Manga artist rips into modern fandom

Paul

Paul

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In an interview with the Mainichi Daily News, out spoken Japanese comic artist Mimei Sakamoto has sensationally slated her fellow anime fans and slamed some of the more popular trends (moe) that are currently dominating the anime aesthetic.

Sakamoto goes so far as to claim that the "moe" style (which often depicts "cute" young girls) is a paedophiliac fetish and that the modern Japanese anime fans are not "fully-fledged" otaku because "A real otaku would never go out and about in the world because they wouldn't believe anything good could happen to them if they did so".

Click here to read the full interview.
 
Fullmetal Shorty said:
She has to realise that times change..
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For the worse I think!
She has a point about moe. If exposed for a long time, it's natural to assume one would get used to it whether it's real life or not. Most moe characters are 'underage' and I'm not saying that everyone who likes moe is a paedophile - but it's only encouraging it.
Anyway I wish they'd stop putting emphasis on the looks of a character and make some good anime. I'm hard pushed to find a decent one these days!
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I do agree, i perfer a good action anime like GitS, Cowboy Bebop, FMA, Bleach or DBZ not girls in next to nothing. I hope they bring a good series out soon without it in, Ergo Proxy is going in the right direction i think, also Monster has nothing like that in (so far episode 12 but i doubt it will) and its a very good anime.
 
Actually I find myself agreeing wth her on the moe side of things - I too find it an unecessary device for selling books and DVDs. After all it is, well, a bit creepy actually.

While there are certain harsh truths about 'otakus' being losers it's generalising and ignoring normal, well-adjusted people who share a hobby with an obsessed minority. Besides, it's a risky move to insult the very people who are fans of your work!

Sure, anime and manga is being commercialised but as Phineas T Barnham said a sucker's born every minute - the simple truth is, some people have more money than sense. As far as I know it's always been the case and always will be; geek chic just happens to be in this season.
 
I really dislike the whole moe / loli aesthetic; people seem so concerned with "cute" characters that you get the impression that they are obsessed. And 40 year old men obsessed with school girls is never a good thing. I make a conscious decision to avoid a lot of what these people are obsessing over (Haruhi is currently the big thing, in case you don't know). I'm not saying that being a fan of say Haruhi makes you a paedophile, but if you start obsessing over certain things then the question mark inevitably gets raised.

With regards to her point on otaku, I guess she's just fed up with the people into anime as a trend rather than as a real passion, as though it's now to cool thing to be an otaku. Can't say it would bother me that much and I'm not sure why she is boasting about isolating herself from society.
 
i can understand where she is coming from. I detest moe myself. it is degrading and largley pointless. i mean even something like Burn up Excess has other things going for it. Even miyazaki has critasised moe, and i have to agree with him.
 
I don't really mind moe myself, but then I don't watch a show just because its cute I watch it because I find it entertaining. If it happens to be moe then so be it.
 
I'm not a fan of the moe culture either. In fact I'm so sick and tired of so much focus being put on sex and violence in anime I'm actually finding it far more entertaning to parody certain series than watching the actual shows.

If moe is an INTEGRAL part of the story, then of course put it in, but more often than not it isn't, unless the show is selling because of the moe itself, which in my opinion is so distasteful it makes me want to vomit.

Sorry to go so harsh, but this kind of thing really bugs me. In fact it's getting to such a degree it's putting me off anime altogether :(
 
Personally I think the whole thing is a load of crap. Moe is moe, peadophiles are peadophiles - they'll always be around no matter what we do. She just needs to concentrate on writing her manga, rather than spouting her uninteresting ramblings on whats right and wrong. She isn't exactly going to change anything, after all..
 
Paul said:
I'm not saying that being a fan of say Haruhi makes you a paedophile, but if you start obsessing over certain things then the question mark inevitably gets raised.
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I agree, but being too obsessed with anything inevitably raises question marks of some form. It's up to one to decide their own level of interaction with a text; Sakamoto is trying to re-establish that level of interaction through her reality, of what it means to traditionally be an “otakuâ€
 
It is very much like the fans of a particular band/style-of-music who resent it going mainstream and complain about bands "selling out" when their particular form of music becomes popular. Being otaku is something that defined her at one point in her life and as such is going through a similar reaction now that it is not being stigmatised to the same extent that it used to. I can't imagine that the Japanese will suddenly, overnight, accept otaku since the whole idea goes so far against the grain of the society (as I understand it) but there is a greater understanding of the people within that subculture than there has ever been.

Much of her criticism is broad sweeping and full of generalisations but that doesn't mean she should not voice her opinions.
 
I for one agree with her and if anyone finds what she has said uncomfortable, tough, so you should. Though it would have been better if she also criticised her fellow mangaka who pump this shyte out. :roll:
 
The manga artist also points out that sharp marketers are also suckering the ersatz otaku.
"There's a tendency in the otaku market to avoid producing contents that are going to sell in terms of millions or tens of millions. Instead, they find a semi-hit then bring out figurines, DVD box sets, premium editions and all sorts of related materials that are drastically over-wrapped and sell to the same people who bought the original product in the first place," the manga artist says. "So-called otaku are caught up in this money making cycle and all they're doing is spending their hard-earned yen (which often comes from their parents in a lot of cases). And, what's really sad, is that loads of these gullible suckers don't even realize that they're being taken for a ride."
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Eva?
Obviously ignoring the term 'semi-hit'.


So what exactly is "moe"?
If it's the manga/anime equivalent of child porn, why isn't it referred to as loli or lolicon which are terms I thought already referred to that?
If it's something else, what is it?
 
Capuchin said:
The manga artist also points out that sharp marketers are also suckering the ersatz otaku.
"There's a tendency in the otaku market to avoid producing contents that are going to sell in terms of millions or tens of millions. Instead, they find a semi-hit then bring out figurines, DVD box sets, premium editions and all sorts of related materials that are drastically over-wrapped and sell to the same people who bought the original product in the first place," the manga artist says. "So-called otaku are caught up in this money making cycle and all they're doing is spending their hard-earned yen (which often comes from their parents in a lot of cases). And, what's really sad, is that loads of these gullible suckers don't even realize that they're being taken for a ride."
Click to expand...

Eva?
Obviously ignoring the term 'semi-hit'.


So what exactly is "moe"?
If it's the manga/anime equivalent of child porn, why isn't it referred to as loli or lolicon which are terms I thought already referred to that?
If it's something else, what is it?
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Moe Definition
 
Heisei Democracy deconstructs Sakaomotos argument.

http://heiseidemocracy.net/2006/05/17/s ... sh-fakers/

Interesting read. They nailed some stuff that I had problems with in her argument, like her incoherent/contradictory use of definitions. In one instance:
Moe = positive warm feeling associated with watching cute things
Moe = pedophilia

She also makes some crazy assertions.

Good read, that raises some very interesting points (like the very poor journalism at work here).

I mean who the hell is Mimei Sakamoto? For such a 'well known' artist what work has she done? I cant find any reference to her or her work in the various manga databases.
 
Laughing Manji said:
I mean who the hell is Mimei Sakamoto? For such a 'well known' artist what work has she done? I cant find any reference to her or her work in the various manga databases.
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According to the Japanese Wikipedia she apparently started her career as a hentai artist with her work aimed at women. Obviously being wikipedia this might not actually be true though.
 
Also we can't rule out encyclopedia vandalism in this case here - she has pretty much trashed a lot of fans.

What I would like to know though, is the titles of some of her works. She was introduced as a famous/well known author, and this is patently false.
There is some very suspect journalism here. There is a good possibility that her statements were taken out of context.

Are we talking about a doushinji artist here? Or someone who just a low-credited member of a team involved in a manga that is attributed to a more famous author?
 
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