Anime Blog Online

Fuwa Fuwa Time! ~Me, Myself, and Moe~

June 9th, 2009

It took me five episodes to warm up to K-ON, unlike the hordes of people going “I LOVE YOU, K-ON!” “Mio <33333″ (though now it’s more of “Azu-nyan~! <333″) right from the start, like Mio-crazy Seleria over here. Started off unimpressed, not because of any KyoAni biases (I’ve never watched a moe~kyun~ KyoAni series, unless you count Full Metal Panic), but because I’m fairly new to this whole moemoe~kyun~! thing *le gasp*.

My first encounter with the moe slice-of-life genre would have to be Azumanga Daioh, about 6 years ago, albeit cut-short due to my wet-blanket baka aniki and how I let myself be affected by his SRS BSNS perceptions. Then there was Bincho-tan, which I would’ve marathoned in Animax had my BAKA ANIKIS not switched the channel to something they both want to watch. Then there’s Ichigo Mashimaro (I, My, Me Strawberry– ahh forget it), which I started watching a few weeks back, and what I’d consider to be my gateway to moe fluff slice-of-life stuff (ooh, it rhymes!). A fellow-anime-fan colleague who watched the series told me that “it’s [somewhat] nonsensical, but relaxing… a stress reliever”. That freed me from any expectations and equipped me with the right mindset as I finally sat down and watch it. Same with K-ON!

With zero expectations (almost zero, since there’s that little bit of ‘moexpectation’), I jumped into the show as a casual spectator who didn’t know what was in store for her. “Ok K-ON girls, let’s see what you’ve got!” For the first four episodes, I’d have to admit, I actually wondered what the heck I was watching or if I’m even supposed to be watching it in the first place. But the cute little antics and the thought of music n00bs forming a band was enough to tickle my fancy, and with episode 5… bam! I am hooked. And with episode 6, I was going Mio~~ <3333, cheering for her as she conquers the stage with her song, happily singing Fuwa Fuwa Time~! with the rest of the gang. I blame Sawako-sensei for getting me hooked on this.

happily drivin'

Quite a Sunday Driving experience this turned out to be, as I found myself enjoying it simply for what it is. *zukyuun~!* goes my heart~

After joining the bandwagon of K-ON! moetards, I can’t help but laugh [even more] at the sentiments of those who are tsundere for K-ON! (or anything moeblob-related). Moe juxtaposed with feminism?! Ok, granted, even the great Hayao Miyazaki subscribe to this feminist mindset, but are you kidding me? It’s not like all people who enjoy K-ON watch it for the joy of seeing women in their objectified, helpless state. Do I look like a lolicon who’ll watch K-ON just for the sake of fapping? Heck no! Heck, I can’t even fap hurr durr durr, but that’s not the point. We all know teasing people like Mio can be a lot of fun, but hey, we can also love her for pure reasons, right?? But more importantly, WHY SO SERIOUS?!

Let’s first forget the “fact” that these girls were “made moe for pandering purposes”, then what have we got? Just a bunch of girls with their own quirks and silliness, four different personalities jive in to form their little band and have a good time~, and hilarity ensues within, that’s basically it. Turn off your feminist sensitivity radar, moe-llergy or whatnot, take a step back, and realize that these characters never set out to paint us the picture of the Ideal Woman (or otherwise), they’re just being who they are. And we’re just mere spectators of their lives. Is it their fault that they’re so criminally cute and that people find them moe? Of course not! ~~If being moe was a crime then I’d probably be in jail right now.~~

But then I wondered, how come this whole scene seemed all too familiar — Haters on one end, fans or fags on the other, going “hurr durr durr why so serious?”. And then… eureka! as I realized that this is total Deja Vu, with the roles reversed this time around. I r the fag, and the other ones are the haters. I can’t believe I’d find myself saying the very words of my deters, and finally, realize what went wrong between me and Itazura na Kiss way back when. I viewed ItaKiss from a feminist lens, as if that wasn’t obvious enough, and I was too busy nitpicking on the flaws of the characters to see the big picture. I was concentrating so much on what the series was doing wrong to even see what it was doing right. That’s what hating or loving a series delusionally does to you. Either you love it too much and be blinded to its flaws, or hate it to the guts and never see where its redeeming points lie.

There’s a tried-and-true formula to enjoy watching animes, but that we often take for granted. Heck, I know I forget it every so often. “Appreciate it for what it is.” That’s right, repeat after me, Appreciate [an anime] For What It Is. Hold your horses with any expectations, stop imposing what you want to see in the show, forget the fandumb, forget the “fans who ruin it for you”, and take it as it is. Or if I were to quote some lines in the lyrics of Lenka’s “The Show”, a song which I hold dearly in my heart: “I want my money back! I want my money back! Just enjoy the show!”

“This sh*t sucks” won’t suck as much if you enjoy it along the way, and you won’t find yourself complaining how it’s all a “waste of time” either. And at the end of it all, if I were to use the words of TheBigN, “it depends on what you’re looking for”. If moe’s not for you, then so be it, don’t be surprised that so many people like it, don’t hate it (and hate the ones who like it) because of that either, geez. Don’t be tsuntsun for moe.

to all the naysayers, Yui has one special message for you:

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