What is uke seme and moe?

May 11, 2008 at 2:32 pm (BL, doujin(同人), otaku word)

I have introduced various xx萌え[-moe] and xxデレ[-dere] so far. Like otakus love to come up with crazynew terms, fujoshis(BL fangirls) are also creating brand-new terms. I already explained some classification for top[seme] and bottom[uke] in my previous post, but darn it, I’ve got to list them out in order to update. While I was not aware, they created some new types.

a. 女王様受け[jo’ousama-uke]: This type of uke should be very beautiful and strong. Sometimes even commanding. Unlike オレ様受け, he has to be elegant, not so rude. I think Wolfram in Kyou kara maou counts.

b. ノンケ攻め[nonke-zeme]: ノンケ[nonke] means straight orientation. This type of seme is straight in the beginning. But he would be tempted by uke as the story goes on, and eventually become gay. Come to think of it, in ぼくのぴこ[My Pico] the protagonist salaryman gets into Piko, not knowing he is actually a boy.

c. 姫受け[hime-uke]: 姫[hime] means a princess. This type of uke is surrounded by several semes(more than two tops). I can’t think of a better example. Maybe Shibuya Yuuri? He can be paired up with Gunter or Conlad…but he ends up being uke.

d. 平凡受け[heibon-uke]: 平凡[heibon] means ordinary or common. So this type of uke has nothing special.

e. 無邪気攻め[mujaki-zeme]: 無邪気[mujaki] means innocent and pure. If such an innocent uke-looking boy is seme, he would be. Shimizu Keiichi in Kin’iro no Corda could be.

f. 健気攻め[kenage-zeme]: 健気[kenage] means tough-minded. This type of seme is amazingly tough-minded so that you might be touched. No matter how cold the seme is, the uke follows him. Similar to ワンコ攻め[wanko-zeme].

g. ホモ百合[homoyuri]: In となりの８０１ちゃん[My neighbor Yaoi-chan] which follows fujoshis’ culture, this is mentioned. Literally it means gay-and-lesbian. This pairing consists of two ukes, in other words, both of the two are bottoms.  Mostly they nestle and flirt with each other like lesbian. I was wondering why they made this. The answer is in the film…below is a part of the conversation;

A: あたし、誘い受けや襲い受けのせいで、世の中の８０％の男が受けに見えてしょうがないの！[In fact, about 80% of all the men seem to be uke because of sasoi-uke or osoi-uke.]

B: 大丈夫、ホモ百合を使うのよ。 [Don’t worry. Use homoyuri, so you can make a pairing without seme.]

h. サンド[sando]: A bottom for two tops.

Below is all about genres of BL.

i. ML: Stands for Men’s Love. Technically, BL caters to minors. If a pairing consists of two adults, it should be ML. Well, I don’t think all the fujoshis care about this, though.

j. ロボやおい[robo yaoi]: If either of the two is a robot, it should be this. Whichever the robot becomes, it should have a heart. I mean, it can talk, laugh, cry, angry, whatever like a human being. The only one mistery is how they do it. Well, maybe やおい穴 can clear everything. Speaking of ロボやおい, I can definitely think of Fullmetal Archemist.

k. 匂い系[nioi-kei]: 匂い[nioi] means smell. Yes, it smells like BL. Even though the story is not BL, it has a scent of BL…For example, Water Boys, Ouran High-School Host Club, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Prince of Tennis or something like that.

l. 健全[kenzen]: It means sound. In short, there’s no sex scene. In other words, you can say NL[Normal Love].

m. 微裏[biura]: I guess this could be an abbreviation of 微妙に裏[bimyou ni ura]. In short, it’s slightly porno. But not too much. At best, it should be only kissing. Not more than that.

That’s all I can think of now. I think there will be more in the future because fujoshis’ delusion never ends.

Yaoi – It is a term describing [a publishing genre which originated in Japan ] of homosexual love between male characters and is sexually explicit.” (Wikipedia.) Other terms of this genre are: boy’s love, BL, shounenai, tanbi, etc. see Wikipedia.

Seme– Means attack, refers to the person who tops.

Uke – Means receive, refers to the person who bottoms.

Pairing– usually in the order of seme x uke . Describes the couple in a relationship or is going to be paired up with.

CP – Refers to coupling or pairing.

Doujinshi – Parady of published manga, anime, story, people, game, etc. Can be in the form of manga or novel. Some popular topics include Full metal Alchemist, Gundom series, Fianl Fantasy series, Devil May cry series, Lamento, Prince of Tennis, Naruto, Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring, Japanese celebrities (Ka-tun, Kinki Kids, Smap, etc) , Gintama, Death Note, etc. The contents of doujinshi can be yaoi or normal, with sexual contents or not, there’s no real regulations on this in Japan.

Circle– A group of artists/writers who publish doujinshi together under the same name.

side: I think the number of doujinshi or the number of circles for a topic can be an indicator for the popularity level of anime, game, manga, etc.

Comic Market (or comike) – An event in Japan that gathers circles together in a place to sell their work. It is the biggest doujinshi convention in Japan.

Super comic city – An event in Japan that gathers circles together in a place to sell their work. It is the second biggest a doujinshi convention.

Slash – This is a genre in fan fiction or fan art with male homosexual relationship between the male characters. See fanfiction.com

Loli– Japanese term for Lolita, which means young, pre-teen girls.

Shouta – Japanese term for little boy, usually pre-teenage.

Moe (pronounced Mo-e) – Japanese term originally means burn or ignite, but has been used to describe situation where one’s imagination or creativity is inspired or ignited.

Fujoshi – Japanese term for girls who reads yaoi/bl. The literal meaning is women who are rotten. It’s a term often used by yaoi fans to describe themselves.

H – From Japanese term Hentai, used to indicate explicit sex. In dialog, it usually means sex, or lewd.

Hentai– Japanese term meaning perverts.

3P– meaning a relationship with 3 persons involved.

NP – meaning a relationship with more than persons involved.

Otaku – Japanese term for people who are very obsessed with their own interests/hobbies. Generally there are 12 categories, including manga, anime, game, seiyu (Voice actors for anime), idol, figures, cosplay, H-game, maid, etc. Otaku are generally believed to be very knowledgeable of their area of interest.

More would be added later on.

Moe (萌え, Japanese pronunciation: [mo.e] (listen)), sometimes romanized as moé, is a Japanese word that refers to feelings of strong affection mainly towards characters in anime, manga, video games, and other media directed at the otaku market. Moe, however, has also gained usage to refer to feelings of affection towards any subject.

Moe is related to neoteny and the feeling of "cuteness" a character can evoke. The word moe originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Japan and is of uncertain origin, although there are several theories on how it came into use. Moe characters have expanded through Japanese media, and the concept has been commercialised. Contests, both online and in the real world, exist for moe-styled things, including one run by one of the Japanese game rating boards. Various notable commentators such as Tamaki Saitō, Hiroki Azuma, and Kazuya Tsurumaki have also given their take on moe and its meaning.

Moe used in slang refers to feelings of affection, adoration, devotion, and excitement felt towards characters that appear in manga, anime, video games, and other media (usually Japanese). Characters that elicit feelings of moe are called "moe characters".[1][2] The word has also evolved to be used regarding all kinds of topics.[3][4][5] Included in the meaning of the word is the idea that "deep feelings felt towards a particular subject" is used in cases where a simple "like" is not enough to express the feeling.[2] The common feature in all feelings of moe is that the subject of such feelings is something that one cannot possibly have a real relationship with, like a fictional character, a pop idol, or an inorganic substance. It can be considered a kind of "pseudo-romance",[3] but it is not always seen to be the same as "romance".[3][5]

The term's origin and etymology are unknown. Anime columnist John Oppliger has outlined several popular theories describing how the term would have stemmed from the name of anime heroines, such as Hotaru Tomoe from Sailor Moon (Tomoe is written as 土萌, relevant kanji is the same) or Moe Sagisawa from the 1993 anime Kyōryū Wakusei.[6] The term first became popular in 1993-94 among users of Japanese bulletin board systems.[7][8]

Psychologist Tamaki Saitō identifies it as coming from the Japanese word for "budding", moeru (萌える).[9] Ken Kitabayashi of the Nomura Research Institute has defined moe as "being strongly attracted to one's ideals".[7] Kitabayashi has identified the word moe to be a pun with the Japanese godan verb for 'to sprout', moyasu (萌やす), and its homophone 'to burn', moyasu (燃やす).[7] Along the same line of thought, Kitabayashi has identified it to be a pun with the Japanese ichidan verb for 'to sprout' moeru (萌える) and its homophone 'to burn' moeru (燃える), which mean 'to burn' (in the sense of one's heart burning, or burning with passion).[7]

Anthropologist Patrick Galbraith cites Morikawa Kaichirō, who argues that the term came from internet message boards such as NIFTY-Serve and Tokyo BBS in the 1990s, from fans discussing bishõjo (beautiful girl) characters.[10] Galbraith argues that moe has its roots in the development of bishõjo characters in Japanese subcultures in the 1970s and 80s.[11] This was exemplified in the lolicon boom of the 1980s, a "fertile ground" for the "budding desire for fictional characters".[12][11]

Comiket organiser Ichikawa Koichi has described Lum from Urusei Yatsura as being both the source of moe and the first tsundere.[13] The character of Clarisse from Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) has also been cited as a potential ancestral example.[14], with Lupin acting like an older brother to Clarisse and taunting the Count for marrying someone half his age. According to culture critic Hiroki Azuma, as Rei Ayanami became a more prominent character among fans, she "changed the rules" governing what people regarded as moe-inspiring. The industry has since created many characters which share her traits of pale skin, blue hair and a "quiet personality".[15]

Moe characters have expanded within the Japanese media market. In 2003, the market for moe media such as printed media, video, and games was worth 88 billion yen; roughly one-third of the estimated 290 billion yen otaku market in Japan.[16] In 2009, Brad Rice, editor-in-chief of Japanator, said that "moe has literally become an economic force" saying that more products use some element of moe in order to sell better. Rice also goes on to say that moe is used to get anime and manga works out to "hardcore fans who buy excessive amounts of items related to the character of their desire."[17]

John Oppliger from AnimeNation traced the first decade of the 2000s as the time when moe became increasingly popular and recognized. Commercialization was a result of interest that followed, and moe evolved from being a non-sexual desire to being a sexually sublimated fascination with cuteness. Oppliger goes on to say that moe shifted entirely from an interchange between character and viewer, to a focused fetish of viewers. Examples used by Oppliger include the series; K-On, Lucky Star, and Moetan where he points out they are "revolved around adorable, whimsical, clumsy, early-adolescent girl characters in order to evoke, enflame, and manipulate the interests and affections of viewers." Rather than evoking moe feelings, they were literally moe characters that had defining characteristics of the moe style. Oppliger referred to these girl characters as "adorably cute, just a bit sexually appealing, and self-conscious but not yet cynical" going on to say that they demand notice and adoration, rather than passively earning it.[18]

With moe anthropomorphism, moe characteristics are applied to give human elements to non-human objects. The Gradius video game series features a spaceship named Vic Viper. For a spin-off game, moe is applied to Vic Viper to create Otomedius.[19]

Sometimes feelings of moe towards fictional characters include "sexual excitement", or are understood in the context where "lots of beautiful girls and boobs appear."[20][21] In these cases, feelings of pure affection that gradually become stronger over time can lead to these feelings of eroticism.[22] In addition, it is pointed that sexual desire oriented to such characters differs from a desire toward humans.[23][24]

Moe, however, is also considered to be distinct from pure lust. While small amounts of lust is generally considered moe, a feeling that focuses too heavily on lust is considered outside the scope of moe.[22] In a light novel by Nagaru Tanigawa, one of the characters mentions that the distinction between moe and pure lust can be made based on whether one can still maintain feelings of affection even after one has indulged in masturbation.[25] According to commentator, Tōru Honda [ja] who considers moe to be "romance within one's head", the ideal kind of love within moe is "romantic love".[26]

Several informal contests or rankings for characters considered to be moe exist on the internet. One such contest is the Anime Saimoe Tournament, organized by members of the textboard 2channel, which ran every year from 2002, until its cancellation after the 2014 contest due to declining interest.[27] Moe characters from the fiscal year starting 1 July and ending 30 June the following year were eligible. Each tournament had at least 280 moe characters.[28] Spin-offs of the Saimoe Tournament include RPG Saimoe, which has video game characters, and SaiGAR, a competition between the "manliest men of anime".[29] In 2006 and 2007, the Saimoe Tournament became an increasingly international event; 2channel users obliged foreign otaku by putting up an English version of their rules page.[28] The International Saimoe League, also known as ISML, is another online moe popularity contest that is for a worldwide audience.[30] The contest started in 2008 and was held annually. Initially, only female characters were eligible, a male exhibition tournament was added in 2011, which would take place after the end of the main tournament. It was made into an official tournament alongside the female characters in 2015.[31]

Moe contests also exist in magazine publications, and in the real world. The Moe Game Awards are given annually to bishōjo games published that year in various categories, such as background music, character design, fandisc, graphics, and erotic content. They were started in 2006 as the Bishōjo Game Awards, but their name was changed to Moe Game Awards in 2009.[32][better source needed] It is sponsored by the Japanese game rating board Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS) and is described by them as "an R18 game industry version of the Academy Awards".[33] Magazines that have moe contests in them include the Japanese magazine Dengeki Moeoh which runs a column called "Moeoh Rankings" (萌王ランキング) and features the top 10 moe characters of the month, as determined by reader votes.[34]

There are various interpretations of the concept of moe,[3][35] and the subject has been heavily discussed.[36] Psychologist Tamaki Saitō considers the moe used by otaku to be the embodiment of their particular kind of sexuality.[37] Saitō points out that while otaku creations fulfill an abnormal impression of sexuality, few otaku actually apply this impression to real life.[37] He thus argues that moe is something that sustains the otaku's sexuality within a fictional world, with the fiction itself being their subject of desire and having no need for reality.[38]

On the other hand, critic Hiroki Azuma rejects Saitō's argument as "too complicated."[39] Azuma argues that "to moe" is simply the act of analyzing each of the character's moe characteristics and expanding on those characteristics within the mind, and thus differs from mere feelings of empathy.[40] These characteristics can be physical ones, such as cat ears or a maid costume,[41] or a personality archetype, such as that of the character Rei Ayanami.[15] Azuma sees this process as an otaku's act of satisfying their desires among their limited relations, and considers it to be part of a broader trend of "animalization," or the fulfillment of small desires isolated from the context of a grand narrative.[42] Azuma, therefore, simplifies Saitō's idea of moe into the idea of attaining signals of sexual excitement within an isolated environment, similar to the act of training an animal.[43]

In contrast, Tōru Honda argues against the idea that moe is simply "the act of arousal in response to signals, and thus animalization" and argues that this interpretation does not allow one to recall the essence of moe.[44] Honda considers moe to be the act of remembering ideals among the background signals, an act of necessity that arose as the romance rejected by religion continued to be supported by materialism, and thus interprets it as a mental activity relevant to the contexts of mythology and religion.[45] Furthermore, Honda asserts that this "animalization" phenomenon only arose after the "economic bubble" period of Japan, when people consumed real romance- and sex-like products,[44] and says that since moe is commonly interpreted to be in competition with the act of searching for romance in real life, it is thus the antithesis of male-dominant machoism.[46] Also, while Saitō doesn't distinguish moe from more violent types of sexual abnormalities and speaks of moe in the context of "sentō bishōjo" (beautiful fighting girl),[47] Honda on the other hand treats moe as the polar opposite of the hunter-ish kind of sexuality featuring in more fiendish works like those by Henry Darger.[48]

Anime director Kazuya Tsurumaki defines moe to be "the act of filling in missing information about characters on one's own." Accepting this view, writer Junji Hotta [ja] explains that characters are born from human instinct, which is the exact reason why one can be charmed by them much more than one could by real people.[49] Toshio Okada says that while he himself has not fully understood moe, he defines it as not simply being stirred emotionally by beautiful girls, but also as the meta-viewpoint of seeing oneself falling into such a state.[50]

In The Moe Manifesto,[51] anthropologist Patrick Galbraith defines moe as an affective response to fictional characters or representations of them. The applications of this definition are widespread to political, economic, and cultural discourses. For an example in practice, Matthew Brummer describes how Japan's Self Defense Force utilizes popular culture and the moe that it engenders to shape public perceptions of the military establishment: The Manga Military.[52]