Some thoughts on Charage/moege (positive this time)
Understand, I'm not a huge fan of the moege and charage umbrella genres. This is something I'm sure anyone who reads this blog is already well-aware of (to the point of exasperation in some cases) and at this point, it isn't something I need to reemphasize. However, I've noticed that I've never really mentioned what I do like about moege/charage and their positive elements... and I thought I'd go ahead and put that down here.
1. Charage do make decent breaks from my workday, as they don't require much in the way of brain activity to enjoy.
2. Generally, their visuals are maintained at a level where they are pleasant to look at (some other genres use really odd art-styles... in the case of 07th Expansion, outright ugly ones, lol).
3. Junai (pure love) is a romantic genre that puts you at ease, in general. After all, you know that a happy ending is coming and there is no reason whatsoever to fear for the characters' future.
4. Comedy- Most charage at least attempt to be comedic. That they don't always succeed (increasingly, they don't succeed in recent years) doesn't detract from the fact that it is a quality of the genre.
5. Slice-of-life- Though you need to take it with a grain of salt, charage are actually much better as tools for learning about modern Japanese culture (outside of subculture) than anime and manga are, simply by the nature of a story with narration. That said, it is ultimately an exaggerated, compartmentalized, and idealized version of 'everyday life', lol.
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