Quote:
Originally Posted by Westlo
The conception of those 2 characters have nothing to do with Sunrise though.. if you want to praise anybody for them than start with their creators/writers in Kawahara Reki and Yoshiaki Sukeno respectively. They are faithful adaptations after all... like Shinbo said in regards to Bakemonogatari... "I can't take much credit". Love Live is an original though ;p
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I'm talking less conception and more usage and strategy in those two cases as I try to imply half-jokingly that Sunrise is incapable of having a moeish character without something decidedly not moe catch to them. You know me, I'm not the type to go around just praising a production company and giving them credit for creating something they didn't. God knows I speak out about that sort of thing enough anyway.
Really though the way I see it those two are pretty much in line with Sunrise's try hard theory of creating "moe" characters. I mean lets just look at a few examples Post Gundam 00 that they DID create and trademark in house to illustrate what I mean:
We'll just skip right over MS Igloo 2 cause...
yeah
Gundam Unicorn - Mineva (created circa Zeta Gundam) is kind of lovey dovey with Banagher, otherwise spends the majority of her time talking about politics, war and jumping out of airplanes and getting caught by mobile suits. Too...political.
Puru Twelve (created circa ZZ Gundam) has that thing going on with Captain Zinnerman, but is way too menacing and built like a spec ops soldier otherwise. Plus she was forced into child prostitution, that's decidedly non-moe.
Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujo - Every single girl in this show could be construed as kind of moeish....but they sure loves them some fighting. Fight fight fight, blow stuff up with a giant colony laser, fight fight kick through a machine. Hop in that mech and fight some more. Too much fighting and saving the universe not enough being bad at cooking and searching for a boyfriend to solve their problems.
Sacred Seven - Ruri Aiba is pretty moe...except she spends most of her time actually trying to muster her way onto the battlefield and to be an active part of things AND has that same issue Mineva has with jumping out of planes. Too gutsy.
Tiger and Bunny - Blue Rose, Dragon Kid, Kaede Kaburagi, all kind of cute, all but Blue Rose would seemingly rather be practicing martial arts and being superheroes rather than be seen as feminine and cute....and even Blue Rose eventually gets over her wanting to be an idol and decides to stick it out as a costumed hero. Too....heroic.
Armored Trooper Votoms Alone Again - The two major female characters in this...both are super soldiers...one is kind of already dead, one serves as something of an antagonist. Too...warlike.
Code Geass - Akito The Exiled - Layla Malkal is a high noble woman who could be moe I guess, but would seemingly rather devote all her time to military service and strategizing than spending time at the beach and can't even get out of her military uniform long enough to attend a party. Favorite pass time seems to be reading and writing about the art of war. Too....militaristic.
- Ayano Kosaka is a 15 year old girl that could be moe, but spends most of her time practicing using her Katana and being anti-social as humanly possible.
I could go on, but I think I've illustrated what I mean a little. I guess these characters are somewhat popular, but I mean if you look at the types of "moe" that Japan seems to really go for it's more the characters like K-On's Yui Hirasawa...the ones you don't have to worry about having too much of a fierce independent streak, being high maintenance, and going off and getting into fights and/or dying. Even looking at Gundam 00, the character that has by far the most development and the most complete arc and could be construed as somewhat moeish Soma Peries (the super soldier) is nowhere near the most popular character in spite of it all. It's Feldt Grace seemingly by far that people in Japan gravitated too....the low maintenance quiet one with maybe a handful of lines in the shows entire continuity. The one that spends most of her time worrying about Setsuna and cowering on the ship in the midst of a fight and who goes shopping with her gal pal or hits the beach in a swimsuit when shit gets a little too real.
Love Live! seems set to side step this approach by presenting no strings attached moe idol characters. None of them look like they'll going to suddenly pull a sword or gun out and start talking about politics and warrior philosophies so much as pull a mic out and get up on the stage and start dancing to J-Pop. We'll see if it makes a difference I guess.
edit: It occurs to me that for the more sensitive people here's sake I should say I'm 80% joking around here. I'll leave it up to people to figure out which parts, it should be pretty obvious....I hope.