v
d of
en heard of bish-
bish
h-
ojo games (cute-g
-girl g
irl ames tar
games ta g
rgeting
eting
adults). But as these ar
h
e the kind of
ese are the kind of
games UNiSONSHIFT make
S
,
HIFT make I kne
,
w I
I knew I
had to design char
h acters for these
aracters for these
games if I was going to be a pr
going
o-
to be a pro-
fessional. So I concentr
oncent ated on
rated on
practicing and impr
m
o
pr ving m
oving
y
my
skills every day. Up until I got
Up until I got
a job at this compan
mp
y
an , I had
y,
only been drawing what I
ing what I
wanted to draw, but no
, b
w
ut no
I had to think about
bout
how the players, who
, who
are predominantl
n y
tly
male, would respond
pond
to my illustrations.
ons.
T
PG: What was the fi
he rst
fi rst
NSHIFO
game you worked on?
ed on?
UNIS©
IN: I was a key artist
artist
( gengaka) for the g
e ame
game
Be-reave (1999). I was just
w
one of many who contributed
ho contributed
to that work.
Nanatsuiro Drops:
Akihime Sumono
GIRL DRAWING GIRL
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112
PG: Did you fi nd it diffi cult to imagine the response of male players to your character designs?
IN: At fi rst it was very diffi cult. I had no idea what the players wanted or would respond to. But if you don’t do what feels right for you, it isn’t fun and the end result isn’t very good. So the real trick was fi nding a balance between what I wanted to draw and what I thought that the players wanted to see.
PG: What do you focus on when you create a character?
IN: I want the character to have an impact. I put a lot of thought into the pose and the clothes they wear. I also put a lot of thought into which colors would suit each character best. I try to capture aspects of personality in the design. If someone is energetic, she may like to eat, so I might put a donut in her mouth in one pose.
These little quirks or habits really bring the character to life.
PG: Do you think of your characters in terms of reality or fantasy?
IN: Both. Sometimes the idea comes from my imagination and A
I add elements of reality to it, and sometimes the idea is based ISHA
IG
in reality and I add elements of fantasy to it.
Complete fantasy is impossible,
BUSHIK
KA
I think. I don’t use models, but
O
when I don’t have a particular
SHINK
URI
image, I might think in terms of
an actress or artist. But I don’t
CHIZUKA
M
look at pictures when I draw or
SHIA
base them on anyone specifi cally.
MB
NIPPO
PG: Do you identify with your
C / N
characters?
AL, I
FTPO
IN: Not on a personal level, no. But
I / SIZ
when I draw a character I become
O
O N
them. Whether the character is
T
E © I
a boy or girl, I kind of get inside
G
IMA
them. I perform the character like
Neon-chan
ITO NOIZI
MOE_12_108-115.indd 112
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113
an actress. I think to myself, “What
was she thinking when she made
this face?” When I am think-
T
ing along with the character, I
sometimes make the face that
NSHIFO
I am drawing. At that moment
UNIS©
we are one and the same. But
eventually the character takes
on its own life.
PG: Your character illustrations
are widely praised by fans as
moé. What does that word mean
to you?
IN: Something that comes hard
and fast at your heart. Maybe ev-
ery time we think, “That’s good,” we
are feeling moé. People use it loosely
now, but in the beginning I think it
meant when you saw a character
and thought, “Oh, how cute!” It’s
not a particularly new or special
feeling.
PG: Do you draw with the intention
of triggering a moé response in your
audience?
IN: No. Some people think that
maids or cat ears are moé, but I
don’t pay attention to such things.
I just draw what I like. If people
think that it’s moé, then I am
very grateful.
Wasurenagusa Forget-
Me-Not: Eario
GIRL DRAWING GIRL
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114
PG: Do you have any idea why people might think that maids or cat ears are moé?
IN: Well, maids because they devote themselves entirely to the service of others. They are like a symbol of love. Cat ears because they are a symbol of fantasy, or what does not exist in reality.
You can draw a character with elf ears or wings and the effect would be the same. It’s a way to separate the character from the everyday and from humans. Besides, cats are cute! If you add cat ears to a girl then it doubles the cuteness. People may be thinking, “I want to touch her ears! Her tail is so fl uffy!” Something like that, I guess.
PG: Which of your characters do you fi nd to be most moé?
IN: Akihime Sumomo from the game Nanatsuiro Drops (2006).
She is a magical girl, and there is a long history of men being attracted to such characters. [See Sato Toshihiko, page 46, and T
NSHIFO
UNIS©
Nanatsuiro Drops
ITO NOIZI
MOE_12_108-115.indd 114
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115
Nunokawa Yuji, page 54.] I don’t really know what guys fi nd moé, but the magical girl character tends to be a small girl with lots of energy—the kind of girl that is just too cute to exist. The original target audience for magical girl anime was young girls, and therefore the magical girl character is a young girl just like them, except she has magical powers. The little girls watching can dream of being like her. If you stop and think about it, men just want to be a part of that world. They think that it would be splendid if such girls existed and they could be close to them.
Men desire a
world where magical girls exist. I think men who are into moé are similar to girls in their tastes.
PG: Why do you think that there is an emphasis on youthful characters in manga, anime, and games?
IN: Because that is when girls are the cutest. They are innocent, pure, and sincere. They don’t strategize and play games with people. There is also the school setting to consider. A lot of manga and anime are set in schools, so the age of characters has to be relatively young. School is something that people can relate to either as a student now or in the past. This is the time of the best and worst experiences of life. Everything is super-emotional and meaningful. It is easy for creators to imagine scenarios in the school setting, to fantasize about things that they didn’t or couldn’t experience. You can enjoy a sort of pseudo-experience of the everyday, only in a more exciting and fulfi lling way.
PG: Do you think that there has been a moé boom?
IN: Manga and anime are certainly reaching wider audiences.
The TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion ushered in a whole new generation of fans in the 1990s. So many people were talking about Evangelion that they called it a social phenomenon. People who liked Evangelion spoke openly about liking characters from the show like Rei or Asuka. More recently, people talk about loving my character Haruhi. It’s no longer embarrassing to like characters this way. That is why moé has spread.
GIRL DRAWING GIRL
MOE_12_108-115.indd 115
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116
Interview with
I
Ho
H n
o da Toru
Honda Toru, born in 1969, is an
author and cultural critic. He
became famous in 2005 when
he wrote the books Denpa otoko (Ram-
OU
bling man) and Moeru otoko (Man,
L
bursting into bud), which espouse
ODOUT
his philosophy on moé. He went on to
I CHRIS
write the books Mo’dan no tetsugakushi
NIKOR
(A philosophical history of unpopular
ND AY
men) in 2006, No’nai ren’ai no susume
B
PH
(Recommending imaginary love) in
RAGOT
2007, and Sekai no denpa otoko: mo’dan
O
PH
no bungakushi (Rambling men of the
world: a literary history of unpopular
men) in 2008. From Honda’s perspec-
tive, moé is a response from men
who feel marginalized by a society in
which there are few acceptable male
roles beyond that of salaryman. In
such a society men must work hard
and buy into romance by purchasing
gifts and going on expensive dates.
Calling this a system of “love capital-
ism” ( ren’ai shihonshugi), Honda ad-
C
vocates an alternative: relationships
IN
S, K
with fi ctional characters—what he
OO B
refers to as a “love revolution” ( ren’ai
SAINNS
kakumei). In this interview, Honda
© SA
explains how he came to this conclu-
sion, and why he thinks his point of
view deserves to be taken seriously.
Denpa otoko
HONDA TORU
MOE_13_116-125.indd 116
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117
The Love Revolution
Is Here
Why One Man Recommends Imaginary Love
Patrick W. Galbraith (PG): What are your
hobbies?
Honda Toru (HT): Anime, manga,
games—all the usual stuff. Fantasy was
important for me from an early age
NA
as an escape from home and school.
SHUPPEI
I struggled with depression in high
GUKA
school. I actually wanted to drop out
GAW
and kill myself. It sounds stupid, I
KAOD
know, but anime saved my life. You
KA©
see, I was watching Fist of the North Star
(1984–1988) and I didn’t want to die un-
til I saw the end of the battle between
Kenshiro and Raoh. The story was so
No’nai ren’ai no susume
drawn out
that by the time it fi nally ended I was
over my depression. When I went to
university, I thought I’d give up anime,
but in 1992 along came Sailor Moon
CN
and I fell back in deeper than ever. I
started drawing Sailor Moon fanzines.
OOKS, I
SAI B
In 1995, when the Kobe earthquake
destroyed our house, I was about ready
© SAN
to give up on life again, but that same
year the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion
Sekai no denpa otoko
THE LOVE REVOLUTION IS HERE
MOE_13_116-125.indd 117
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118
came along. It was really the
he
one-two punch of Evangelion
o
n
and then bishojo games (dat-
t-
ing simulator games) that
sealed my fate as an otaku
in the late 1990s. I have
EGA
played bishojo games ever
ARG
FTO
since, and right now I’m
S/NO
totally hooked on LovePlus.
EXT
You can interact with a
© N
two-dimensional girl in
real time, which is like a
dream come true for me,
because I have no inter-
est in three-dimensional
women. I’m not even
Kawana Misaki
interested in idol singers.
Years ago I married a character from a bishojo game, One: kagayaku kisetsu e (1998). Her name is Kawana Misaki.
PG: Was Kawana your fi rst love?
HT: No, she wasn’t. I can’t even remember
anymore which character was my fi rst
love. When I was a kid watching Tezuka
Osamu’s anime on TV, I couldn’t under-
stand the stories, so I focused on the char-
acters. Tezuka is the father of Japanese
anime, really classic, but his characters
are cute. I defi nitely felt something for
Sapphire from Princess Knight (1967–1968)
and Melmo from Marvelous Melmo (1971–
1972). Sapphire is both a boy and a girl,
and Melmo is both a child and an adult,
so I was confused but intrigued. My favor-
ite character of all time is still Asuka from
HONDA TORU
MOE_13_116-125.indd 118
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119
the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. That was a series that did a great deal to establish the conventions of character moé, but the director, An’no Hideaki, betrayed all the fans by brutally killing Asuka in the movie that ended the series. Personally, I think that one of the reasons why you had all these people turning to fanzines and bishojo games in the late 1990s was because fans were so upset with the ending of Evangelion and were searching for some kind of compensatory satisfaction.
PG: What does the word moé mean to you?
HT: It’s a feeling like love, but a sort of bittersweet love. It’s like falling in love for the fi rst time. The other part of
moé is a feeling of calm ( iyashi). You look at a cute character and your heart is at T
INMEN
TA
ERT
ENL
LovePlus
ITA
IG
D
MIANO K©
THE LOVE REVOLUTION IS HERE
MOE_13_116-125.indd 119
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120
ease. Moé is the warmth and solace that cannot be found in human society. Moé characters tend to be separated from humans and reality in some way, so you might have girls with cat ears or robot girls or alien girls. There is a sort of purity to these characters—they are not tainted by our world.
Tezuka understood this. There is a story in
n
his manga Phoenix (1967–1988) where a man
an
falls in love with an alien, Tamami, who
looks like a beautiful girl.
S
PG: Right. And in Lunn Flies into the Wind TION
(1985), one of Tezuka’s short animations,
RODUC P
a young boy falls in love with a girl in a
EZUKA T
©
Below: Princess Knight
ESG
Right: Melmo
A
IM
HONDA TORU
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121
12
poster and treats the
poster as a person. It’s
a very tender story,
and in some ways
seems to anticipate
moé relationships, al-
though eventually the
boy fi nds a “real” girl,
so the conclusion is
conservative. Tezuka
Lunn Flies into the Wind
was always interest-
ed in relationships
with nonhumans, even though he gave them human form. Why do you think these nonhumans have to look human?
HT: People are lonely and project desires onto objects around S
them. In moé culture, anything can take the shape of a cute girl.
TION
Machines. Utensils. World nations. As long as it is female, and human in shape, a moé character does not have to be based on a RODUC P
human. You can get a lot of pleasure from anthropomorphizing EZUKA T
objects into cute characters. You can’t have a relationship with
©
ESG
an object, but if it is in the shape of a girl then there are more A
IM
possibilities. A cat, for example, can be represented by a cute girl with cat ears and a tail. It’s obvious that the cat-ear phenomenon began with someone thinking “I wonder what a cat would be like if it were a human?” Then all
sorts of desires get wrapped up in
that image.
The Moé Manifesto Page 10