adorable rockets

Yes, yes Bakamonogatari was the knock-out hit of last season and quite possibly the last five years. So why am I wasting my time on what I should be bemoaning as typical J.C. Staff dreck, instead of waxing rhapsodic?

Two simple reasons:

1. Bakamonogatari deserves more than a quickie post dashed off from the hip.
2. A contrast between Railgun and A Certain Magical Index provides a unique opportunity, unparalleled in the annals of anime, to contrast two shows with near identical moétic goals but very different moétic results.

I dare say that even after only one episode Railgun is an almost unqualified moétic success, while Index failed to retain my interest for even ten episodes. Of course what’s most fascinating about this comparison is that we have not only similar goals, with contrasting results – we also have the same source material, the same studio producing the show, even many of the same characters. It is a near ideal laboratory to study the success and failure of moétic technique, and even to gain some insight into the evolution of this genre/school of art. Yes my dear readers, this is once again an entry in the service of moé.

The story for Railgun will obviously be just as vapid as it was for Index, the characters just as 2-dimensional, and the action just as telegraphed and predictable. The difference clearly does not lie there, and it is notable that the difference could not lie there since these factors cannot even come into play in the single episode glimpse we have had of Railgun.

Moétic effect is instantaneous. It requires neither plot, characterization, nor dramatic action to be conveyed (though all three can enhance it).

So what are the differences between Railgun and Index?

1. Male protagonist vs. Female protagonist. Come on, this is like basic marketing. With a male lead you are one person removed from moé – with a female, gratification is instant. Not to mention all the time we have to waste on the male lead’s motivations, travails, whatever. With a male lead all these elements have to be well executed, or at least quickly drive the introduction of more moé characters or moé events with the current cast. With a female they don’t matter. Practically anything you throw in there will be moé. School idol = WIN. Collecting cute frog figures = WIN. Sports girl type with shorts under skirt = WIN. See how easy it is?
2. Hetero loli romance vs. Yuri loli romance. This one is now obvious as well. How can we have the required romantic frisson without a male lead? Yuri of course! Which has the added benefit of Yuri itself, fertile ground for moétic crushes, embarrassment, and HAWT fantasy Yuri. The loli aspect in Railgun also fares better than in Index. With an all school girl cast the longings are less creepy – if not in consideration of the audience, at least in consideration of the fictional world (plus we avoid the truly bizzare elementary girl school teacher).
3. Harem tease vs. full moé cast. Index teases the audience with promise of a harem full of moétic types in the opening animation. Yet a third of the way through the series they still don’t deliver. Railgun packs a fully functioning cast of four moétic types in the first episode and teases at at least two more to come. See what you can achieve with some single minded focus?!
4. Cliffhanger action sequence (lots of them) vs. self contained action sequence. The endless cliffhangers of Index only focus attention on (ridiculous and plodding) plot. In contrast the (painfully obvious) self contained sequence in Railgun delivers both satisfaction of action (and is mercifully over before you have too much time to think about it) allowing the viewer to focus on contemplation of the moétic characters

And there’s more, but rather than trying to do a complete analysis of the deltas and synthesize a framework in this post (that’s for the future), let me just close with the thought that these two shows don’t just demonstrate differences in style, they also demonstrate the history of the moétic school of anime. A cursory glance at the four contrasting approaches above calls to mind the realization that Index makes the same choices as many anime shows did ten years ago, while Railgun is following the pattern of many contemporary shows. Regardless of ultimate quality, Index,Tenchi,Ranma, all sit on the left side of the comparison, while Railgun, Sea Story, and Saki sit on the other. This is indeed a unique and fascinating case study in moétic execution.

And that’s how I can justify watching it – especially after Bakamonogatari… orz

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm and is filed under MOÉ, Pictures, Reviews, anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.