Being a lover of all things anime and 2D in general, I normally don't have things to complain about that are within or surround anime. Even the things that mildly get on my nerves, such as obnoxious fanboys/fangirls (of anything), or things I don't like, such as Hentai and Yuri, are all easily avoidable and don't really bother me at all.

However, there's one, seemingly harmless thing that's been tugging at the back of my mind, and it's been gradually annoying the living crap out of me. I am, of course, talking about;

moé.

If you don't know what moé is- basically it's girls in anime & manga who have something very child-like about them; whether they're wearing bows/ribbons they're too old for, have the physical attributes of an underaged girl, (body and/or face) or who just seem child-like in their mannerisms. Though, most moé chicks are all of the above. If you're still not sure what I'm talking about, here's some examples:

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If you're too lazy to watch those, just imagine EVERY EROGE (erotic visual novel game) EVER MADE.

Even though moé is nothing new to me, I started feeling the urge to rant about it because of the first vid I linked to *points to the first one in the list of links* because quite honestly, I felt torn. Half of me was watching the DancexMixer instructional vids thinking "omg I wanna make a Mizu char and have her daaaance!!" and the other half of me was thinking "omg this is so very sexist" o___o

By now you must be thinking “Hey, what do you have against moé anyway? I LOVE HARUHI AND KONATA AND AND AND AND THEY’RE SO KAWAII DESU NI-PAH!” well; lemme just name a few things that I think are…not right about moé << >>

1) If moé is hot, then any form of aging/growing up is not. (Mental and physical)
2) By that logic, it pretty much promotes pedophilia. (aka Loli; the Jr. division of moé if you will)
3) Since moé is becoming increasingly popular, it’s going to become harder to find any good anime.
4) It’s becoming popular outside of Japan; and I have a feeling it’ll eventually lead to the apocalypse.
5) It’s partly to blame why the Japanese population has declined.
6) There’s even a petition that’s trying to make marrying 2D characters legal in Japan. I’m pretty sure moé is somehow connected to that!
7) It pretty much says that all women should be nothing but objects. Then again what doesn’t these days?

Though, let me just clarify a few more things. I’m not saying it’s completely terrible for a anime character to be moé. After all, Sailor Moon, Nia, (from Gurren Lagann) and countless others fall into the moé category, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not to mention moé does have some appeal, and is certainly fine in small doses.

But if you’re watching a show BECAUSE it’s drawn in a moé fashion, or just to see the entire cast do moé things, or so you can jerk off to their kawaii desu fanservice-y ways, then yeah, that’s kinda messed up.

It also stinks when the entire Anime Fandom in general make so many references to said moé shows that it's like they're trying to shove it down your throat/in your face.

Yes, I know that Hetalia can fall into the moé category too, but here’s the thing. All of those characters actually LOOK like adults. x_x Plus they’re not being child-like just for the sake of being moé; they just embody the silly quirks of their individual nations. ‘nuff said.

~Mizu