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Moe (萌え) is a Japanese slang word. Moe is not consider as a concrete term. It is constantly evolving and being used in a variety of ways. People use Moe as a feeling or characteristic. The term "moe" can be tacked on to the end of any personality trait or physical trait to create a new type of moe. According to Patrick W. Galbraith it means "a rarefied pseudo-love for certain fictional characters (in anime, manga, and the like) and their related embodiments." notes that it is a pun derived from a Japanese word that literally means "budding," as with a plant that is about to flower, and thus it can also be used to mean "budding" as with a preadolescent girl. Since this word is also a homonym for "burning" pronounced moe (燃え), there is also speculation that the word stems from the burning passion felt for the characters. The word has come to be used to mean one particular kind of "adorable", one specific type of "cute", mainly as applied to fictional characters.

The word is occasionally spelled Moé, and was originally related to a strong interest in a particular type or style of character in video games, anime or manga. "Moe!" is also used within anime fandom as an interjection. Girls who are moe are called moekko (萌えっ娘) from the honorific "娘" meaning "female child".

Origins
The term's origin and etymology are unknown. Anime columnist John Oppliger has outlined several popular theories describing how the term would have stemmed from the name of anime heroines, such as Hotaru Tomoe from Sailor Moon (Tomoe is written as 土萌, relevant kanji is the same) or Moe Sagisawa from the 1993 anime Kyoryu Wakusei. Psychologist Tamaki Saitō identifies it as coming from the Japanese word for "budding". Ken Kitabayashi of the Nomura Research Institute has defined moe as "being strongly attracted to one's ideals" Kitabayashi has identified the word "moe" to be a pun with the Japanese godan (五段) verb for "to sprout" moyasu (萌やす) and its homonym "to burn" moyasu (燃やす). Along the same line of thought, Kitabayashi has identified it to be a pun with the Japanese ichidan (一段) verb for "to sprout" moeru (萌える) and its homonym "to burn" moeru (燃える), which mean "to burn" (in the sense of one's heart burning, or burning with passion). Galbraith states that the term came from 2channel in the 1990s, discussing female characters who were "hybrids of the Lolicon (Lolita Complex) and bishoujo (beautiful girl) genres". This describes exactly Hotaru Tomoe, and coincides with her height of popularity in 2channel, giving strength to the theory that the term stemmed from her name.

Comiket organiser Ichikawa Koichi has described Lum Invader of Urusei Yatsura as being both the source of moe and the first tsundere.

According to Hiroki Azuma, as Rei Ayanami became a more prominent character among fans, she "changed the rules" governing what people regarded as moe-inspiring. The industry has since created many characters which share her traits of pale skin, blue hair and a "quiet personality".

Related words

 * 眼鏡っ娘萌え, Meganekko-moe, "glasses-girl moe", describes a person who is attracted to fictional characters with eyeglasses
 * メイド萌え, Maid-moe / Shitsuji-moe, a stereotypical anime maid, butler, or other western-themed servant
 * ツンデレ萌え, Tsundere-moe, describes a person who is attracted to fictional characters with a character personality that is tough on the outside, but actually caring
 * 妹萌え, Imōto-moe, "younger sister moe", describes a person who most likely has a sister complex

The archetype moe character is used in some anime and manga, such as Miyuki Takara of Lucky Star. The term moe is often also used to describe either a character who is, or a form of media containing, moekko, therefore Lucky Star is a moe-anime for example.

Characteristics

 * large eyes (1/5 size of face)
 * small nose
 * flat face
 * tall iris
 * body 5.7 heads tall
 * thin limbs
 * large head
 * colorful hair
 * bangs over eyes
 * neotenized face
 * anime antenna hair called ahoge (アホ毛)

Commercial application


With moe anthropomorphism, moe characteristics are applied to give human elements to non-human objects. The Gradius video game series features a spaceship in the name of Vic Viper. For a spin-off game, moe is applied to Vic Viper to create Otomedius. Moe characters have expanded within the Japanese media market. In 2004, the market for moe media such as printed media, video, and games was worth 88 billion yen. This is roughly one-third of the estimated 290 billion yen otaku market in Japan.

"As the first decade of the 2000s unfolded, moé became increasing popular and recognized, invoking a commercial interest in manufacturing and exploiting moé. As this process occurred, moé evolved from being a non-sexual desire to hug, love, and protect to being a sexually sublimated fascination with cuteness. Moé shifted entirely from a two-way interchange between character and viewer to becoming distinctly a characteristic of particular characters or a focused fetish of viewers. Particularly anime including K-On, Lucky Star, and Moetan deliberately revolved around adorable, whimsical, clumsy, early-adolescent girl characters in order to evoke, enflame, and manipulate the interests and affections of viewers. These characters no longer evoked moé feelings; they were literally moé characters – not characters that naturally and unconsciously evoked a paternal reaction from viewers, but rather characters that were the physical manifestation of the defining characteristics of the moé movement. These girl characters were adorably cute, just a bit sexually appealing, and self-conscious but not yet cynical. They demanded notice and adoration from viewers rather than passively earning adoration and protective feelings.

At the same time moé was hitting its peak and beginning to evolve, it branched off into a parallel variety of moé, the pandering to particular niche fetishes. At least as early as 2002, the G-On Riders television series had consciously featured girls who wore glasses, to appeal to the “meganekko” fans, but the trend became more pronounced beginning in 2005 with anime that focused on satisfying one particular viewer obsession, for example: Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama (moé for French maid outfits), Strike Witches (military moé), Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (yandere moé), Mayoi Neko Overrun (waitress uniform moé), Macademy Washoi & Asobi ni Ikuyo (nekomimi moé), and Upotte! (assault rifle moé)."

- John Oppliger

Contests
The Japanese magazine Dengeki Moeoh runs a column called "Moeoh Rankings" which features the top 10 moe characters of the month, as determined by reader votes.

Saimoe
One such contest is the Anime Saimoe Tournament, which has been organized by members of 2channel every year since 2002. Moe characters entering within the fiscal year starting July 1 and ending June 30 the following year are eligible. Each tournament has at least 280 moe characters. They must have any of the following qualifications:


 * Anime newly broadcast in Japan on TV or internet over five stories or a half of the full stories in that period
 * OVAs (Original Video Animations) newly released in Japan in that period
 * Anime films newly screened in Japan in that period

Spin-offs of the Saimoe Tournament include RPG Saimoe, which exclusively features video game characters, and SaiGAR, a competition between the manliest men of anime; despite the participation of Takamachi Nanoha in SaiGAR 2007. In 2006 and 2007, the Saimoe Tournament became an increasingly international event; 2channel users obliged foreign otaku by putting up an English version of their rules page.

International Saimoe League
The International Saimoe League, also known as ISML, is a worldwide online popularity moe contest.

Criticism
There are various interpretations of what moe is today and in the past. Joseph L. Dela Pena argues that moe is a pure, protective feeling towards a female character, without the sexualization of lolicon also known as loli. Jason Thompson of Otaku USA regards moe when applied to young female characters or people as being an offshoot of the lolicon phenomenon and the role of cuteness in Japanese culture. Scott Von Schilling sees moe in this sense as being indicative of men in their thirties "longing for fatherhood".

In response to the growing otaku fetishization of cute female characters in anime and manga, Japanese animator and self-avowed feminist Hayao Miyazaki has stated:

"It's difficult. They immediately become the subjects of lolicon fetishism. In a sense, if we want to depict someone who is affirmative to us, we have no choice but to make them as lovely as possible. But now, there are too many people who shamelessly depict [such heroines] as if they just want [such girls] as pets, and things are escalating more and more."

- Hayao Miyazaki

Enomoto Nariko, a yaoi author and manga critic says that "male fans cannot experience moe until they have fixed their own position". Tamaki Saitō explains that a male fan's "position" is his position as a subject, which the male fan must establish before he can desire an object. In this view, moe characters are agents of the male fan's desire. Nariko Enomoto compares male fans to fujoshi, whom she says are primarily attracted to phases of a relationship, for example the point at which a friendly relationship becomes romantic.