How would you choose to translate 'Moe'?
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 10:31 am
After stumbling across "『オレ、実は巫女さん萌えなんだ』", it brought up a rather interesting conversation, so I would like to poke for thoughts and suggestions from the other project translators...
Now, for a lot of terms, there is a 1-to-1 literal translation so leaving the Japanese term is too 'otaku pandering', whatever. But imo, 'Moe' however is one of those terms that really clouds the boundaries. I have seen many people try to explain this term and fail, since it means somewhat differently to different people.
On one hand, it's comparable with the concept of fetishism -- something specifically seen as a turn on.
On the other hand, moe isn't always classified in a sexual manner, especially the argument that moe is a "pure, protective feeling towards a female character". Some even argue that its an attempt to evoke 'paternal' feelings from males.
So basically something like 'attraction' would cover it, except that 'attraction' doesn't even come close to describing the intensity of 'moe' within the fandom.
There's also the matter that it also differed between fandoms: for example, moe is usually classified by character archetypes; but for fujoshi it's usually classified by relationship types/phases instead.
So yeah... if you had to translate moe in "I find [something] moe", what would you do it as?
Yes, I know this is heavily dependent on the style and literal-ness of the translator. I just wanted to see what everyone else's choice would be with something like this ^^
Now, for a lot of terms, there is a 1-to-1 literal translation so leaving the Japanese term is too 'otaku pandering', whatever. But imo, 'Moe' however is one of those terms that really clouds the boundaries. I have seen many people try to explain this term and fail, since it means somewhat differently to different people.
On one hand, it's comparable with the concept of fetishism -- something specifically seen as a turn on.
On the other hand, moe isn't always classified in a sexual manner, especially the argument that moe is a "pure, protective feeling towards a female character". Some even argue that its an attempt to evoke 'paternal' feelings from males.
So basically something like 'attraction' would cover it, except that 'attraction' doesn't even come close to describing the intensity of 'moe' within the fandom.
There's also the matter that it also differed between fandoms: for example, moe is usually classified by character archetypes; but for fujoshi it's usually classified by relationship types/phases instead.
So yeah... if you had to translate moe in "I find [something] moe", what would you do it as?
Yes, I know this is heavily dependent on the style and literal-ness of the translator. I just wanted to see what everyone else's choice would be with something like this ^^