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OTAKU_KEY

                                               May 7, 2012
                                                            OTAKU_BASE
The concept of "moe" is
central to this subject,                               "Oatku Japan's
and yet Azuma clarifies     From the new preface:      Database Animals" (2001)
very little: he just        "moe" was voted a          by Hiroki Azuma
presumes you know what      buzzword of the year
it's about already.         in 2005; and Azuma
                            calls it a "keyword
  Trying to infer           of the present volume".
  a meaning from
  his usage would
  be next to
  impossible:
  moe-characters                                        LOLITA_MOE
  with moe-elements
  satisfy a moe
  desire, by
  stimulating moe        From the visual examples
  within the otaku       you can confirm that it      A reasonable inference
  brain. (p.47/48)       has something to do with     would be that "moe"
                         exaggerated cartoons of      evolved and expanded
                         cute young women.            in meaning from that
                                                      stage.  Azuma does not
                                                      discuss this.

                         The translator's footnote
                         presents a story I hadn't
                         heard before: as we all
                         know "moe" stems from a        Evidently it was
                         Japanese word for              some sort of pun on
                         "budding"; but they claim      budding and burning,
                         that this originally           ala a burning desire
                         referred to being the          for (images of?)
                         stalks of hair sticking        budding young girls.
                         up like budding plants...
                         This strikes me as one of
                         the most transparent
                         cover stories I've ever
                         heard.  But it is true
                         that Azuma's examples of
                         cute cartoon girls do
                         involve features like
                         "antenna hair".


On sexuality, Azuma is
similarly unenlightening:
he takes it as a given
that otaku sexuality is
actually quite                The press occasionally likes to talk
"conservative", despite       about some male otakus expressing
being inundated in            the opinion that they don't need
perverted imagery of          real women, they have their figurine
various sorts (p.88).         collection (and I would guess, some
                              other toys).
Actual pedophile otakus
are very rare, he says,           I have my doubts that the
and I believe him, but            American otaku would be
that's the sort of                interested in similar
thing one would like to           vows of celibacy.
see a stat on (I would
suppose that there's a                         Dangerbaby points out that
difficulty in precisely                        the local cosplay kids
quantifying who                                have a similar vibe to the
qualifies as an otaku).                        "Rocky Horror" crowd from
                                               the early 80s.
  His explanation for why this would
  be just strikes me as dubious
  gibble-gabble... something to the
  effect of the exposure to perverted
  material producing a conditioned
  sexual response.  Okay, but then,
  why not conditioned sexual actions?




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