Quirky, cutesy, strangely dressed

The only kind of “moe” I really understand is Moe Howard. I’ve been trying to get a handle on moe as the term is used in the otakusphere, and I have been following Avatar‘s reporting on this year’s Saimoe tournament, but I’m not sure that I grasp the concept (or that there is a concept there worth grasping). Let’s see if I have this right.

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Moe.

oe20.jpg

Not moe. (From Oh! Edo Rocket)

Let’s try a subtler distinction.

yasokomoe.jpg

Perhaps.

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Probably not. (From Denno Coil)

Isako is possibly the most interesting character in any current series, but I think that she’s probably too intimidating to be truly moe.

Let’s see how far we can push the concept.

Continue reading “Quirky, cutesy, strangely dressed”

113/365

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The camera I used for all the daily pictures through 89/365. It may be a toy with relatively modest capabilities, but it is a surprisingly capable picture-taker. It is also small enough to conveniently take everywhere. Even though I finally have a DSLR, this one will remain in active use.

Words, words, words, and pictures, too

All my old websites will soon be disappearing. They’ll be gone in January, if not by October. I recently spent some time browsing my retired weblogs, copying posts that might be of interest to visitors here. I sorted them into sixteen categories and posted them as static pages. You can find the categories listed as “ancient texts” under the “more” heading in the sidebar. And here:

Briefs
Critics and other idiots
Culture
Haruhi and Haruhi
Japan
Kid stuff
Mahou shoujo
Miscellaneous — mostly anime
Just plain miscellaneous
Music
Personal notes
Sailor Moon
Silly stuff
Osamu Tezuka
Why watch anime?
yoshitoshi ABe

I also rescued the “boy or girl?” quiz and added a few more pictures, bringing the total number of questions to twenty. Those who know their traps should do well; the rest of us — well, the average score among my friends was two right out of fourteen in the earlier version.

(I may be experimenting with different themes in the near future. I don’t like the way the current one, “Gemini,” handles static pages, and I couldn’t find an obvious way to fix the problems.)

Request

I just a note from my brother:

I’m getting a laptop tomorrow. Any recommendations?

I don’t use laptops, and if I did, they would be Macs, which I don’t think he is interested in. Does anybody have suggestions for him?

Request

I just a note from my brother:

I’m getting a laptop tomorrow. Any recommendations?

I don’t use laptops, and if I did, they would be Macs, which I don’t think he is interested in. Does anybody have suggestions for him?

What anime fans share in common …

… that make them attracted to anime in the first place.

I have an untested theory that anime fans tend to be… by disposition not attached to the physical world. They get by with the education mill and then join the workforce – some of them may do extraordinarily well, some less so. Their level of participation in society at large tends to stop at earning their bread – they are just not the type who get anxious in not participating in the mating rituals, climbing the greasy pole etc. I think it is mostly because their mental life is too occupied with something else better than the real world has to offer. It is not that they are maladjusted – they tend to do this by choice.