"Moe" is a Japanese term for a kind of romantic cuteness. Sometime back, I watched a Japanese anime series called "Ouran High School Host Club." I think one of the episodes was titled, "Thanks for the moe," which is kind of a tongue-in-cheek ironical remark, I suspect. Moe is really a flipside of otaku-ness (otaku being Japanese nerdy-geeky-fandom). I guess you could think of moe as the cuteness that gets the anime fans all excited.
The series is kind of silly, but it's actually rather complex, too, as it deals, in a cartoon setting, wtih some rather deep issues around gender roles and sexuality in contemporary Japan. As anime series go, I would rank it only middling for visual style and character interest, but for depth and philosophy (and lots of irony), it's near the top. Certainly, it seems unlikely that its themes would be dealt with in anything like the same way in either more salacious America or more prudish Korea.
Anyway, I thought of it because yesterday listening to my mp3, I heard the series' closing theme song, "Shissou," by Last Alliance, a Japanese alt-indie-sounding rock band. And now that damn song is stuck in my head.
[Youtube embed added later as part of background noise project.]
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