Behind The Nihon Review

There’s been a lot of disparity in reactions to the slice-of-life moe comedy genre of late sparked by the recent end of K-On!. A lot of its defenders have fallen back on the idea that “it is what it is”, while its critics have argued that that’s no excuse for mediocrity. My own opinion is that there’s no question that K-On! is mediocre, but there’s merit in the “it is what it is” defense provided one adds appropriate riders. The problem with the “it is what it is” defense is that, if you take it to its logical conclusions, you can’t criticize anything, because everything “is what it is”. What you can criticize something for is how well it achieves its intent. Personal preference inevitably plays a role in criticism, but the fact of the matter is that every genre (and arguably every individual title) has its own unique set of criteria which depend on a number of things, and sound, reasoned criticism is about minimizing the number of criteria which cannot be controlled or influenced by the creators themselves.

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It’s an overblown question because the answer is almost certainly “no”. Nor do I mean to imply that Higurashi is the best moe anime ever made, because there’s probably an anime franchise called “ARIA” which lays a better claim to that (and then there are all the anime that are only considered partly moe). But what I want to consider in this post is the use of moe, since I’m not sure there’s an anime which has taken advantage of the aesthetic to a practical end quite like Higurashi has. There have been a lot of anime which have used moe as a mostly superficial hook, and with its increasing prominence comes a more vocal group to question its utility. Higurashi strikes me as high among the best examples to answer the critics of moe’s usefulness. This post contains moderate spoilers of Higurashi.

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I was originally going to attach this to the end of the Cross Game article, since I was already talking about K-On!, but I figured it deserved its own post.

I’ve found myself recently fascinated not so much by K-On! itself, but the fan-produced stuff that it has spun off from it. In particular, I’ve gone nuts for this video:

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The title of best anime of the current season is basically a two-horse race, IMO. And while Eden of the East seems to be reasonably widely recognized, Cross Game has flown under the radar. In a lot of ways it’s a show that hearkens back to an older style of romance, and the thing that really impresses me is the way it seamlessly mixes a compelling romance/drama with an emphasis on the similarities and differences of its main characters with an absorbing shounen plotline. There’s probably nothing new about Cross Game itself, and Adachi fans will probably attest that he’s been writing excellent stories like these for years (I wouldn’t know, for some reason this is my first experience with an Adachi work), but its strength is in its simplicity (and execution). By keeping it simple, and all the characters unambiguous and easy to read, it emanates a down-to-earth quality, which is the complete opposite of the mystery-driven Eden of the East, which is all about intricacies and subtleties, to be interpreted, analyzed and speculated about. So, which one is better? Well, I’m not going to make that call until both shows are finished.

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Several years ago, the music industry began a series of very public law suits against various internet pirates for the distribution of their music.  A massive dialogue ensued and has since generated enough content to fill hundreds of encyclopedias. Without the legal high ground, some pirates generated clever reasoning for their positions; some began flawed moralizing on the issue, and many others just stuck up their middle fingers and dared the industry to get them. Regardless of all the hubbub, those few who were unfortunate enough to get caught were charged massive fines.  In hopes to continue their ways, the pirates rallied under the undeniably true mantra “you can’t catch us all”; however, that was never the point.

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