As most male Otaku should know, there isn’t really anything in this world that can beat a good moe-bishoujo game adaption like Kanon. However, I don’t go around declaring this to every single person I meet because humans have an in-built dimensional superiority complex. You can read more in the about page, but to make things easier I’ll just summarise this superiority complex below:
“Ok we are all 3 dimensional beings. As everyone should know, the first two dimensions are of course length and breadth. The 3rd dimension is height.
Ever felt inferior to someone that is taller than you? Since girls are more societal creatures compared to men, they are more dimensionally-entrenched, and thus feel the crunch harder. This is why high-heel shoes exist.
Since all of us are more or less affected by dimensionality, this explains why people think cartoons and anime in general are dumb. It is a fact that cartoons are 2 dimensional and thus possess no height.”
I have argued that even though 2-dimensional entertainment isn’t popular, it is superior to most other forms of entertainment. However, there is one critical loophole in this arguement that I wish to address in this blogpost and in doing so will reinforce my arguement: why are some cartoons so phenomally popular and are accepted in pop culture?
Firstly, to highlight something closer to Japanese pop culture, there is stuff like Naruto and Bleach. It is fact that these two animes are so damn popular the world over and even 20+ or even 30+ males and females are watching it with a considerable level of interest. Heck back in my Military Police days almost the entire platoon could be talking about how powerful this guy was and there was this section mate that would keep saying “Ban-Kai!” and use it for all kinds of inappropriate applications. He would say things like:
Friend: Do you know what you get when you ban-kai Beckham?
Me: What?
Friend: Eric!
Ok, Beckham was this guard dog that was scared of cars (serious!); basically the most whimpy guard dog in the entire wing. And Eric was the freaking fiercest, biggest, black german shepherd you would have ever seen. And the reason why we were having this retarded conversation was because I am a guard dog handler and I was on a perimeter patrol with Beckham as my dog and my friend as an escort.
Most of the older ones are probably just following a trend as no one wants to be left out right? The thing is that Naruto and Bleach cater to this dimensional superiority complex perfectly. Look at Naruto’s f*cking stupid face above. He is actually an attention-seeking idiot that not many of the older ones would take seriously. Subsconsciously, it feeds their need for dimensional superiority.
Most of the more hardcore Bleach fans would tell these trend-chasers not to bother with the anime and just read the manga as the animation quality is going downhill. But the replies that I’ve heard these Bleach fans would get is “I don’t care about animation quality” and guess what? This caters directly for the need to be dimensionally superior as an excuse to watch a Japanese cartoon.
The second example I would like to raise would be The Simpsons. Heck, everyone knows The Simpsons. It was even featured in an opinionated piece in a local paper recently and is societally accepted. Why is that?
Because The Simpsons are F*CKING UGLY yellow excuses of human beings. I’m not sure whether Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, was aware of dimensional superiority but he sure as hell played his cards right. By mixing ugly yellow pieces of shit with a satirical twist on current affairs, he hit big. Its the perfect formula for popular 2-dimensional sucess with the larger dimensionally entrenched world population.
Lets look at the average character design of a fairly unpopular eroge like Yotsunoha (compared to currently top-selling eroge greats like AIR and Kanon):
I think the picture speaks for itself. The problem is that when most “normal” people sample entertainment that does not automatically satisfy this dimensional superiority complex, they will experience an automatic feeling of instant disgust and repulsion instead of thinking “this is awesome stuff”.
There are so many examples that I want to raise but I’m sure anyone can think of more. One is why Mickey Mouse is so insanely popular and is recognised world-wide. The faster ones can probably guess before reading the next line: ITS BECAUSE HE IS A FREAKING MOUSE. When human beings see Mickey Mouse, they will actually be subconsciously thinking about a filthy mouse scurrying around without even realising it. This allows them (or us, actually) to universally accept a stupid mouse as a mascot character for a multi-million dollar company.
However there IS a reason why this dimensional superiority complex exists and its because it counter-acts a drop in reproductive rates. Its a human thing, really. The damn problem is that 2D girls can be drawn extremely well and this definitely sets them apart from 3-dimensional pornography. In fact, I would go so far as to say that eroge is a significant contributing factor to Japan’s low birth-rates.
There is a certain kind of pureness in this kind of moe that can’t be found anywhere else, and even though the larger western world is unaware of this, things are changing. As Jeff Lawson has raised in this post, the American anime DVD market is shifting towards Bishoujo game adaptions with the recent slew of Bishoujo anime licenses like AIR, Kanon and Shuffle! I’m not really aware of the wider social implications in this trend, but I’d say at least another superpower is accepting that contravening your own dimensionality brings about more intense personal satisfaction than behaving otherwise.
In other words, the moe-otakus are winning. And given how the older generation is technophobic (and generally think Japanese cartoons can’t be insightful at all), and how the american anime fandom is built around the internet, there isn’t much that can stand in our way.
4 comments
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May 10, 2008 at 2:43 am
Anonymous
I can’t wait till Americans start actually producing moe products, rather than just consuming Japanese ones.
May 10, 2008 at 3:49 am
Jeff Lawson
To clarify, in my post that you referenced, I simply commented that moe anime and bishoujo game adaptations have grown in popularity over time, both in Japan and abroad. I didn’t address the subject of the American DVD market. I agree that there has been an increase in the number of R1 licenses for these sort of shows in recent years, but I don’t believe the market is “shifting” in any particular direction at all. In fact, I suspect many of these shows sell poorly in the North American market - and will continue to do so.
May 10, 2008 at 4:06 am
moetaku
>In fact, I suspect many of these shows sell poorly in the North American market - and will continue to do so.
You better be careful with your words, man, that’s gonna make me get my credit card out and preorder the Lucky Star R1 dvd’s for PATRIOTIC reasons.
May 10, 2008 at 6:12 am
dKiWi
You mean you have not purchased Lucky Star vol. 1? Its already sitting on my shelf.
And I don’t really think I have to be “careful of my words” since most of the world think anime is freaking Japanese cartoons. I do admit that if I’m a political blogger commenting on the situation in Malaysia now, I’ll probably be in jail already (a Malaysian political was jailed recently, a world first). But the fact is that I’m an anime blogger. We are immune to such things actually.
Since subcultures form a naturally barrier against outsiders, the average Senior Police Officer (inspector rank and above, the degree holders) or sociologist will have to actually start from the base up in terms of Otaku knowledge in other to form an informed opinion to take action. And I doubt any police officer is so free nowadays.
And this is exactly why moe-otakuism is infiltrating America much faster than most of us think. I doubt anything will stop it. True, these shows might not sell well, but then why the hell are the licenses for such shows picking up? I myself didn’t believe Lucky Star would ever sell in America, but thanks to the success of R1 Suzumiya Haruhi I believe things are changing rapidly. Exactly the direction that I am, and I do believe many others, are hoping for.