'Moe in the Military 2'

Unlike the Super-Deformed or chibi characterizations which pepper the anime and manga of my generation, I never quite understood the appeal of moe.

My initial, foolish, assumption that moe is a hyper-critical self-examination of the Phallic male gaze was very far from the mark -- pressure-cooker society and all aspects of sexual repression aside, PG pal Jason Thompson does an ace job here in describing what moe actually represents.