Book Review: The Moe Manifesto: An Insider's Look at the Worlds of Manga, Anime, and Gaming

For someone who's interested in Japanese pop culture, more specifically anime and manga, I know nothing about Japanese slang called Moe (萌え).

This book is quite an eye opener that helped me understand that I barely scratched the surface with regards to what people like about Japanese pop culture.

There's no official definition for Moe. It could be a term that's used to describe what's cute or adorable, it can also mean the admiration otakus have for fictional anime or manga characters.

This book is about Moe and what it means to different people. It's filled with interviews with people with special interests in Moe, such as anime producers, voice actors, writers, otakus, university professors, illustrators and more. It's fascinating to read about their interpretation of Moe, and what they think about it.

Many anime and manga tiles from past and present are mentioned, and many of them I've not heard before because they were only released to the Japanese market and never in English.

This book is about the culture behind Japanese pop culture. Fascinating read.

This review copy is provided by Tuttle Publishing, a publisher and seller of books rooted in Asian culture, language, and history.

The Moe Manifesto: An Insider's Look at the Worlds of Manga, Anime, and Gaming is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

The Moe Manifesto: An Insider's Look at the Worlds of Manga, Anime, and Gaming