Japan’s ‘Moe’ obsession: the purest form of love, or creepy fetishization of young girls?

[redqueen]

1. Oh, Goddess...

Creepy? Perhaps. It may be reassuring to those who feel that moe “love” is simply pedophilia — a word that doesn’t appear once in Galbraith’s book — but it is hard not to feel revulsion over some of the illustrations in the book, particularly those by artist Pop, who depicts a prepubescent cartoon girl, legs splayed out and crotch thrust at the viewer. “I like thighs, and so I draw full-body portraits from a low-angle perspective,” Pop is quoted as saying. (Decades after the rest of the developed world, Japan last month finally outlawed the possession of child pornography, but the ban doesn’t affect anime and manga publishers.)

The event inspired the book’s title, although it contains no manifesto per se. What it does offer is some very deep inside baseball on the origins and manifestations of moe. Like-minded fans will appreciate its detailed account of the magazine Manga Burikko, where the word “otaku” surfaced in the early 1980s in a column by Akio Nakamori, as well as the popularization of the word “moe” following the film “Densha Otoko (Train Man).” Readers will also learn about how the producers of the 1982-83 anime “Maho no Princess Minky Momo (Magical Princess Minky Momo),” aimed squarely at girls 3 to 5 years old, were stunned to find it had been appropriated by otaku: Adult male devotees had formed a fan club.

There really are no words.