This thread is specifically about the history of these sorts of characters, including their common features and how they came to their modern form. I guess they aren't specifically a video game thing, but for those of us who like Japanese video games, it seems like they're becoming a more prominent feature for whatever reason.
If you're just going to post about whether you like or dislike these character types, please don't. That's not what this thread is about. Feel free to make another thread. If you're going to post something like "because pedophiles", well okay, but can you be more specific? Can we isolate a point where they became a viable market to target?
Don't know a ton about this myself because I don't watch modern anime, but I'll try to start this off:
Supposedly the moe aesthetic comes out of shoujo manga. The first few shoujo manga were made by men, but I think that they're mostly made by women for an audience of young girls. The shoujo look often involved detailed art with elaborate clothes, which you see in loli goth characters and the like now.
Then at some point, companies started to realize that guys watch these series too, and they tried to expand their appeal. I can't seem to dig it out now, but I remember reading somewhere that this is why Sailor Moon was how it was. The idea of a team of multi-coloured warriors that fought a monster every week was Toei's way of selling the show to guys, inspired by their own Super Sentai (which was already popular with that demographic). But the primary audience for the show was still younger girls.
And then later you ended up with stuff like Nanoha, which takes on the aesthetic while being an action series for an older male audience. I've heard that part of the shift is due to the Windows reboot of the Touhou Project franchise, which sexualizes the girls while using shoujo-like designs. Although maybe it's the Touhou fans to blame if that's true, since fan works are are so big with that franchise.
And then... well, that's actually all that I've read on the subject. Are there are anime historians here that know better?
If you're just going to post about whether you like or dislike these character types, please don't. That's not what this thread is about. Feel free to make another thread. If you're going to post something like "because pedophiles", well okay, but can you be more specific? Can we isolate a point where they became a viable market to target?
Don't know a ton about this myself because I don't watch modern anime, but I'll try to start this off:
Supposedly the moe aesthetic comes out of shoujo manga. The first few shoujo manga were made by men, but I think that they're mostly made by women for an audience of young girls. The shoujo look often involved detailed art with elaborate clothes, which you see in loli goth characters and the like now.
Then at some point, companies started to realize that guys watch these series too, and they tried to expand their appeal. I can't seem to dig it out now, but I remember reading somewhere that this is why Sailor Moon was how it was. The idea of a team of multi-coloured warriors that fought a monster every week was Toei's way of selling the show to guys, inspired by their own Super Sentai (which was already popular with that demographic). But the primary audience for the show was still younger girls.
And then later you ended up with stuff like Nanoha, which takes on the aesthetic while being an action series for an older male audience. I've heard that part of the shift is due to the Windows reboot of the Touhou Project franchise, which sexualizes the girls while using shoujo-like designs. Although maybe it's the Touhou fans to blame if that's true, since fan works are are so big with that franchise.
And then... well, that's actually all that I've read on the subject. Are there are anime historians here that know better?