electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies Article 5 in 2009 First published in ejcjs on 31 October 2009 Moe Exploring Virtual Potential in Post-Millennial Japan By Patrick W. Galbraith PhD Candidate University of Tokyo e-mail the Author About the Author Abstract This paper focuses on moe, a word used to describe a euphoric response to fantasy characters or representations of them. I combine theoretical perspectives from Japan and abroad with participant observation conducted in Tokyo from 2004 to 2009 among male and female fans of anime, manga and videogames. Considering the discourse on moe and its pragmatic uses, I argue fantasy characters offer virtual possibilities and affect that exist separately and in tandem with 'reality.' This allows for expanded expressive potential. Key Words Moe; otaku; fujoshi; Japan; affect; fantasy; youth Introduction This is a paper on moe,[i] a neologism used to describe a euphoric response to fantasy characters or representations of them. The goal is to determine the meanings and pragmatic uses of moe, and suggest its significance. Moeru (nominalized as moe) is a simple Japanese verb meaning 'to bud or sprout,' and is homophonous with the verb 'to burn.' In the 1990s, the word appeared on the bulletin board website 2channel in discussion of young, cute and innocent anime girls, and a burning passion for them (Macias and Machiyama 2004).[ii] Given its origins, moe is often associated with a young, media-savvy generation of otaku, or hardcore fans of anime, manga and videogames. Moe is also used by fujoshi, zealous female fans of yaoi, a genre of manga featuring male homosexual romance. However, the word moe indicates a response to fantasy characters, not a specific style, character type or relational pattern. While some things are more likely than others to inspire moe, this paper will focus mainly on the response itself rather than the forms that inspire it. Moe is primarily based on two- dimensional images, but can also include objects that index fantasy or even people reduced to 'moe characters' and approached as fantasy.[iii] Both otaku and fujoshi access moe in what they refer to as 'pure fantasy' (junsui na fantajii), or characters and relationships removed from context, emptied of depth and positioned outside reality. The moe character is a 'body without organs' (Deleuze and Guattari 1987), and the response to its virtual potentials is affect. In my use of affect I follow Brian Massumi,[iv] who makes the concept distinct from feelings, which are personal, or emotions, the social expression of feelings (Massumi 1987). Massumi argues affect is a moment of unformed and unstructured potential (Massumi 2002). The experience, what he calls an 'intensity,' is outside of logical language and conscious control. Moe provides a word to express affect, or to identify a form that resonates and can trigger an intensity. Moe began in the realm of subculture, but it has since transitioned to mass culture. The word entered the popular lexicon with Densha Otoko, an otaku who saves a woman from being molested by a drunk man on the train, and, with advice from his fellows on 2channel, successfully courts her. Densha's story was collaboratively created on 2channel on a board for single men[v] between March and May 2004 and became an Internet book, a film, a primetime TV show, four manga series and an erotic video. The last episode of the drama, aired in primetime on Fuji TV in 2005, was viewed by 25.5 per cent of the national audience (Freedman 2009).[vi] The protagonist's dreamy recitation of 'moeeeee!' became a media phenomenon encouraging emulation.[vii] In 2005, moe was voted among the most influential slang words in Japan.[viii] Moe goods – kimono socks for the old, kitsch tokens for tourists and cuddly Hello Kitty character merchandise for kids – filled shops across Tokyo. The moe market of anime, manga and videogames was estimated at US$888 million[ix] annually (Morinaga 2005), and moe appeared in global exhibitions of Japanese culture.[x] In March 2007, Newsweek Japan ran a cover story describing the global impact of moe. In 2008, the national tourism board sponsored a book that included a section teaching Japanese how to explain moe to foreigners in English.[xi] While moe in this context is far removed from its origins, its naturalization demonstrates a wide awareness of and weakening resistance to the culture of idolizing fantasy characters. Moe is by now common parlance in Japan and among its researchers, but it remains stubbornly oblique. Often the definition is presumed in advance and never questioned openly, as if everyone implicitly understands the meaning. This tends to make definitions appear self-evident, while reinforcing received stereotypes. It is for this reason that moe is consistently misunderstood as first and foremost images of young girls instead of a response to virtual potentials, which can exist in a range of different images. I do not deny moe is faddish slang, but that is not to say there is no merit in serious study of the phenomenon. The appearance of a neologism to describe feelings for fantasy characters represents an acute awareness of the importance of fantasy, and as such can be understood as one important cultural development occurring in Japan at the turn of the millennium. The preliminary research on moe presented here is comprised of sustained theoretical treatment supported by data gathered while conducting participant observation in Tokyo from 2004 to 2009. The ethnographic projects that brought me to Tokyo were not about moe per se, but included topics such as Akihabara (Galbraith, upcoming), fujoshi and yaoi and maid cafés. In the field interacting with otaku and fujoshi, I was constantly confronted by the concept of moe, and found it necessary to engage it. The results of that struggle are documented here. I will first introduce two theories of moe that position the phenomenon in sociocultural and 'postmodern' shifts taking place in late- stage capitalism. From there I more concretely describe the material circumstances and consumption patterns that influenced the emergence of moe. This is followed by a review of the discourse among fans. I conclude with an in-depth analysis of otaku and fujoshi activities as they relate to moe. Japanese critical discourse While moe has been reduced to isolated and inconsistent use in academia, two Japanese philosophers, Honda Touru and Azuma Hiroki, offer compelling paradigms.[xii] These are both men and their discourse centers on male otaku, but I will argue from them a more general theory, applied later in the paper to fujoshi structures of desire. Honda, a youth-oriented novelist and self-styled moe critic, defines moe as 'imaginary love' (nounai renai) (Honda 2005: 81). He states that characters that inspire moe provide something to believe in beyond the self, which makes the self possible, and these characters thus become an important support like family or a romantic partner (Honda 2005: 59, 81, 151). The significance of Honda's argument is the pretense that in Japan today fulfillment as a human being can only be found inside one's own brain as a reaction to fantasy characters. As Honda sees it, 'love capitalism' (renai shihon shugi) privileges relationships to only a select few who have money and culturally defined good looks. Moe is a 'pure love' (junai) unconnected to the system of dating and romance centered on consumptive practices. It does not matter if Honda is overlooking the decidedly capitalist aspects of moe media and character merchandising; the salient point is his judgment that a relationship with a mediated character or material representations of it is preferable to an interpersonal relationship. In awakening his imagination, the 'moe man' (moeru otoko) can escape the confines of masculinity (datsu dansei-sei) based on performance in the love market. The other way around, the moe man is feminized (shoujoka), for example taking care of infantile moe characters like a mother or indulging a desire for cute things. Moe allows men to stop performing socially sanctioned masculinity and indulge femininity, which can be very soothing (iyasareru). Honda sees in this the potential for a balanced gender identity; moe men can burn with masculine energy and bud with feminine emotion. While Honda is unabashedly and radically opposed to mainstream society,[xiii] numerous media outlets in Japan collaborate his narrative with reports that the ongoing recession has undermined stable employment and aggravated the 'stratification of romance' (renai kakusa); the number of eligible marriage partners with a high salary shrinks, and the gap between those people and the ineligible masses grows ever wider.[xiv] The moe man is actually very conservative in rejecting casual or paid sex and advocating imaginary marriage emblazoned in pet names for favorite characters such as ore no yome (my bride) or nounai tsuma (imaginary wife).[xv] While recognizing the conservative nature of otaku sexuality, Azuma attempts to account for the schizophrenic presence of perversion in the moe image. For Azuma, otaku are postmodern subjects with multiple personalities engendered by their environment and enthusiastic media consumption (Azuma 2009). Drawing on postmodern theorists Jean- Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard, Azuma argues moe can be both pure and perverse because there is no grand narrative connecting moments of pleasure endlessly reproduced as simulacra. Otaku 'learn the technique of living without connecting the deeply emotional experience of a work (a small narrative) to a worldview (a grand narrative). Borrowing from psychoanalysis, I call this schism dissociative' (Azuma 2009: 84). Azuma uses the example of dating simulator games,[xvi] where a player's choices determine the outcome of relationships with characters of the opposite sex. The player engages a moe character as a pure being and his one true love, and then imagines perverse sexual interactions with the same character or philanders with other characters.