Support NeoGAF

[SonicMegaDrive]

I was once an anime fan. To be sure, there are still occasional new things produced even to this day that I enjoy. But for the most part, I feel that I've moved on.

There are two big reasons. One of them is the move away from using cels to digital(it just never looked as appealing to me). But that isn't what this is about.

No, the other reason is the little girl stuff. Or, as the fans like to refer to it - moé. In recent years, the number of anime produced catering to the loli fetish has risen astronomically. Oh, sure. There's been loli and moé-related themes in anime for a very long time. As early as 1984, in fact. But you have to be in denial not to admit that it isn't until recently that it's blown-up to the degree that it has.


Here's a fairly recent article you can read to get a bit of insight on the subject - http://www.comixology.com/articles/265/Moe-The-Cult-of-the-Child

And here's one from a couple years ago that I found pretty interesting: http://www.animeacademy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22493

What's your take on the whole moé thing? Does it bother you? Has it affected your enjoyment of anime or how you perceive people that do?

This is a subject that has bothered me for some time. This is a great place to discuss this, because it's such a large melting pot of biased and unbiased opinions. So the responses should be interesting.

 

[Ardorx]

Weirdo

 

[sprsk]

Moe pretty much destroyed the anime industry, in my eyes.

 

[Alucrid]

I never watch anything new due to the complete lack of interest. the moe thing and having very little time.

 

[Annihilator]

Doesn't bother me to much. Just don't watch them if you don't like them. I thought kodomo no jikan was pretty damn funny. That's about the only "loli" centric anime I've seen though.

 

[Milk Lizard]

like it a lot.

 

[Kandrick]

There is nothing wrong with lolis and moe. If you dont like it, then dont watch animes with it ?

 

[otake]

I stopped watching anime because it got too repetitive, the whole pedo thing bothered me as well.

Sad.

 

[Ardorx]

There is nothing wrong with lolis and moe. If you dont like it, then dont watch animes with it ?

Exactly. Nobody should watch anime AT ALL.

 

[Ceres]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_yMkBttqo0

 

[Pandaman]

doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Tamanon]

If only we could find someway to replace Moe with Giant Robots instead.:/

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_yMkBttqo0

:lol :lol

Tommy Lee Jones' reaction is perfect.

 

[Pandaman]

If only we could find someway to replace Moe with Giant Robots instead.:/

oh please no.

 

[Brinbe]

Exactly. Nobody should watch anime AT ALL.

Yep, goddamn animes.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

If only we could find someway to replace Moe with Giant Robots instead.:/

 

[Gilgamesh]

One time at college I saw this gangsta-looking black guy just laughing his ass off watching Lucky Star on his computer. It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life.

 

[Masaki_]

One time at college I saw this gangsta-looking black guy just laughing his ass off watching Lucky Star on his computer. It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life.

lucky star is deep

 

[ZeroGravity]

Don't really have a problem with it at all. A lot of these anime, while not exactly deep or thought-provoking, are still pretty entertaining. Some of them are actually extremely good and it's kind of sad to see people pass them up because they see maybe one or two characters that fit the moe stereotype and judge the anime entirely on that.

I consider myself pretty open to any and all anime.

 

[Blair]

 

[Doc Evils]

:lol

 

[The Frankman]

Yikes.

And there needs to be a series with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones protecting the US from moe. I'd watch in a second.

 

[djtiesto]

Don't mind it either, but I don't really watch much anime. In games, I prefer the moe aesthetic over the 'bald space marine' cliche.

 

[7Th]

Hate on moe all you want, but the switch from cel to digital, despite being rough as fuck at first, was one of the best things that could happen to Japanese animation.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Was a fan of anime for so long, used to always do anything and pay stupid prices for VHS of bad recordings back in the day, so many classic moments..... but anime today, it just ugh. I find it harder and harder to sit down and watch anything outside of occasional mecha show which have seem to all gone the shitter as well as of late. My only hope is Gundam Unicorn and the new Eva movies.

 

[fastford58]

I was a huge fan of Anime back when, but all the loli shit is just stupid as hell. It is becoming the lowest form of entertainment by far. I would rather watch full seasons of Springer.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

Hate on moe all you want, but the switch from cel to digital, despite being rough as fuck at first, was one of the best things that could happen to Japanese animation.

In what way? For making the production easier or because it just looks better?

 

[charsace]

Agree with the OP. This shit has destroyed anime.

 

[7Th]

In what way? For making the production easier or because it just looks better?

Let's just say that stuff like FLCL, Wanwa or Mind Game would have been impossible, or nearly impossible, to produce without digital animation.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

Let's just say that stuff like FLCL, Wanwa or Mind Game would have been impossible, or nearly impossible, to produce without digital animation.

That's true, and I do think that the occasional digital animation is quite nice. But it would have been better if both styles could have remained, since both of them have unique aesthetics to them that can't be duplicated in the other.

Generally, I feel digital animation looks cheap or unnatural, with some exceptions. But that's just me.

 

[Kafarabo]

I dont watch anime, and i don't like it much. But i do occasionally jerk it to lolis. If that makes any sense.

 

[GaimeGuy]

 

[EviLore]

I checked out the latest anime season thread and was pretty disgusted by the latest batch of shows. Now, most stuff each season always looks like crap and turns out to be crap, but the sheer amount of moe loli harem maid ecchi whatthefuckever is overwhelming, and it seems to get worse each season. It was just the followup series of the Baccano creators that got my attention in the winter lineup.

All of my internet anime comrades...hitokage, duckroll, teknopathetic, dead, etc....don't seem to be following much anymore either. Duckroll was saying the other day that he's disgusted by the trends too and has mostly given up on anime tv series. I mean, these are long-time hardcore fans we're talking about here, myself included, but the industry is moving too much towards trying to tickle the balls of smelly basement pedobears as best they can.

 

[duckroll]

This thread makes me want to give up on anime entirely.

 

[Kyoufu]

I gave up on anime a long time ago.

 

[The Frankman]

This thread makes me want to give up on anime entirely.

I gave up on new stuff like 2 years ago.

 

[klee123]

It's the reason why 90% of the anime released nowadays is shit. Every time I see the Anime thread, I reminiscent back during the mid 90s when Anime was actually good.

There's still some good ones released every now and then, but the majority of the stuff is indeed certified shit.

 

[yankeeforever2]

I went into the winter anime thread and 3/4 of then damn anime was loli shit:lol They wonder why anime is dead in the west, it is mostly dead to me other then FMA.

 

[Ceres]

I gave up on anime a long time ago.

At least you have Twilight to watch for the 40th time.

 

[The Frankman]

Don't worry people, there's a keikaku in place. Trust it!

 

["God's Beard!"]

It's a feedback cycle of infantilism and fanservice that is rapidly destroying an entire industry by virtue of degrading the minds of its target audience, who then demand more. I don't think that the state it's in now could produce something like Ghost in the Shell or Sanctuary.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Except for the extra super occasional cyberpunk anime I've washed my hands of it completely

 

[genjiZERO]

for me what's killed anime is the decreased quality of animation and writing. I find the loli thing more funny than anything else. It's been around a lot longer than manga/anime though. If you read Genji Monogatari the main story arch is esentially about an adult who falls in love with a 10 year old, kidnaps her, trains her to be the "perfect woman", and then when she turns 15, rapes her and brings her into his harem.

 

[tokkun]

I quit anime about 4 years ago due to this trend and now I just stick to seinen manga.

I guess the real question is, why has this trend taken place? One guess is that it is because 'mainstream' anime fans do not generate enough revenue due to rampant piracy, but creepy otaku will make you money by buying merchandise.

 

[McLovin]

I use to be into anime, but yeah I noticed the rising trend. I slowly lost interest in most anime. I still might watch anime once in a while(Bleach or sometimes Naruto) but for the most part that Moe thing turned me off most animes.

 

[Houston3000]

One of the many reasons I never watched Anime, but also one of the largest besides my general distaste of the art style and animation, technically speaking. Most of it either overtly sexualizes children or features them in major roles (which just make the cartoons very childish to me). The sexualization stuff is pretty disgusting and it's rather disturbing that people, not only watch it, but proclaim they do publicly and aren't ashamed of it.

 

[akachan ningen]

I checked out the latest anime season thread and was pretty disgusted by the latest batch of shows. Now, most stuff each season always looks like crap and turns out to be crap, but the sheer amount of moe loli harem maid ecchi whatthefuckever is overwhelming, and it seems to get worse each season. It was just the followup series of the Baccano creators that got my attention in the winter lineup.

All of my internet anime comrades...hitokage, duckroll, teknopathetic, dead, etc....don't seem to be following much anymore either. Duckroll was saying the other day that he's disgusted by the trends too and has mostly given up on anime tv series. I mean, these are long-time hardcore fans we're talking about here, myself included, but the industry is moving too much towards trying to tickle the balls of smelly basement pedobears as best they can.

I like that though. Now that there's only 1, maybe 2 shows worth watching per season, it's so much easier to keep track of the good stuff. I've always only had watch a few shows a year and back in the day(90s) I always used to feel like I was missing so much because there was so much out there. Not so much anymore.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

I checked out the latest anime season thread and was pretty disgusted by the latest batch of shows. Now, most stuff each season always looks like crap and turns out to be crap, but the sheer amount of moe loli harem maid ecchi whatthefuckever is overwhelming, and it seems to get worse each season. It was just the followup series of the Baccano creators that got my attention in the winter lineup.

All of my internet anime comrades...hitokage, duckroll, teknopathetic, dead, etc....don't seem to be following much anymore either. Duckroll was saying the other day that he's disgusted by the trends too and has mostly given up on anime tv series. I mean, these are long-time hardcore fans we're talking about here, myself included, but the industry is moving too much towards trying to tickle the balls of smelly basement pedobears as best they can.

Yeah, I'm a long-time anime fan myself. I first got into it in the early 90's, when companies like ADV and CPM started popping up.

I still like anime a lot, even today. But really, I find myself looking more for older shows from before 1998 that I've missed out on or haven't yet seen than I do newer shows.

 

[The Frankman]

I quit anime about 4 years ago due to this trend and now I just stick to seinen manga.

I guess the real question is, why has this trend taken place? One guess is that it is because 'mainstream' anime fans do not generate enough revenue due to rampant piracy, but creepy otaku will make you money by buying merchandise.

Rise in popular moe/lolicon manga? I hit the Waldenbooks/Barnes and Nobles and that crap is all over the place. I think the new hot one is Dance in the Vampire Bund and features the "Queen" vampire who acts like an adult and looks 9. Funny thing is I flipped though a few pages and everyone has huge racks, it's seemingly over-exaggerated artwork in many areas.

 

[Calcaneus]

They need to make more anime with international audiences in mind, or at least non-otaku in mind. Stuff like Cowboy Bebop is universal, anyone can like it without feeling embarrassed.. Same can't be said for moe.