stuff anime fanboys like: #2 glasses
Categories: anime, moe, stuffanimefanboyslike
Tagged: clannad, clannad:tomoyo
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Continuing our introspective series on anime fanboys. A topic that has more than meets the eye.
Stuff Anime Fanboys Like: #2 Glasses
In modern society, people spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars to alter their appearance. Most people who have vision deficiencies try to mask their need for glasses by spending hundreds of dollars a year on contact lenses and the keep and care of those contact lenses. They also send minutes everyday (minutes that can be used for playing with their children, fucking their spouses, watching Nancy Grace, or writing Christmas cards) on putting and taking off these contact lenses. Others take a more dramatic approach in that they spend thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for a “technician” who probably spent more time drunk than sober at DeVry to shine a powerful laser into their eye. That laser will either cure them of their vision defect or blind them forever.
Now, why would people go to such lengths? Too look more appealing in their physical appearance. But why do anime fanboys desire the opposite? A popular fetish, or using the terminology of anime fanboys, “moe mode,” is characters who wear glasses. Granted not anime fanboys share this taste as not all Americans share Obama’s views on The Wire, but a sizable portion of anime fanboys not just like but prefer glasses as sign and symbol of physical attraction.
Take a typical anime series, and there might be characters inserted into that series just to provide this “moe mode.” It is quite common for female characters in particular to stress her glasses as a source of charm, as if they are more important than traditional signs of virility, i.e. hips, bust, twin sister open to threesome suggestions. Sometimes an anime will even try to provide a flailing character with an extra kick by providing her with glasses akin to a stripper getting breast implants or a balding 46 year male buying a Corvette.
It is a curious direction for anime fanboys to take as glasses are contrary to modern appearance perceptions, despite the best work of the optical correction industry. Maybe it’s a desire of anime fanboys to cater to their guilty side. They know that the two dimensional characters that they “moe” over aren’t terribly smart (in one anime, one character who wore glasses couldn’t even present a defensible argument as to how to eat a choco coronet; in another, she couldn’t even use a mouse properly after she was told by another character to take off her glasses) and want a sense of intellectual as well as physical beauty. The irony, of course, is that said intellectual beauty is only as deep as those glasses.
56 Responses to “stuff anime fanboys like: #2 glasses”
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Now, why would people go to such lengths? Cuz glasses hurt your nose
Seriously though… no argument here. That’s a great pic. *Saves*
Two words – shared experience. I will bet that a lot of those who have a fetish for them wear them too. That way, if a pretty girl or guy wears them too, then they’re a fashion accessory instead of a mark of shame.
I actually don’t like glasses ‘moe’ I only way I would accept it would be when it looks so damn good; Tomoyo, right here, is a shining example of that.
Being a girl, and being stuck with glasses for most of my life, my personal experience is that guys (during my high school and college years) didn’t find the specs in any way cute; in fact there were times it was a virtual turn-off, as glasses nominally equate to either intelligence or geekery (or both), which Filipino males don’t find too attractive (blame the Philippines’ machismo-infused patriarchal culture).
That doesn’t look like a very good “breakfast” there Tomoyo. How about we save if for lunch and skip school for an hour.
(Tomoyo beat Rika in moe? Hotness yes, but moe?)
Hi ho,
Urge to watch G-on Riders… rising.
From
waterfall
While I actually find glasses attractive as well, they tend to get in the way while kissing – especially if both wear glasses. I guess every moe mode has a downside. w
This is why I prefer playing Persona 3 over Final Fantasy XII — it has moe.
Glasses girls & petite tanned girls FTW!
So all the beating Sunohara has gone through can be partially attributed to Tomoyo’s bad eyesight?
I think Chihiro is the only girl in P3 that wears glasses though and she’s not really moe…..
On the subject of P3, 13 days until FES!
On the subject of contact lenses.
I never bothered to try them out. Just the thought of putting something in contact of my eyeballs scare me. Not to mention the hay fever that screw me over and make my eyes burning and scratchy.
Personal opinion: megane ruin my Tomoyo. Though a lot of people seem to like glasses in anime, I’ll never understand why. Are there many people who don’t wear them that like girls with glasses?
Interestingly enough, I don’t find glasses on anime characters to be attractive, while in real life, I think they can be extremely sexy.
I’m with you Demerson. Except I think if a girl is hot, it doesn’t really matter if she wears glasses. I don’t think it makes her sexier or whatever. However, with anime characters, I always think it makes them look worse. That pic above would be infinitely better without glasses. In fact, I can’t stand meganekko character designs pretty much because of their glasses.
Yeah, I’d chalk it up to
1) Another characteristic similar to many anime viewers (the same reason a lot of people like shy and reserved characters)
and that
2) Characters with glasses tend to draw from a similar pool of characteristics, and if people find those qualities desirable then they can find the glasses attractive too, as a tip-off to “this character is great / moe / etc.”.
Now don’t ask me why I’m trying to argue with a semi-satire article (see: bottom paragraph, Yuki / Miyuki references). I know I’m on the “broken for meganekko” side.
I’m not much of a glasses man myself, but if it fits the girl, heck why not?
Now to find megane-Kyonko pictures…
Your timing on this is pretty epic, since I’m going to pick up my new frames today. I decided on glasses over contacts since I have a thing about putting stuff in my eyes. And yes, more than one person has commented that my moe just went up 15%.
Feels urge to register ‘meganekogadaisuki’ as an email address …
@theWorkingOtaku
It’s Meganekko with two ks. Mega Neko is a giant cat. *is shot*
Megane tend to add a couple years to the character’s apparent age (smarter, more mature), so for an otaku moeing over a girl a questional number of years his junior, the glasses provide a small amount of justification for his fictional lust.
(quietly adds glasses to two more Heart’s Content characters)
I’m actually not a fan of glasses D=
But hey! I just used the exact same image for a blogpost 5 days ago =D
>>It’s Meganekko with two ks. Mega Neko is a giant cat. *is shot*
You mean like this?
I really hope those HTML tags worked.
Oh, and almost any female character can be visually improved by wearing glasses. Look at Shana, or for the broken, Kyonko.
Glasses adds a small layer of clothing to a character that can be removed in a sexy way without being considered perverted. For real life, it tends to be used to make what at first looks like an unatractive girl, slip her glasses off, instant sexy. Lab type girls and some doctors and or course librarians. The other case is related to make pretty girls not have the “dumb blonde” effect or “to give them a flaw” to make them approachable.
In anime, it may be for the same reasons, or because the animators can draw sexy glasses. But also it tends to be used to hide the eyes in situations (thus can lead to an eye reveal for greater effect). Also the earlier mentioned thought of making a girl look older (reading glasses mainly have this effect).
Well I will be the first to admit, all the girls I’ve dated have worn glasses, and at least 85% of the ones I’ve crushed on all my life.
I JUST used that pic to illustrate to someone why anime girls are cuter with glasses last night. Glasses are like my second anime fetish after kemonomimi.
There’s one meganekko in my anime club who’s quite cute. Unforunately, going from “So, what do you think of Spice and Wolf” to “Hey, I think you’re cute” is kind of awkward, especially when certain other Derailed readers tend to intervene in the conversation with Derailed type comments on the show.
As someone who wears glasses(and is afraid of contacts) I must say that I find them very attractive. They aren’t necessary but hey if they look good then mmmmmmmm.
Wonder what Kyou would look like with sexy glasses……
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I prefer wearing my glasses instead of contacts just to upkeep my close resemblance to Zetsubou-sensei.
I just found my new wallpaper!
@ Nodspy: Ive been thinking of that too, but for some reason I get an image of Kyou wearing Kamina’s glasses…I need to go draw that in my sketchbook now.
Yes, glasses are great. When I was younger I liked girls with glasses even though at the time I hated wearing them myself (this was like the 80s and my glasses weighed a ton). If I could I would go back to wearing glasses but my glasses look like old man glasses and keep breaking cause my head is too big :( My little brother stopped wearing his glasses regularly 10 years ago and I still think he looks weird and not as cute without them.
However, as far as anime girls, my 2D complex isn’t that strong so even though I prefer rl girls with glasses, an anime girl having glasses doesn’t affect me as much.
@ Amati: Thats a very good reason, I keep that in mind when I get new frames.
@lol_matt: Kyou + Kamina’s glasses=…… starts drooling
I’m going to have to chime in on the side of “glasses are sexy in both anime and RL”. As a total aside – have you ever worn contacts? The cost vs. glasses comparison isn’t there – glasses that will last a few years easily cost 3x a years supply of contact and supplies. And while they do require more maintenance than glasses, I spend more tie shaving or brushing my teeth than I do on the contacts. ie, a negligible amount.
…I just spent 5 minutes writing a reply to argue against the lead in to a megane moe post. clearly, I didn’t pay enough attention to the opening picture.
glasses are a real life turn on for me as well. I’d say it’s a bonus more than a moe mode. It can increase existing hotness but i don’t think it creates hotness per say.
Glasses are something that only look good in anime. Like blue hair.
Eh, contacts have never really made much sense to me anyway. Glasses are cute as long as they’re not overdone and suitably subtle.
Then again, certain contacts that fire lasers, hyper-vibration particles, micro-black holes and the like may also qualify as a type of moe mode…
Meh, I think glasses look cute and don’t know why people go for contact lenses in real life. Only cute if the glasses themselves work with the person/are also.
I was never a meigane type before I ever got into Anime or Manga. I always liked the tsudere or cold and compose type because you can’t wait to see their cute side. I am surprise that most girls with glasses seem to have big breasts in this type of genre :P. That kind that you want to climb the not so “Broken Mountain” :D.
Sempai just isn’t Sempai without her glasses!
Cheesepie: I knew someone would have to bring that line up… and I’m glad I wasn’t the one who did it. But in this day and age, glasses can be a fashion accessory because a) they can be done in a variety of styles, due to improvements in materials technology which allows them to be made in a variety of shapes, and to not have to be an inch thick to provide high corrective power, and b) because there are options besides glasses… so you can go without, if the need strikes you – which makes them, like high-heels a way to emphasize something… or not.
What we learned here is everyone like then … except Filipino males.
Add another one for pro-glasses in anime and real life. I once estimated that girls with glasses are 50 times more likely to attract me. Now that I’ve qualified myself, let me say that
Tomoyo’s glasses is total fail.
And I voted Tomoyo on the favorite character poll too. Maybe the glasses need to be larger, maybe they should’ve put it on Kotomi, I don’t know. All I know is I kept looking at her trying to find her glasses moe and I just can’t.
I’m not much of a Tomoyo fan (I’m more partial to Kyou, Mei, and Yukine), but when she puts on glasses, she looks much more attractive. I like the aura of sophisitication and intelligence it exudes…
@Nodspy
Here’s the one picture of Kyou with glasses that I have (albeit a bit small): Kyou
@ Drakron: I’m a Filipino (well, American too) male and I. . .no. Actually, that’s completely correct.
@ Drakon: I’m a Filipino male as well, and it looks like I break the stereotype…
2D glasses > 3D glasses
=)
For the rest of the Filipino readers: Well, I’m guessing that the guys in the attached high school I went to never found it attractive, since I essentially stayed single for the four years I studied there. It’s strange, considering that I never work the thick, horn-rimmed style at all — and I’m not ‘plain’ either. Hrmm.
Myssa Rei: It’s the machismo thing…. but not every guy’s into machismo, here or there. Hell, I think a lot of people have seen the Cebu Prison Youtube videos by now…
I must be part of thee minority because I think glasses on girls are extremely sexy… like some one previously said It gives an air of maturity (biased or not just gives me that feeling) which coincides with my thing for older women.
In anime not so much…. i remember Mizuho in Onegai Teacher had glass that seemed to make watching the show a whole lot more enjoyable….
Americanized Filipinos, maybe they don’t count?
@ lollerskates: Amazing pick thx… wait one of your pics???? You have more?? Where?!
Oh only one but my theory was correct, kyou + glasses= win!
Glasses don’t make the girl, but they’re definitely a bonus “plus” in both RL and anime. I liked them even before I started wearing glasses myself (though mine are mostly for long distance/reading and not necessary 99.9% of the day).
Granted, Ugly with glasses may be Ugly +, but it’s still ugly. On the other hand, Hot with glasses is Hot +. Thus If I ever had the chance to choose between Hot and Hot+ I’d go for the Hot+.
However that said, this doesn’t apply just to women either. Like hairbands or earrings glasses have become an “accessory” both for women and for men. The wrong pair of glasses can make you look foolish, while the right pair can enhance your appearance. My girlfriend has even said that while I look good to her without them, I look just as good if not better with them on. So while men find glasses attractive, just as they might a chocker, or that thin area between high socks and the skirt edge, Women also find them attractive just as they might find a beard on a rugged man attractive or a suit, etc. In the end it all comes down to fashion essentially.
That being said, while anime girls almost always have their glasses coordinated properly to enhance their cuteness, real women, do not necessarily do the same, thus why in RL its not a guaranteed plus.
Hear me.
Imagine getting to know a girl. Girl wears glasses.
After getting to know her a bit, you spend more and more time with her.
At some point she will take her glasses off. Be it to massage her nose or jump your bones. The feeling of seeing that same face without its usual optical enhancers.. is a one-of-a-kind feeling. Thus, I loev meganeko.
Contacts are the best thing ever. I love mine.
That being said, I’m in full approval of glasses in real life and in anime if they’re the right style.
Can someone add a closing tag to that last comment?
I think some people (both 2D and 3D) just look better with glasses. Some look better without glasses. Others just look good no matter what they are or aren’t wearing.
That’s one of the reasons that I wear glasses. I think that I look better (and have been told as such) when I wear them. I wore contacts in high school but I found that I’m too lazy to spend the negligible time it took to put in and take out every day… plus they were often uncomfortable and itchy.