitiable basically facilitates moe.
    Something about you makes people pity you and want to take care of you. You get + 3 on all reaction rolls from those who consider you to be in a position of helplessness, weakness, or need (which never includes those with the Callous disadvantage). Taken in conjunction with above-average looks, Pitiable means you are "cute" instead of "sexy"; in combination with below-average looks, it means you are "appealingly homely," like a basset hound.
  • A similar Competence is available for some races in the Tabletop RPG based off Naheulbeuk : "Touching naivety" grants the character a +4 bonus to all Charisma rolls in order to get forgiven by the rest of the party for any laughably catastrophic mistake. Considering how stupid, clumsy (read "very keen to accidentally shoot allies in the back while trying to cover them") elves can be in the Naheulbeuk Universe, they automatically start the adventure with this competence.
  • The Collectible Card Game Weiss Schwarz uses moe as its primary selling point, allowing moe stalwarts such as the Lucky Star and Clannad casts to wage bloody moe battle against each other.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese card game, therefore there are a lot moe characters in it. The first and best-known example is "Dark Magician Girl"; she later gets a moe sisterhood whose names contain the words "Magician Girl" and the first letters of those names form the word "Black" (she's known as "Black Magician Girl" in Japan and Korea). Many later archetypes used by cutesy female characters from the anime and manga consist solely of moe girl monsters. IRL, some of the most popular moe monsters are (visually) designed by the Japanese artist Akina Fujiwara (藤原明奈), including the girl group known as Charmers (one of them is male, but still cute enough) and their cuddly familiars; the Charmers have won a poll and gotten featured on game mat and card sleeve designs.

    Theatre 

    Visual Novels 
  • Danganronpa:
  • Doki Doki Literature Club! definitely has this aesthetic and kept it even as horror elements creep into the game.
  • Shiki from Tsukihime tends to have a love of moe traits among the girls in the games. The doujins take this to whole new levels, creating his infamous line "So moe...I'm gonna die~!"
    • The female cast of the game are all quite moe; some just more than others.
    • Akiha, Arcueid, Hisui, Satsuki, and Len; arguably the most moe characters out of the lot.
  • The girls of Katawa Shoujo, who are all Disabled Love Interests who each have some moe traits, but Shrinking Violet Hanako probably takes the cake. However, it's worth noting that despite fandom's treatment of Hanako as moe, her route in the game actually deconstructs the concept. Hanako becomes well aware that Hisao feels sorry for her and sees her as The Woobie, and she greatly resents it. In her Bad End, she calls Hisao out on this, yelling that she hates him for this behaviour. With the way she's facing the screen, however, it doesn't seem that she's yelling at Hisao so much as she's yelling at the player. In her H-scene, the reason she has sex with Hisao in the first place is so that he'll stop seeing her as someone to be pitied and protected.
  • Ema Skye in the extra case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and her cameo in Ace Attorney Investigations. Check out one of her animation cycles if you want proof.
    • Really, any of your female companions fall into this in some way. Maya with her childish naivete, Pearl's innocent ignorance of the world outside Kurain Village (and just being the one little girl in general), and Trucy Wright just all around. Even Kay Faraday, Genki Girl as she is, gets in on it sometimes with her charming ambition. It helps that all these characters have Woobie backgrounds.
    • Ron DeLite: Mask☆DeMoe.
  • Rika and Satoko from Higurashi: When They Cry. The show then goes on to royally mess them up, time and time again. By the time the second season rolls around Rika stops being moe, but Hanyuu more than makes up for it.
  • The elves of ElfQuest are deliberately Moe, particularly Suntop (later renamed Sunstream in-universe) who is practically the Ur Example. Around age 5 or 6, he had to endure being kidnapped by Winnowill, the only truly evil elf known and magically hurt in order to keep him from struggling. Then as a 7yo (guesstimated), he had to endure 2-3 days of sleeplessness because of constantly "hearing" telepathic screaming of other elves from some unknown place. If it weren't for sympathetic parents and an understanding mentor, he could have literally turned out an insanely evil being instead of godlike good.
  • The Fruit of Grisaia: In-Universe. Yuuji suspects that Makina acts cutesy, dumb and weak in order to inspire protective feelings in people. He also speculates that it probably gets her bullied by other girls while guys would find it charming. In her route, he more or less falls for it and makes protecting her his duty in life.

    Web Animation 
  • Squimpus McGrimpus focuses on nightmare-inducing, found-footage Fnaf content. Yet somehow, despite all of the horrors, the little animated Freddy in the Night Security Training Video is derpily adorable.
  • Eddsworld:
    • Edd himself is a very cute cartoon boy with his Adorkable personality, wide-eyed expressions, cheerful attitude and love of cats.
    • Matt in the later episodes is still very vain, but also very much of a ditzy Keet.
    • Jon, he's a bit jerkish like Eduardo and Mark, but it's suggested that he's only misguided and manipulated by them into being a jerk and is really just an innocent guy and possibly the Only Sane Man of the trio.
    • Heck, to an extent, almost everyone on the show is this.
  • Quite a few examples in RWBY, as it's a World of Action Girls:
    • Ruby Rose is a bubbly and geeky 15-year-old monster slayer in-training who wants to be a hero because her Cool Big Sis Yang read a lot of old fantasy stories to her as a little kid.
    • Yang as a little kid would qualify, with her pigtails and brave Determinator attitude.
    • Penny Polendina is a... strange but very cheerful young girl who is also capable of carving through an entire army of terrorists with a cute little smile on her face.
    • Standing at 4'9'', Neopolitan is the shortest girl in the cast, and rarely seen without her Parasol of Pain. That is, when she's not stabby Nightmare Fuel who nearly murdered both Ruby and Yang on separate occasions.
    • Velvet Scarlatina has bunny ears and big brown eyes, and practically squees when given a chance to use her weapon.
    • Blake Belladonna too, being a Stoic Woobie Catgirl
  • Lucas the Spider is a relatively recent entry, but he will cure you of arachnophobia through cuteness alone. The little guy has the sweetest voice and cutest eyes you just want to hug him!
  • Kizuna AI is a "virtual YouTuber" who plays video games or does video logs. She's an adorable Genki Girl and amusing to watch, while often rousing people's protective instincts when she fails or is scared. And she's also capable of being cute when saying cuss words like "Fuck you"—I mean, "FAKKYU!"

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • Jade Sinclair, codename Generator, of the Whateley Universe. Cute, Genki Girl, looks about ten years old even if she's a high school freshman, still fixated on Hello Kitty.
  • According to Uncyclopedia, musicians such as David Ellefson, Varg Vikernes (Troubled, but Cute), and Rick Allen (Bandage Babe) are considered moe by Heavy Metal fangirls.
  • During the rise of image macro/"advice animal" memes in the early 2010s, Good Girl Gina became one of the mascots alongside the likes Bad Luck Brian, Overly Attached Girlfriend, Scumbag Steve, etc. Her meme was a picture of a cute girl (a model in Real Life) who would do extraordinarily kind things only out of the goodness of her heart. The good looks combined with the sweet personality made her "character" the most moe that this genre of meme could possibly get.

    Web Videos 

Entire series called moe

    Notable Producers of Moe Series 

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 
  • A set of eroge with actual plots and sympathetic characters is Key's works. Kanon and AIR have both been animated twice with all H-scenes removed and practically no fanservice, and didn't lose much; CLANNAD, which was also animated twice under the same contract, was completely clean in the first place.
  • There's actually a whole VN genre for so-called "moege". Da Capo and its spinoffs, SHUFFLE!, Snow Sakura and Canvas 2 are just some that this particular niche has to offer. Confusingly enough, there is also a different genre called "moege", the one relating to burn/passion; these titles are usually related to sports or hobbies one can be, well, passionate about and bond to each other over it. This difference was mentioned (and admitedly better explained) in Koe de Oshigoto!.
    • Speaking of Da Capo, remember the character Moe above in the anime section? In the VN there's more to her than meets the eye, and it has to do with her unusual sleeping habits, if that alone is not Moe enough. She takes sleeping pills. Not because of insomnia, but due to a tragic incident in her childhood — there was a boy she liked, then one day he died. Overcome with grief, she made a wish to the magical Sakura Tree to see that boy in her dreams. Hence her need to sleep. Thus when the tree withers, she loses that wish, and just breaks down. Awwww.

    Web Comics 

    Web Animation 
  • The animated characters of the Dolan Life Mysteries videos, especially in the videos animated by Klowncar or ReturnOfGoo.

    Web Original 
  • Starting in 2014, .moe joined the likes of .com and .net as a TLD. Yes, it is directly named after this concept.

    Western Animation 
  • Cartoon Network: Throughout its history, this channel's been able to churn out a slew of cute cartoons (which may contribute to its popularity, both in the States and in Japan).
  • ChalkZone has been described by many as Nickelodeon's cutest non-preschooler cartoon. Of course, this is not without complaints of Tastes Like Diabetes.
  • Danger Mouse (2015): Penfold, Professor Squawkencluck, Danger Moth, Dawn Crumhorn, sometimes Danger Mouse himself ... the list is endless.
  • Doc McStuffins: Basically the entire show is about a titular "Healer of Moe-toys".

uguu~
 
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Video Example(s):

Elora (Reignited Trilogy)

Elora's redesign for the Reignited Trilogy gives her a noticeably cuter look.

Alternative Title(s): Moe Moe, Moe Blob

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Elora (Reignited Trilogy)

Elora's redesign for the Reignited Trilogy gives her a noticeably cuter look.

How well does it match the trope?

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