Forum - View topicNot Your Average Anime about Cute Girls Doing Cute Things
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Jabootu
Posts: 267 |
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I'm a 60 year old man and I love K-On!. Following a lifetime of nerddom, the only artifacts to rival it in terms of sheer depths of my affection are Godzilla and early Marvel Comics. First, the idea that anyone liking pretty much anything is "controversial" is inherently dumb. Second, controversial to who, exactly? Mind your own business. There are plenty of things to love out there, find your own and don't worry about what others want to watch. For Pete's sake. There's a metric ton of new anime every three months. There's plenty of room for variety.
As for the idea that CGDCT shows "don't all lean towards being suggestive".... "Don't all" is an odd description, because in fact comparatively few of the CGDCT shows are suggestive. Maybe one out of five? If that. And even then I'm mostly talking very vanilla, occasional fanservice like in Girls Und Panzer, which I really doubt is much of the show's appeal. But the vast majority...K-On!, Yuru Camp, Super Cub, Sakura Quest, A Place Further than the Universe, Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater, Kageki Shoujo!!, Non Non Biyori, Do It Yourself.... I'd say comparatively few lean towards the suggestive, especially if you discount forthrightly ecchi ones like Keijo!!!!! That said, this is a very good article and I enjoyed reading it. Thanks! |
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MartinWisse
 Posts: 34 |
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First of all, why use Cute Girls Doing Cute Things when Slice of Moe is right there?
Second, why do y'all always have to discuss this genre in terms of its outliers? It's so boring. Not that Bocchi the Rock is all that different from your average slice of moe series, just treated that way. It's ironically the same way Madoka is always treated like a deconstruction of magical girls shows -- strange to see it listed here as well. It would be great if one day there was an article actually looking at proper shows of this type without feeling the need to look for ones that do things differently because there are so many excellent series to talk about: Tamayura, Acchi Kocchi, Yuru Yuri, Yuyushiki, Minami-Ke, Kin'iro Mosaic, Non Non Biyori, Hitori Bocchi, etc, etc. All series that are about a small group of friends not doing much, where the focus is on their relationships and the humour or pathos that arises from them... Also, if you want girls doing airsoft: Sabagebu! Survival Game Club! is much better and funnier in that the protagonist is an absolute little shit. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3046 Location: Email for assistance only |
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We sort of do that here, although it might still be considered "another angle" but this feature focused on finding new hobbies through CGDCT anime: http://4NN.cx/.175143
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Jabootu
Posts: 267 |
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Neat! Thank you for linking that. And I don't think it's that weird to use a hook as the basis of an article, although a general overview on the best of [blank] genre wouldn't be bad either. You could even update it yearly. |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 390 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Kind of an oddly focused article, given most of the themes mentioned have been staples from the beginning of the moe/iyashikei genre (social anxiety - Kamichu, Figure 7, Twin Spica, existential anguish - Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, NieA, Stellvia, that one show about a girl and her robot on the post apocalypse I'm blanking on, war - Starship Operators, etc) but hey I'm sure it'll generate discussion. If only rekindle the whole 'Madoka as a deconstruction' argument that was exhausted 20 minutes after the third episode aired, for the umpteenth time as to whether it even qualifies on the list.
Given we're talking about the whole movement that grew out from the maid & moe boom of the early 2000's, it's a little disappointing that no earlier examples were used. I'm not sure whether that betrays when the writer first got into anime, or they legitimately couldn't find any examples, but it's shame regardless. I know it was the early-mid-2010's when CGDCT really began to crystallized as its own genre, but there were plenty of oddities further back, such as some of the above. One that immediately becomes to mind, & personal fave is Windy Tales, which is basically what if someone was brave enough to take the cute out CGDCT? Ok, I'm not sure that's quite accurate, as I happen to find the aesthetic of the show incredibly appealing, but it definitely looks more Masaaki Yuasa than Dogo Kobo, which is a potential problem in a genre that has solidified itself around selling merchandise of the cast. More recently, I'd also throw out Hakumei & Mikochi, which again, might not necessary stroke the 'cute' girls itch, as it's about adorable little, mostly female woodland creatures, but that show was an overlooked masterpiece of tone that deserved to be seen by more people. Oh, and Sora no Woto, which is an absolutely phenomenal show about K-On looking soldiers living at the (possible) end of the world. It was largely dismissed at the time in the anime sphere due to moe fatigue, but the people that gave it a chance found something special. Nick Creamer gave it an excellent review some years later on this site. Last edited by fathomlessblue on Wed Dec 11, 2024 7:30 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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JohnnySake
 Posts: 587 Location: Auburn Hills, MI |
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Thumbs up to the Sora no Woto reference. At the time it was released, a show of Cute Girls in an apocalyptic setting was blowing my mind. Great article. It feels like forever since I've watched either K-On! or Sora no Woto and it feels like about time to give them a re-watch. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1354 |
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You know what I'd love to see?
A CGDCT show that is the complete opposite of cute. It's basically Yuru Yuri minus the comedy hijinx and more about, drug dealings, lesbians at war with other lesbians/homophobic gangs IE gang wars, homocides, gang rivalries, strong sexual content(which is all yuri btw). Themes would include loyalty to the "yuri club", both the good one and bad one, homophobia, love, suicide, anarchy, what happens when you let cute but naughty young girls take over the streets of Japan with an iron fist, martial arts battles both in the schools and out, who will claim both the schools and streets of Japan, the good club or the bad club. The music would have that Silent Hill/Akira Yamaoka ambient/rock music that I really loved. The OP with the cutesy music would fool the audience into thinking it would be another cute moeblob girls show, when the first episode will leave the audience completely stunned. Maybe the ED will have a disturbing crayon drawing made by a girl while the cute ED song plays. The rest of the OP/EDs will be female death metal songs. It's basically Yuru Yuri(minus the comedy) meets Tokyo Tribe with a mix of Ikki Tousen, Breaking Bad, and your average hentai. It might even include elements of slasher horror/thriller. All the bad stuff happening are not committed by adults, but by the girls themselves. The adults, including the authorities are all complicit under their whims. The tagline would be Cute girls doing...not so cute things. That is something I would really love to see. |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2398 |
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SAO is VRMMO, not isekai.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4817 |
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I think you mean Hakumei and Mikochi here. Michiko and Hatchin was less "CGDCT" and more "grown woman and child attempt to survive the seedy criminal underbelly of not-Brazil." 
Out of all the genres covered by anime, this is one of those that interests me the least, and I've seen very few examples of it. I think for me the biggest issue is the lack of any real driving central narrative in most of these series. I enjoy consuming fiction that has stakes, or progression, or really just Something Happening, whatever form that may take. By their nature, most "cute-girls-doing-whatever" series tend to largely eschew elements like that, and to me they seem kind of...well, pointless from a narrative perspective. There's also the fact that the vast majority of them are set in high school, and at this point in my life I've grown rather weary of that period being portrayed as the be-all, end-all of human existence. And while I know it's not being very fair, I can't shake the impression that many of these series are primarily targeted at lonely male otaku who don't have a lot of experience communicating with women. The girls in these series are presented in a very non-threatening way, usually without a shred of romantic interest being expressed, and often without any real male presence at all. If nothing else it feels very...contrived. I'm a bit confused by a few of the inclusions in here, too. I would never peg Madoka as being an example of this genre, as from the beginning it presents itself as a classic magical girl series, at least until its infamous swerve. Likewise, I haven't seen Girls und Panzer, but my impression is that it leans a bit more closely to a sports/tournament series. I am genuinely interested in Bocchi, since it sounds like a far more legitimate making-the-band series than K-ON ever attempted to be. A series I have seen that I think is worth adding is Girls' Last Tour, which features two blobs--er, girls, wandering through post-apocalyptic ruins in their trusty half-track. A lot of the series is focused on their interactions and everyday activities, but there are also the underlying questions of why they started on this journey and what happened to the places they see. It has a lot of similar vibes to Kino's Journey, which is what drew me to it in the first place. |
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MiniMarps
 Posts: 97 |
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Mid-2000s. In this post- K-On world, Western audiences and outlets have a tendency to overlook/downplay the size and influence of the first big CGDCT wave, led primarily by Hidamari Sketch and Lucky Star, but the K-On -led second wave in the early-2010s was very much built on the foundation that was established back then. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3978 |
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In other words, you want more like Asobe Asobase! Don't let its cute opening trick you. |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 390 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Ha, I absolutely meant Hakumei and Mikochi, although I'd also recommend Michiko & Hatchin. Just maybe not for the same reasons or to the same fandom
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 390 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I'm talking more about the western terminology of cgdct and use of iyashikei, rather than the actual output of shows back then. I mean my post clearly showed there were plenty of stuff out there, it's just that most were somewhat callously called moe shows as a blank all descriptor. It was certainly a common enough dismissal even when K-On exploded in popularity. |
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torchic91
 Posts: 18 |
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It's taken at least a decade for Anglo anime fans to understand the appeal and affects of Moe. While this is sometimes (reductively) described as "cute girls doing cute things," what this phrase seeks to describe is the affectual force of these series in character design and personality. Such a focus over character appeal is not limited to moe, however; all anime has an emphasis on this over, say, hand-wringing over canon across the media franchise (which you seek in anglo franchises.) Japanese scholar Hiroki Azuma has a foundational piece of writing that explains how anime runs on affect: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236710706_The_Animalization_of_Otaku_Culture
It took mainstream anglo otaku a long time to grow accustomed to this different mode (or even mood) of anime, in part due to the fetishization of plot logic that dominated nerd web culture in the 2010s. (Believe it or not, Nietzsche had a great take on this impulse, observing in Human, All too Human, "here art is a kind of the solving of a riddle that procures for the solver enjoyment of his own quick perspicuity.") Moe operates differently; little to no propulsive plotting, instead receiving affectual pleasures from the characters. This is not a bug, but a feature. Moe operates in a different register than other anime. Asother commentators have already pointed out, moe does not have to twist the formula to be good, a/effective, or thought provoking. Likewise, instead of rationalizing our passions, we should embrace them, and follow where they productively lead. |
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MiniMarps
Posts: 97 |
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That's exactly the reason I like it: the characters are more important than the narrative. You can show me an action or a thriller or whatever with all sorts of escalations and progressions and resolutions, but if I don't care about the characters involved, all that "narrative" is just going to seem like dreadfully boring noise to me. I don't get emotionally invested in events; I get emotionally invested in characters. And creating characters that are easy to invest in is sort of CGDCT's mission statement.
You can argue that. Just like you can argue that actions/thrillers/etc. are targeted towards boring male otaku who have a distinct lack of excitement in their real lives. |
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