LAUAN501: Practical response

For my practical response, I decided to visually break down the different elements/stages in the creation process of a moe girl/ anime-style girl in general, from body proportion, hair style, to face size and eye shapes. Doing so, it presented a clearer image of the evolution of the style with the gradual increase of moe applications, as well as a better understanding in the attractive points of different moe-elements. 

In terms of body proportions, from what I can gathered, a large proportion of identified "moe" girls usually have 5-5.5 heads body proportion with really slender arms and legs ( for a younger , more cutesy appearance). More over, body doesn't necessarily communicate the age of the character, as "moe" adult character can also have a child-like appearance as well, sometime confusingly so.

           "She's a mom,... yeah"

Eyes shape are iconic to the genre. Interestingly enough, there's actually different words used to describe the eye shape use in Japanese-style character : Tareme (preference in the above), which describe the eye shape that is slanted in the outer corners and Tsurime, the opposite to it which are raised in the corners. Tareme eyes then signifies a more timid and shy personality which are more in the line traditional ideas of "moe". Moreover , the size of the pupils can also influence the levels of moe the character exert ( similar to that of the puppy eyes effect). Overtime , the emphasis on larger pupils are more prominent.

       Hairstyle also plays into different tropes of anime as they can be linked to different archetypes. Examples being : Side bangs signifies a more "traditional"/ mysterious girl,  Twintails are used a lot for little sister type, or tsundere type of moe, and Long, wavy here are used for Westerner characters, or people of Royalty. On top of that , different shades of colour also signifies different personality traits , such as blue hair represent a calm and mature character and red representing passion and a fiery attitude.

After getting all the technical aspect down ( to a certain level at least ) , I began various attempts of creating my own moe design, and then put them up for an online survey, to judge the level of effectiveness of them. Doing this , I hope it can validates some points in the essay about the popularity of moe archetypes as well as showing the difference in taste among different sectors of the audience. 

LAUAN501: Moe and Cuteness

 The word "Moe" carries a lot o meaning in different context. However, the stereotypical understanding of "moe" or a "moe" character in Anime and manga, is that they are young , small and cute, as exemplified by Kanna from  Kobayashi's Dragon maid ( image ). 

This stem from the fact that due to the youthful nature of 

the word moe itself , which mean to burn or to sprout, it is often

linked to youthful characteristics, or a sense of innocent. Going more in-dept and closer to a more definitive definition of moe, it is the ability of said character to instil a desire to adore, protect,  hug, kiss, and or squeeze them etc... in this case it is done through the cuteness of having a child-like youthful appearance/ manners. In one the interviews in the Moe manifesto , it was given an example as similar to a feeling of an older brother wanting to protect his little sister. Moe also doesn't limit to young character but older character as well, as long as the youthful appearance/personality is preserved 

Moe following the old conservative ideas of Japanese society usually is associated with innocence, shyness, humility, submission and helplessness. However as Western influence grows in Japan, newer forms of moe also include more upbeat, quirky, energetic and extroverted personalities that are more unique and noticeable, with examples like Harumi Suzumiya from the "melancholy of Harumi Suzumiya" or Konata from Lucky star. 

Speaking of Lucky star it is an excellent example of range of moe variations, as well as of an anime that builds itself on its moe characters. 

LAUAN501 : Evolution of style and the application of "Moe"

60s-70s

80s-90s

90s-2000s

This series of images depicting the stylistic evolution of anime show how the application of more moe-like traits influence the look of the character, especially in the period around the 90s-2000s when the Internet and the digital age grew, as well as the first appearances and definition of moe and what is now considered the "otaku" culture. Characters slowly moves from having more realistic proportion in the early 70s to more emphasis on larger eyes, smaller face and a more pointed chin. Its help to facilitate moe's position as a legitimate design style and a part of the evolution of Japanese media images, and not just about drawing cute/pretty young girls. (although that does counts for a lot)

LAUAN501: Bishojou and Shojou manga

One of the point made by Masami Toki in "International perspective on Shojou and shoujou manga" that there is a very close connection between the bishoujou style and "shoujou" manga and show, which are aimed at girls, and that the bishoujo traits attracts audience from both sexes. On that point and based on some observation of the research I have, I must say that I agree with it for the most part.

Looking at examples of old shoujou manga series as far back as the 60s, 70s, they really pushed the "bishoujo" aspect to the very limit, with extremely large, shiny eyes, small lips and slender figure. anime like that of the ". In fact , one can say it forms some of the pillar of the modern manga style, as the popularisation of this style occurred within the same time period as the creative explosion of Astro boy in the post-war period, with practitioners like Machiko Hasegawa, and the Year 24 group , defining and revolutionizing what shojo manga and manga as a whole, both narratively and stylistically.

 

As the target audience was for young girl,
It can be assumed that the feminine and delicate sense
of beauty of bishoujo are designed to catered to their
preference, especially in early Japanese society where
"traditional" beauty was more prominent. However, as the style evolves to be less "sparkly" while still keeping to some of the core principles, it opens up to a wider range of appeal which later then, seeps into other forms of media as well.
The style gap between shonen manga and shojo manga then moves closer to each other, to a point where, now, although there are still key traits to separate them, stylistically, shojo and shonen manga have more or less combined with each other to form the overarching modern "manga/anime"style. This is more prevalent in female characters where both male and females fan preferred bishoujo-like designs.

 

More contemporary shoujou manga style

LAUAN501 : Asian beauty

During this research, one of the comparisons that can be made between western and Japanese character design is that they all adhere pretty closely to the "standards" of beauty between different region. Whereas in the West , girls tend to favour a strong, athletic, sexy type of beauty ( tanned skin, long legs, prominent bum via Kim Kardashian / Victoria Secret's model", Japanese, and to a larger extent, Asian women tends to favour a more delicate and gentle side of beauty, such as a smaller face, smaller, lips, thin arms/legs, more rounded / bigger eyes... etc. 

This does not limit to appearance only but to manners as well, with the ideal "personalities" of Asian woman is calm, gentle ,pure and innocent, (even submissive in many case)  which of course is not true for all Asian woman , but has be come more or less of a stereotypical idea. These ideal character traits find it roots in ancient times with a man-dominated feudal society and has remained prominent even as Western influence gains more ground in Asia and old traditions are slowly breaking down.

 

The most prominent among these traits, has to be the obsession of keeping a white skin. 

Skin is everything, this coming from both observation of Asian culture and personal experience of participating in it as an Asian myself. A white skin is said, symbolise a position of wealth and power in society, stemming from the fact that you're not getting darker for working in the fields all day aka you're not a peasant. This remains in many cases true for developing countries like Vietnam and China, where there's a clash between the rising middle class of the cities and the working class in the countryside. In many Asian nations though, it is now consider a major point of attractiveness for girls and people have come up various way to achieve it. In Vietnam, women cover every inch of their body with jackets, gloves and aprons when they go out on their bike. In Korean, the beauty trend is not just white but reflective porcelain-like skin via skin-care product. In Japan, there are the Bihakus, who produce skin-whitening products... Even observing my girlfriend, the effort she goes through every night applying skin-care products is nothing short of extraordinary.

All of this then translate to Asian female character design preference, in particular, in the average Anime / manga series, there are rarely any 'tanned' characters ( even more so if we're talking about main characters). Moreover, much of the bishojou trait utilise other aspect of tradtional asian beauty as well, most prominently , the small face, larger eyes and slender limbs.

LAUAN501: Moe Manifesto by Patrick Galbraith

One of the most challenging part about doing this topic of bishojou and moe is that due to it going very deep into Japanese sub-culture, you rarely find a Western-based acedemic text that focus on this, and that the one that do tends to be in Japanese /from Japanese authors. Fortunately enough, I managed to found this work by Patrick Galbraith which focus specifically on the topic of Moe, which will form some of the core opinions within the essay. After reading through it , one can say that this book are much less about criticizing moe sub-culture like the cast majority of other western-based work, but are more about the analysis of its origin and functionality in Japanese society, although one can not deny that there is a slight bias towards the positive side of moe more than the negative, through the Patrick himself, and the guest he interviews. This is actually also a positive thing about this book is that , its like a collection of various different interviews of Japanese people from all walks of life, which include, an artist, a sci-fi critic, a voice actress, a game developer. It makes for a much wider range of understanding for moe and its purpose in different context, as well as a deeper insight to the Japanese culture and pysche. Undoubtedly, it has benefited me greatly.