The Lobster Dance

The Kyoto Transportation Bureau is casting a wide net with their efforts to increase the usage of the subway. According to their website, the Transportation Bureau is trying to increase the number of city subway passengers to 50,000 people.(1) For example, by producing pocket-sized city bus and subway time schedules, which you can download here (pdfs are at the bottom of the page) and pocket walking maps of the city, the Bureau can help students and people intimidated by the transit system by giving them a convenient guide to getting around.

I covered another campaign in my last post: stairway calorie-counter setsuden ads in the Kyoto subway, which, along with the maps and guides, are brought to you by the Kyoto City “Team to Increase the Number of Young Professional Customers” (若手職員増客チーム) Moé Moé Challenge Section (燃え燃えチャレンジ班).

The Moé Moé Challenge Section’s job is “to create public advertisements to get people fired up about the subway.”(2) As I dug deeper in researching this article, I discovered the calorie counter I had discussed in my last post is also the product of the Moé Moé Challenge Section. In a 18 May proposal, the section writes,

In response to the perceived notion that “the subway platforms are far away” and “it takes too much time,” we will attempt to improve the image of using the stairs as something you can do for your health. In encouraging people to use the stairs, we will attempt to  lessen the congestion on the elevators and escalators as well as promoting a more eco-friendly subway.(3)

If burning calories isn’t inspiring you to be more eco-friendly, the Section has also created an “original character” who adorns a poster at the bottom of the stairs.

The top picture is of a thin, conventionally attractive girl in a high-school uniform ascending the stairs. The text reads “A person who uses the stairs? How cool!” The picture on the lower half of the sign is of a thin, attractive (in a Johnny’s way) young man who appears to be pushing an elevator button. “If you’re eco-conscious, do you use the stairs? From now on, make this subway friendly to the environment and your health!”

Image from the Kyoto Public Transportation Bureau's website (linked).

The Section’s proposals are posted on the Kyoto Transportation Bureau’s website; Point 3 (“Creating an Original Character for the Project [ オリジナル応援キャラクターの作成]”) of the proposal explains that the character was created for PR and to give a “friendly face” to the Moé Moé Challenge Section’s campaign.

Moé-chan directs you to the homepage of the Moé Moé Challenge Section. Image from the Kyoto Transportation Bureau's website. (linked)

Their character/mascot is 太秦　萌, Uzumasa Moé. According to the website, she is 17 years old, 158 cm tall (5’2″) and weighs 47 kg (103 lbs). She appears to be named after a ward of Kyoto called Uzumasa (same kanji), the location of eigamura, where Japanese period films are shot. As for her first name, while the moé of the Moé Moé Challenge section uses the kanji for burning or getting fired up, 燃, her first name is the kanji for bud or sprout, 萌. Uzumasa Moé’s personality is described as “cheerful and lively, she is earnest but can be an airhead sometimes. She supports people who try their best toward the environment.”(4)

Moé-chan’s purpose is to appeal to passengers by inspiring moé (written もえ, モエ, 燃え or 萌え). This concept is a bit difficult to explain, but I think the Mainichi Shinbun did a good job in their recent article on moé characters. (5)

Moé Characters:

While the actual meaning of the word 萌える (moeru) refers to the sprouting of plants, in the early 1990s, the term moé came to be used by a subsection of “bishôjo [beautiful girl] character” fans who felt that the word like/love (suki, 好き） was not enough to encompass their feelings of love toward the character of their affections. Originally directed at these characters, the term has come into usage to describe real people and animals. Despite its origins as otaku slang,  the expression “moeeee!”  became so widely used that it was chosen as one of the You Can new words/buzz words in 2005. (2011 June 22)

I find this term is often used when a character does he/his signature “thing” (action, expression of personality, phrase), something that is something typical of them that a fan really likes. For example, Tamaki of Ouran High School Host Club burns with moé whenever Haruhi brings “commoner culture” into the club or wonders what fatty tuna tastes like. (In fact, the whole host club is based on catering to their patrons’ moé.)

As TV Tropes notes, moé is inspired by some perceived sort of cuteness. From a visual perspective, as I’ve noted, Moé-chan’s clothing marks her as a high-schooler (which is confirmed by the website), the right (preferred?) age for bishôjo fans. In the ad in the subway, she meets the viewer’s gaze as if she is approaching them from the staircase of the subway and looking up at the viewer, who is standing at the top of the stairs. She is smiling and perhaps blushing a bit, as if meeting her boyfriend. According to the line of her gaze, this person she’s happy to see is you, the viewer.

In the second picture, we get a better idea of her appearance: she wears her hair in a feminine, girlish manner, and her sweater sleeves are a bit too long, making her seem somehow childish and cute. Her expression seems a bit flustered and apologetic: with sweat droplets over her head, she appears to be giving a slightly nervous-looking laugh as she says “The Moé Moé Challenge Section’s homepage is over here,” as if the viewer were distracted by her presence or somehow stumbled upon her looking for the Section’s homepage.

I suspect Moé-chan’s moé-inspiring point is when she cutely chides you to be more eco-friendly or does something for the sake of the environment. Her admiration for someone who uses the stairs (see picture 1) is somehow cute. The description of her sometimes-ditzy-but-well-meaning personal effort to save the earth actually reminds me of Usagi from Sailor Moon: the combination of being sort of an airhead but having a strong belief in doing good. Moé-chan’s purpose seems to be to inspire people susceptible to her style of moé, likely otaku-ish males, to use the stairs to impress her; perhaps she may also even encourage women wanting to cultivate her style of moé to impress men. (I’m unsure of if or how she appeals to non-straight-identified passengers, but she’s targeting a specific subset of people here.)

So far, the Moé Moé Challenge Section’s efforts have ranged from appealing to the practical (distributing transit schedules), the health-conscious (calorie-counters), and a part of the subculture (moé). Will it work? Of course, this also begs the burning (har) question: when will Akihabara come up with its own moé-inspiring eco-characters for setsuden?

I can’t find any information on the Kyoto Transportation Bureau’s site about about the young man on the poster, but if he has a story other than being the apparent subject of Moé-chan’s chiding, send me a link or a comment, please!

Notes

(1)That is, to increase the number of passengers using city public transit, as opposed to JR, Hankyuu, or Keihan lines, or cabs.

(2)「燃え燃えチャレンジ」班は，地下鉄5万人増客に熱く燃える庁内公募の6名＋このプロジェクトに協力していただける方で構成されており，熱い情熱と柔軟な発想で地下鉄・市バスの乗客増に向けた取組（燃え燃えプロジェクト）を交通局と共に次々と展開します。 Kyoto City Transportation Bureau (21 June 2011).

(3) 「地上からホームまで遠い」，「時間が掛かる」という先入観に対して，「階段を使うことで『健康』になれる」という，プラスイメージに転換していただく とともに，多くの方が階段を利用していただくことで，エレベーターやエスカレーターの混雑緩和を図り，環境に優しい地下鉄の御利用を促進することを目的と しています。 “Regarding the Posting of ”Calories Expended on the Stairs’ and Shops Participating in the  ‘Subway Festival'[地下鉄階段への消費カロリーの掲出と「地下鉄まつり」への出店について]”. (19 May 2011).

(4) 元気で活発，真面目だが天然な部分もある。頑張っている人を自然と応援してしまう。 “Regarding the Posting of ”Calories Expended on the Stairs’ and Shops Participating in the  ‘Subway Festival'[地下鉄階段への消費カロリーの掲出と「地下鉄まつり」への出店について]”. (19 May 2011).

(5) 萌えキャラ

本来の「萌える」は草木の芽が出る意味だが、９０年代前半、一部の美少女キャラクターファンが「好き」だけでは表現 できない愛情を表す言葉として 使い始めたとされる。対象は美少女キャラから最近は実際の人物や動物などにも派生。「オタク文化」の俗語だったが、次第に大衆化し、「萌え～」は０５年の ユーキャン新語・流行語にも選ばれた。

“Moé Development:   ‘Moé’ Characters Boom in Development Projects to Improve the Images of 18 Cities (萌えおこし：「萌え」キャラで大分おこし　１８市町村イメージ反映). The Manichi Shinbun. Oita Edition. 22 June 2011.

(6)Japan’s use of characters and mascots for everything from towns to companies, and many of these have been documented in Idle Idol by Edward and John Harrison (2010). Moé-chan appears to be one of the new moé-inspiring characters documented here in the Oita section of The Mainichi Shinbun.