My iconostasis.
About Moe Fundamentalism
I am a moe fundamentalist. Once upon a time, I considered myself a critic, but I’ve shied away from that moniker. I find myself more and more uncomfortable with the idea of prescribing how things should be. I prefer to observe and describe how they are.
I wish to describe the real experience of watching anime— the joy, the fear, the horror, the anguish… all of it. I attempt to separate myself from overly complicated analysis and strive always to resist the urge to label characters with tags like “tsundere”, “osananajimi”, et cetera. Sometimes, it’s hard to pin down why one likes a show— and instead of endlessly attempting to justify myself, I have simply chosen to accept the fact that sometimes, damn it, I just like girls that aren’t “real”.
What I seek to do here is to offer a connection between my own life and the lives of characters. By doing so, I make characters immediately relevant to my own life. Hopefully, they’ll be relevant to your life as well.
Anime is a hobby. It is not a way of life, and there should not be a distinct “otaku lifestyle.” We all have lives outside of anime, do we not? The otaku lifestyle is a construct. It doesn’t exist. What does exist is consumption, production, community and passion— the experience of anime. And that is worth writing about.
About Akira
When I’m not watching anime, I am a 4th-year undergraduate currently working towards a BA in History. My research is mostly related to colonial policy in Imperial Japan and its effect on native populations. On my free time, I love to take photos, dabble in graphic design and typography, contemplate the nature of empire and occasionally write fiction.
Please note that, for the time being, I will be disallowing comments on my posts. If you need to find me, you can do so on Twitter @Akirascuro.
