otakus, I need help with some words

[melancholymecha]

while looking for Code Geass pics through various anime blogs & forums Ive come across these two words several times now. what do they mean?

GAR- as "he's looking really GAR!"
and
MOE as in "this is MOE" or "she's so MOE."

and another thing, what's with the maid obsession? lots of pics of anime characters(both women & men) in maid outfits...

 

[zakkrusz]

GAR = A Hunk. A term denoting extreme masculinity and blantant sexual attractiveness usually used by women. A guy who is a cool, powerful, badass.

Moe = A Japanese term for an extremely cute, innocent and offen helpless girl that needs protection. Usually they're not very bright, usually cheerful or carefree, clumsy or unusually shy. Usually used in describing people like Orihime from Bleach.

It offen gets mismatched with the term Loli (short for Lolita Complex) which denotes

A) Girls that look older physically than they actually are or vise vesa.
B) Having a sexual attraction to young girls
D) The actual sexualization of a young girls in media, making them sex objects

The Japanese have a thing for costume fetishes it's not just maids,...school girl uniforms, nurses, shrine priesteses, etc. the list goes on. They even have maid and other such cosplay themed cafes.

 

[melancholymecha]

ok I get it now, thanks, as always.

yeah I know about the lolis. I collect fashion dolls & I love Japanese loli style dolls. And Im female so no I dont like them in *that* way, I think theyre cute & I love their frilly costumes.

at first I thought the maid/nurse outfit fetish was odd(its usually such a utalitarian outfit) but then again the west makes a big deal about French maids being sexy so I can kinda see where that comes from...

 

[zakkrusz]

Yeah, they have whole series that cater to that maid fetish like He is My Master for instance which is from the same people who brought us Neon Genesis Evangellion and FLCL, Gainax.

 

[blaXXer]

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Anime
NSFW, also anything you need to know about animu.

 

[Kemaiku]

^Is that an attempt at a joke or do you really hate it that much?

Anyway...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoeMoe

 

[zakkrusz]

Well I found it ammusing in a lame, uninformed, generalization kind of way.

 

[FordSVT]

Well I found it ammusing in a lame, uninformed, generalization kind of way.

Well, a lot of anime is pretty lame. Watching cartoons about the soap opera lives of Japanese high school kids with powers that fight demons, pine after one another and periodically shoot water out of the eyes, or watching an endless series of training and fighting montages, or listen to a bunch of people go on and on about made-up existential bullshit buried in it's own pretentiousness is not my idea of fun. I really don't need another Japanese perspective on the differences and similarities of man and machine, it's been done to death.

Not to say I hate all anime, I don't, but I've tried to watch a lot of the stuff the gets recommended on this board regularly and 90% of it is shit, IMO.

And yes, I'm well aware that anime covers dozens of different genres and that I am in fact generalizing. I think I nailed most of the most popular stuff on the head though.

Sorry, I admit I might be a bit biased due to the number of grown men who like to watch magical girl anime I've felt utter shame and embarrassment for.

 

[melancholymecha]

encyclopedia dramatica- I dont think youre supposed to take it seriously.
& oh God that Sasuke/Naruto gif...

hmm reading the Moe article now Im a little less clear, probably due to the fact that I don't watch romantic comedy anime & most of the examples are from that genre. So would the short cute soul reaper guy from Bleach that heals people be like a male version of Moe?

 

[zakkrusz]

I suppose. I know the male version of loli is called shouta but I'm pretty sure that's not the right term.

Well, a lot of anime is pretty lame. Watching cartoons about the soap opera lives of Japanese high school kids with powers that fight demons, pine after one another and periodically shoot water out of the eyes, or watching an endless series of training and fighting montages, or listen to a bunch of people go on and on about made-up existential bullshit buried in it's own pretentiousness is not my idea of fun. I really don't need another Japanese perspective on the differences and similarities of man and machine, it's been done to death.

Not to say I hate all anime, I don't, but I've tried to watch a lot of the stuff the gets recommended on this board regularly and 90% of it is shit, IMO.

And yes, I'm well aware that anime covers dozens of different genres and that I am in fact generalizing. I think I nailed most of the most popular stuff on the head though.

Sorry, I admit I might be a bit biased due to the number of grown men who like to watch magical girl anime I've felt utter shame and embarrassment for.

Well, I agree in that I hate magical girl stuff and most of the overly long neverending martial arts series (The short ones are fine though and I like the ones like Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin which are long but aimed at an older audience containing more blood, more complex stories, and harsher language.). Also yes that kind of stuff is what sells the most here. If you want the really good stuff you've got to learn to weed out what you don't like and be prepared to check out unliscensed works. What does that leave me with you ask?

.hack//Liminality
.hack//SIGN
3X3 Eyes
5 Centimeters Per Second
Aquarian Age
Aquarion
Black Lagoon/Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Black Jack (Pretty much anything in the franchise)
Blue Gender
Blue Seed
Boogiepop Phantom
Bubblegum Crisis
Burn Up
Buso Renkin
Chobits
Clannad: The Movie
Claymore
Code Geass/Code Geass: R2
Cowboy Bebop
Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars 1-3
Darker Than Black
Death Note
Devil May Cry
Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles
Elfen Lied
Ergo Proxy
Excel Saga
Fafner
Fate/Stay Night
Full Metal Panic/Fumofu/Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid
Fullmetal Alchemist/Movie
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Gasaraki
Geneshaft
Ghost Hound
Ghost in the Shell/Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (both seasons)/Solid State Society
Ghost Talker's Daydream
Gilgamesh
Gungrave
Gunslinger Girl/ Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino
Gunsmith Cats
Gurren Lagann
Haibane Renmei
Hell Girl/ Jigoku Shoujo: Futakamori
Hellsing/Hellsing Ultimate
His and Her Circumstances
Ikki Tousen/Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny/Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians
Infinite Ryvius
Interlude
Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Kannazuki no Miko
Kanon (2006)
Kara no Kyoukai Movies
Karas
Kaze no Stigma
Kaze no Yojimbo
Kiddy Grade
Koi Kaze
Kurau: Phantom Memory
Kure-nai
Last Exile
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Library War
Lost Universe
Lunar Legend Tsukihime
Macross (Anything in the franchise except 7)
Madlax
Master Keaton
Master of Mosquiton
Mnemosyne
Mobile Suit Gundam (Most of the franchise is watchable if not awesome)
Monster
Moonlight Mile/Moonlight Mile: Touchdown
My HIME
Noein
Noir
Now and Then Here and There
Origin
Outlaw Star
Paprika
Paranoia Agent
Patlabor OVA/Patlabor TV/Patlabor: The New Files/Movies 1-3
Perfect Blue
Planetes
Portrait of Petite Cossette
RahXephon
Read or DIe/Read or Die TV
REC
Rumbling Hearts/Kimi ga Nozomu Eien: Next Season
Ryoko's Case File
Sakura Wars TV
Samurai 7
Samurai Champloo
School Days
Scrapped Princess
Scryed
Serial Experiments Lain
Shakugan no Shana/Shakugan no Shana: Second
Shuffle!
Silent Mobius
Silent Mobius Movies 1 and 2
Solty Rei
Soul Link
Speed Grapher
Spice and Wolf
Spriggan
Starship Operators
Stratos4/ Stratos4 OVA/Stratos4: Advance
Suzuka
Sword of the Stranger
Tenjho Tenge
Texhnolyze
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
The Skull Man
The Third
The Twelve Kingdoms
The Vision of Escaflowne
Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle/Movie/Tokyo Revelations OVA
Utawarerumono
Vandread/Vandread: Second Stage
Voices of a Distant Star
When They Cry/Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai
Witchblade
Witch Hunter Robin
Wolf's Rain
X TV
Xenosaga-The Animation
xXxHolic/movie
Yukikaze
Zone of the Enders

 

[FordSVT]

^Just as an example, I couldn't get into Bubblegum crisis, Fullmetal Alchemist or Cowboy Beebop, and I thought the Patlabor series was coma-inducing. Gundham has always been an impenetrable mess of "who the hell cares" for me (America has it's own version in the Battletech mythos, another bunch of "who the hell cares"). I've also played videogames related to several of those animes, most of which (like Devil May Cry) contain subject matter of absolutely no interest to me.

I find a lot of anime either needlessly complex or simply ripping off a bunch of other shit I've seen before. Code Geass and Bleach for example.

Again, I'm not saying western TV or movies are superior or more original, they're not, I just think people who watch anime are way more accepting (BEST THING EVAR!!1!) of what anyone would otherwise concider "shit" if it was live-action. I certainly couldn't come up with a list that long of enjoyable live action TV shows I'd recommend. Then there is the accessibility issue, I simply don't have access to most of those series, I just looked for a few on your list and I couldn't even find them seeded on torrent lists. I also hate subtitles, and good dubs are hard to come by.

Personally, I like anime that is straight-forward with well defined characters, interesting and unpredictable plots that still make sense, and lots of well thought out action, which is what I think anime does do very well. The metaphysical stuff should be kept at a minimum, because I don't think most of the people who write this shit do it very well and they beat you over the head with it. For instance, I like Appleseed, hate Evangelion. I know that Avatar isn't technically anime, but it's the best cartoon I've seen in years for similar reasons.

Oh, and I already spent half a year reading the Xenogears series of videogames, you can keep the anime.

 

[zakkrusz]

Personally, I like anime that is straight-forward with well defined characters, interesting and unpredictable plots that still make sense, and lots of well thought out action, which is what I think anime does do very well. The metaphysical stuff should be kept at a minimum, because I don't think most of the people who write this shit do it very well and they beat you over the head with it. For instance, I like Appleseed, hate Evangelion. I know that Avatar isn't technically anime, but it's the best cartoon I've seen in years for similar reasons.

If that's the case I can narrow down the list for you quite a bit:

Black Lagoon/Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage
Ergo Proxy
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Gungrave
Gunslinger Girl/ Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino
Haibane Renmei
Hell Girl/ Jigoku Shoujo: Futakamori
Infinite Ryvius
Kaze no Yojimbo
Last Exile
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Lunar Legend Tsukihime
Scrapped Princess
Starship Operators
Witch Hunter Robin
X TV

 

[blaXXer]

^Is that an attempt at a joke or do you really hate it that much?

Anyway...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoeMoe

Well abit of both, tbh. I simply cannot take *any* cutlural product of a society that sells used panties seriously in any shape or form.

 

[zakkrusz]

I hate to break it to you but that's done everywhere, not just Japan. What, never been to a Salvation Army store or a thrift store, pawn shop, or trading post? Those clothes are all used.

I'm not sure about used panties, but you can get damn near any object known to man out of a vending machine there, underwear, socks, dental care and hygene products, tobacco, alcahol, etc. in addition to the usual stuff we have here like snacks and drinks.

 

[Daedalus12]

Personally, I like anime that is straight-forward with well defined characters, interesting and unpredictable plots that still make sense, and lots of well thought out action, which is what I think anime does do very well. The metaphysical stuff should be kept at a minimum, because I don't think most of the people who write this shit do it very well and they beat you over the head with it. For instance, I like Appleseed, hate Evangelion. I know that Avatar isn't technically anime, but it's the best cartoon I've seen in years for similar reasons.

AFAIK there was far more metaphysical discussions in Appleseed than in Evangelion. Evangelion was more focused on inner psychology of its characters rather than pursuing any grand answers on the meaning of existence.

Yes indeed a lot of anime is crap hence why I have only seen a small fraction of it (about 20 TV series or so and half it are gundam series). It would be more apt to describe me as Gundam fan rather down an Anime fan. But what I am surprised at is that you didn't like Cowboy Bebop as it's easily the show which has the most appeal to the North American audience.

PS I don't think Battletech can be compared at all to Gundam.

 

[zakkrusz]

Also one has to consider that about 60% of all anime are adaptations of graphic novels (more comonly known as manga) so I'd say one has to be willing to accept a certain level of unreality, campiness, and pulp as you would with comic book films here. About 20% are original to anime works, 10% videogame based, and another 10% of them are based on text novels I'd estimate.

I've seen a total of 526 various series and film over the past 12 or 13 years. Was all of it good? Heck no, half of it I wouldn't ever watch again and some of it I downright hate. However, the other half was a great way to pass the time. Just like any medium there's good and bad. I have a wide variety of tases though and will watch anything from ultraviolent horror to soapy romantic drama series.

*shrugs*