Essay: On Moe-Moe

On Moé-Moé
This essay is a short guide for aspiring bishojo game makers on how to best use the moé phenomenon to create engaging and moving stories. In it, the following issues will be dealt with:
 * Can moé be defined?
 * Whether moé and gender equality are related
 * Why moé is appealing to its audience
 * How moé can be wielded

The original version of On Moé-Moé, as well as relevant discussion on its contents, can be found at the Lemmasoft Message Board.

Defining Moé
Moé - many have attempted to define its precise nature and all have inevitably failed. It shall remain reasonable that humans shall desire to label, categorize, and organize the world into convenient schemata in a futile effort to make sense of a chaotic world beyond the comprehension of mortal minds. Yet the fact remains that the exact nature of moé transcends language itself. Just as it is no more plausible for a two dimensional being to describe a cube than it is for a human being to describe a tesseract, certain concepts shall remain beyond the boundary of the crude thing called language. Yet, while the tesseract may not be visually conceivable, it can still be learned and understood. Similarly, while the concept of moé shall escape the exact elucidation of vocabulary, one need not take one step further than download a single episode of Lucky Star to instantly feel its true essence. Just as the wonder of first love shall remain impossible to describe before its first embrace, and shall remain even more maddeningly indescribable after it has left, leaving a cold, hollow wistfulness in its wake, one need encounter moé face first to truly feel its taste. And it is a taste of the the heavens itself, encompassing every molecule of gas, liquid, and solid, in perpetual motion, in total, beautiful chaos. Yet while the brain fears such an incomprehensible thing, the heart revels in it, for while moé is difficult to comprehend, it is simple to feel. This shall bring us closer to the heart of the matter - objectifying moé is doomed to failure, for it shall be not too dissimilar from the capital failure of objectifying love. Moé is more akin to a mystical song - one beyond the explanation of science or logic, and one melody that which shall remain indiscernible for some. While the exact nature of the song shall be mercifully left alone in this essay, I shall endeavor to explore why some are haunted by its aria while others remain impervious, and how the writer can best wield this enchantment to bewitch, devastate, shock, and enthrall the reader.

Moé and Gender Equality
It is not the purpose of moé to inferiorize the other sex, for girls and moé belong on two separate planes all together. In the most extreme of cases, it may be possible to even claim that moé may eventually replace girls in their entirety and become a third, much more appealing sex. Yet that shall not be the focus of this essay, for that hopeless desire exists primarily in the wistful fantasies of men who seek respite from the unthinkable perils of love. To point, gender inequality has always been a favorite topic for writers across the globe and has inevitably coloured much of the discussion on moé. However, while it shall be convenient to examine the world through such preconstructed lenses, the optimal clarity can only be found by handcrafting our lens to our own specifications. With this in mind, the exploration of the audience of moe shall begin.

What the Audience Desires Out of Moé
The desire of the moé character to love her audience is almost irrelevant compared to the desire of the audience to love the moé character. Here, it is pivotal to realize that the visual novel is not merely a broadcasting of sensory information, but an exchange of emotions between the moé character and the reader. And the very stuff radiated by the readers stand in stark opposition to the claim that moé is merely a simple way to find unjudging, unthinking, and obedient girls who offer nothing but eternal love to the reader. It is not a desire to conquer that the reader feels, but a desire to love. It is not the desire to lead, but instead a desire to be fragile; not the desire to demand, but the desire to be vulnerable. Otakus are fragile creatures, filled with disappointments, regrets, and sorrows. They are neither the strong nor the powerful, nor do they desire for such things. And above all, they wish for intimacy, not obedience. They are seekers of pure romance in its ideal, imaginary form, unadulterated by such real world hindrances like money, time, and modesty. It can be said that the world has little place for individuals such as these, for while otakus wish for a straight, everlasting, unblemished journey, the road that life offers them is one only of compromise, dilution, and unexpected twists and turns. However strong the mind yearns, the body shall be denied. An omnipotent law of the universe, even the sweetest fruit is not without its hard seeds, and even the most Herculean of efforts shall not bring love immortal. Thus moé exists on a plane separate from the mortal realm to provide this eternal, great, wonderful romance, findable nowhere else but in moé.

Moé's Target Audience
Moé is not suitable for all. Some simply have no desire for such a perfect romance. They can live happily with the lot handed out to them by life and believe that through effort, they can eventually mold their own, satisfactory romances. Perhaps that will be the superior mindset to hold in this world - yet as this essay shall focus primarily on wielding the enchantment of moé, this particular subset of individuals shall be dealt with no further here. Merely be aware that there exist some who shall simply be immune to the effects of moé magic.

How to Utilize Moé
Once moé is utilized, its potential to bewitch the reader is endless. It is the power to return the childhood friend whom the reader never managed to work up the courage to confess his feelings for. It is the power to voyage back to the days of the reader's high school days and offer him a second chance at finally completing the romance that he curses himself in the final hours of the night for lacking the courage to pursue. He wishes to be vulnerable, to be fragile, to offer his entire body and soul to the one that means the most to him. Yet in the real world, such a sweet romance is impossible, for such perfect ideals exist only in the imagination of mankind. Thus it is the role of the visual novel writer to offer him a better world, where he need not suffer no longer. It is his duty to create romance itself, in its ultimate, purest form. The moé character must not be dehumanized, but must seem alive, as if she was ready to wake up the reader from his bed the very next day. She must have complicated personalities that demand exploration, quirks, pet peeves, habits, beliefs, birthdays, home towns, family histories, favorite foods, television shows, computer games, and school subjects. She must be the very girl that the reader loved in real life, with only a singular, pivotal difference - here, the bounds of love are endless. That is the essence of moé.

Yet moé can also be used to devastate. Just as the reader realizes that there is such a world where he may exist, where he no longer has to be alone, play the role of a cruel and merciless god and snatch it all away from him. It is imperative for the visual novel writer to understand that exactly as the limits of happiness are destroyed by moé, so too are the limits of sadness. Moé, if utilized skillfully, has the power to tear apart hearts, to reduce men into bawling girls, and to haunt individuals long after the final sentence of the story. Countless visual novels have reached the heights of their fame because of their heartrending stories. Just as the reader comes close to rewriting all the unbearable chapters of his childhood, let a tragedy happen. Its trauma will increase by tenfold.

Conclusion
Perhaps it will be doing moé a disservice to refer to it only as a writer's tool. Indeed, moé is far more than merely a literary device used to ensnare readers. It is an emotion, a longing far more intense, far deeper than any mortal word can describe. Imagining it as a reality separate from our own, where the bounds of love and romance are infinite, gets us closer to the heart of the matter. It is the task of the visual novel writer to create this world and to populate it with its denizens, who seem so hauntingly reminiscent of the girls of our long ago, regretful memories, but who are at the same time so much different. Perhaps if the world had been so merciful as to provide us with such perfections as true love and romance in this realm of existence, then there would have been no need for moé. Yet, for as long as mankind exists, so too shall moé, for it is inescapable that the taste of life is only bittersweet at best.

The original article was written by Samu-kun.