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Earlier this year at Anime Boston, I attended a fan panel analyzing Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I enjoyed it, and agreed with most of what was said, but there were two ideas that I didn't agree with. The first was that PMMM served as a refutation or critique of moe culture; the second was that PMMM was a deconstruction of magical girl shows, in part because of its 'realistic' take on what a magical girl would experience and the general darkness of the series.
I'm still working out how I feel about Madoka as a deconstructionist work (short version: it's not; it's more like a celebration of the mahou shoujo genre), and hopefully I'll have that finished before the month is out. For today, I'm going to tackle one of the stickier subjects in anime culture: moe.
As far as Madoka being a critique on moe culture...as much as I'd like it to be true, I just can't see it. The panel defined moe as the fetishization of helplessness or suffering of female characters, and by that definition Madoka isn't a 'moe' anime. While the characters all suffer a great deal throughout the series, it's never sexualized or drawn out in the way much male-targeted, late-night anime is. That said, the absence of overt sexualization does not count as a refutation or critique of said sexualization.
Moreover, the term 'moe' doesn't have a single agreed-upon definition, and it's used to cover a broad range of trends in recent anime. ('Recent' being 2005-to-present, though the term's been in use for longer than that, I believe.) The fetishization of helplessness sometimes occurs in moe anime, but it doesn't have to. Moe is applied to characters who generate a strong desire in the viewer to help, protect, or just plain hug said character--usually because they're young, cute, kind and facing hardship. By that measure, Madoka is very 'moe.'
Also, when one looks at the merchandise and target audience for PMMM, it's clear that the creators are fine with exploiting the more unsavory moe fans. PMMM was originally broadcast in a late-night time slot, when the primary viewers are older, male fans, there are officially licensed dakimakura/love pillows, and some of the promotional art straddles the line between suggestive and titillating--not exactly things that one would expect from a series that intends to critique moe culture.
This is not to say that anyone who likes Madoka must also enjoy the really skeevy anime shows that take moe culture to creepy, fetishistic extremes. But it's silly to pretend--as some fans do--that PMMM doesn't have any moe qualities. It does, and as a female viewer it's not entirely pleasant to contemplate, but those qualities are there and they shouldn't be dismissed or excused as something they're not.
The reason this bugs me is that the 'critique of moe' argument seems to be used by people who see PMMM as THE GREATEST MAGICAL GIRL SHOW EVER and put it on a pedestal. Any negative qualities the show may have are ignored, or re-visioned to be strengths that the show doesn't actually have.
Don't get me wrong, I love PMMM, but there's a particular type of fan that I find annoying. There's a small contingent of PMMM fans--who are mostly older, male, and not familiar with the mahou shoujo genre--that tend to dismiss other quality magical girl shows, ostensibly because they can't possibly be as good as Madoka. But it reeks of guys who are too self-conscious to admit that they might like anime that's explicitly made for girls. Likewise, the 'PMMM has nothing to do with moe' strikes me as a way for these people to distance themselves from others who are hardcore moe fans, because moe has such a negative connotation.
Man, I hope that made some kind of sense. Stuff from the Puella Magi Madoka Magica panel has been banging around my head for ages, and I haven't been able to get it out.
I'm still working out how I feel about Madoka as a deconstructionist work (short version: it's not; it's more like a celebration of the mahou shoujo genre), and hopefully I'll have that finished before the month is out. For today, I'm going to tackle one of the stickier subjects in anime culture: moe.
As far as Madoka being a critique on moe culture...as much as I'd like it to be true, I just can't see it. The panel defined moe as the fetishization of helplessness or suffering of female characters, and by that definition Madoka isn't a 'moe' anime. While the characters all suffer a great deal throughout the series, it's never sexualized or drawn out in the way much male-targeted, late-night anime is. That said, the absence of overt sexualization does not count as a refutation or critique of said sexualization.
Moreover, the term 'moe' doesn't have a single agreed-upon definition, and it's used to cover a broad range of trends in recent anime. ('Recent' being 2005-to-present, though the term's been in use for longer than that, I believe.) The fetishization of helplessness sometimes occurs in moe anime, but it doesn't have to. Moe is applied to characters who generate a strong desire in the viewer to help, protect, or just plain hug said character--usually because they're young, cute, kind and facing hardship. By that measure, Madoka is very 'moe.'
Also, when one looks at the merchandise and target audience for PMMM, it's clear that the creators are fine with exploiting the more unsavory moe fans. PMMM was originally broadcast in a late-night time slot, when the primary viewers are older, male fans, there are officially licensed dakimakura/love pillows, and some of the promotional art straddles the line between suggestive and titillating--not exactly things that one would expect from a series that intends to critique moe culture.
This is not to say that anyone who likes Madoka must also enjoy the really skeevy anime shows that take moe culture to creepy, fetishistic extremes. But it's silly to pretend--as some fans do--that PMMM doesn't have any moe qualities. It does, and as a female viewer it's not entirely pleasant to contemplate, but those qualities are there and they shouldn't be dismissed or excused as something they're not.
The reason this bugs me is that the 'critique of moe' argument seems to be used by people who see PMMM as THE GREATEST MAGICAL GIRL SHOW EVER and put it on a pedestal. Any negative qualities the show may have are ignored, or re-visioned to be strengths that the show doesn't actually have.
Don't get me wrong, I love PMMM, but there's a particular type of fan that I find annoying. There's a small contingent of PMMM fans--who are mostly older, male, and not familiar with the mahou shoujo genre--that tend to dismiss other quality magical girl shows, ostensibly because they can't possibly be as good as Madoka. But it reeks of guys who are too self-conscious to admit that they might like anime that's explicitly made for girls. Likewise, the 'PMMM has nothing to do with moe' strikes me as a way for these people to distance themselves from others who are hardcore moe fans, because moe has such a negative connotation.
Man, I hope that made some kind of sense. Stuff from the Puella Magi Madoka Magica panel has been banging around my head for ages, and I haven't been able to get it out.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 09:25 am (UTC)From:Madoka Magica's in a really weird place between 'not pandering' and 'definitely pandering' imo. The show isn't bad, but the merchandise definitely is because, like you say, love pillows and figures/posters of the girls in skimpy clothes, usually doing mundane stuff that ignores the darker aspects of the series (like in this this poster, I'm sure somebody out there would claim all the swimsuit stuff is 'ironic' but...yeah, no).
Having said that though, I think all companies will sell pandering merchandise if they think there's a market for it, regardless of the content of the show itself.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 01:51 am (UTC)From:Madoka is not that bad when it comes to pandering, considering what's out there--I just thought it was a pretty silly thing to pretend it's critiquing part of its' target audience.
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Date: 2012-11-11 03:44 pm (UTC)From:Besides, Princess Tutu is both crueler and more beautiful, IMHO.
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Date: 2012-11-13 01:56 am (UTC)From:And yeah--people aren't wrong in saying Madoka is dark or heartbreaking, but Princess Tutu is, in a lot of ways, more so.
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Date: 2012-11-13 01:58 am (UTC)From: