Moe as Anti-Commercialized Desire

Why is moé (萌え) not equivalent to kawaii (可愛い)?

This discussion assumes familiarity with kawaii and moé terms.

In certain situations, one might comprehend an overlap in feelings of moé and kawaii. Similarly, differences exist, constrained by unique perception of visual characteristics.

However, distinctions between moé and kawaii might also be perceived in social dichotomies, more definitely that between physical space, by which I mean specifically the opposition of Akihabara and Shibuya.


Ressentiment, by Kengo Hanazawa

Continue reading

Superbowl Commercials 2009: Miller’s One Second of Fame (Read: Innovation)

Besides John Madden’s apparent fetish for “big and strong hands” (murmured at least two dozen times in four quarters) and GoDaddy’s failure to bring anything new to the table (breasts, as usual, but at least they vocalized their business as a domain seller), the 2009 Superbowl commenced in high spirits. A good game of football, with emotions escalating higher and higher to peak, thankfully, in the final two minutes.

When not watching the game, my friends and I chirped out scores for our own commercial advertisement rating game. This year, not much worthy of laughter, sadly. However, one* commercial bear discussion: that of Miller High Life.

Continue reading