(If at any point you find these 2000 words to be too overwhelming, click here to skip to the last few paragraphs at the end; although you’ll be missing out on some great stories…)

I like to make things sound so dramatic, when obviously they are not such.

Well, maybe not to you anyway; certainly you will groan when you find out the true premise of this post, which I am obscuring for just a -few- paragraphs longer so that you will be compelled to read on past whatever preview is showing up on Anime Nano or AB.net Antenna or any of those great sites.

But I’m sure as anime fans we are all familiar with that passion of fandom that burns like no other, that beyond all rational reason and logic, continues to drive one possibly beyond the edge of sanity – but that’s how we’d like it.

Saimoe – yes, go ahead, shout “I called it!” – has always been one of those things to me.

Despite all the signs to the contrary that it’s just a mere popularity contest, that J-Saimoe is xenophobic, that there’s no merit to ‘winning’ such a contest when it’s inevitably a KyoAni character or whomever, Saimoe is still something that can get that blood pumping and that wild grin on my face when I least expect it.

You saw it happen just a few months ago. That one campaign, in the 5th preliminaries of ISML, that probably cemented my place as That Shiori Guy (look out, Guncannon). That one campaign that just might have helped give Shiori enough votes, to come back from being the very last girl eligible in nominations to become one of the selected 64 that are fighting on the world stage as I type.

It’s something I look back upon fondly. If there’s one rule I like to live by, it’s to never let ration or sanity hold you back. Maybe this is why I’ve become such an ardent anime fan, because I don’t ever worry about being labeled as That Shiori Guy or That Moe Addict, and so I will fight to the ends of the earth for something that may be insignificant to some, but fires up the blood of many.

And so I don’t mind putting myself on the line, again and again, writing these posts that bring out courage and passion I didn’t know I had – maybe this is, as they say, truly how I remember love. My love for not just these girls, these series, but for this passion, this fandom of mine as a whole.

But as interesting as it is to write about myself and how I’m inspired to write, I feel I should be waxing much more poetic for the one I’m devoting myself to for J-Saimoe 2009, Chinami Ebihara of the Code-E / Mission-E series.

Now how to write a campaign post for a character is a bit tricky. The Shiori post was a bit less serious than my usual fare, more infomercial and less paean; it was a bit purposely exaggerated, in an effort to cover as much ground as possible, eventually ending on the note of ‘maybe they’ll just vote for her because they enjoyed my post’.

It seems inefficient to go the route of “she’s just everything, seriously guys” because in the end someone will point out they don’t go for dojikko meganekkos with electric powers, at which point my entire argument falls through the floor like the engine dropping out of a rusty car.

Equally I’d kind of like to beg, say that I’ll watch whatever anime you want, write on whatever topic you want, swap J-Saimoe or ISML votes with you. trade you some currency on some of the online games I play (mostly Pangya and Kingdom of Loathing) – and this is true! I’m not unwilling to strike a deal for this one preliminary. I abstain about 5 times each ISML round. I’m sure that could be fixed. And Owen, I heard you still want people to watch Mononoke.

But of course naturally those of you with less to gain and more sense of moral will already be scoffing at me, laughing as to what lows this man will sink for some 2D girl. And I answer you: pretty deep lows.

So I’ll try to avoid both those routes, and tell you a story: this is the story of the Boy Who Had Too Much Moe.

Once upon a time, there was an anime fan. He liked moe. He enjoyed all his favorite moe anime and all his favorite moe girls. He had his moe figures and his moe posters and his moe computer background and his moe everything!

He wasn’t particular: he would accept any character as long as it gave him the urge to ‘take them home’, as Rena would put it. He was pure-hearted and unjudging in that regard.

And you would think such a die-hard moe fan would have no social life, right? But you would be wrong? Despite always carrying around a moe cell phone strap on his cell phone (with a moe ring tone), he had friends (who weren’t moe, but that was OK) and even a girlfriend! He was well-respected in real life and the internet, and everyone laughed whenever he interjected a moe catchphrase into his conversation. All was well for The Boy Who Had Too Much Moe.

But one day, The Boy Who Had Too Much Moe was killed by a hammer that a construction worker dropped while building a skyscraper. And that’s why you shouldn’t have too much moe.

Don’t worry; this story is entirely fictional. Naturally, I am not The Boy Who Had Too Much Moe, because otherwise I would be dead right now. And I am not dead. You have my word.

But it’s important to keep The Tale of The Boy Who Had Too Much Moe in mind, as no one wants to be killed by a freak accident unrelated to having too much moe. Nor do you want to end up like the Boy Who Had Too Little Moe, who ended up growing a nose about six inches long before going on a cruise ship, losing 10 million yen, and having his fingers chopped off. Among other things.

So the moral of these stories is obviously that you want to have the right intake of moe, and I feel I can argue that much, at least, for Chinami Ebihara, who provides 95% of your daily intake, and not a penny more. (the other 5% you’ll absorb from the atmosphere as you gloss over K-ON posts)

Chinami looks at first to come from of a long line of ‘entirely ordinary transfer students’, such as Shiki Tohno, Hanyuu, everyone in Shuffle, so on so forth; at first glance her description looks like it could have been pulled out of a bag.

“A glasses girl who is shy, a bit clumsy, and has the power to emit electromagnetic waves falls in love with a guy who is interested in studying her power as they fight …”

Actually, there’s no fighting in the first season of Code-E. Well, they fake some ominous pretense, but really it drops almost to Aria levels of conflict at times. And that’s kind of nice.

And maybe I have sold some of you already with just that two-line description. Her design isn’t too bad. I feel those characteristics are a plus (you may imagine why). But y’know, Studio Deen decided to go out on a limb and develop their characters, and Chinami’s a fantastic example of it.

And that’s really why she won my vote, and deserves yours.

So let’s say you have the mysterious, magical power to control EM waves. Fantastic, right? Now you can blow up the cell phones of people who won’t shut up in public.

Somehow that’s a bit off the mark, as you’re too busy accidentally blowing up your own cell phone whenever you get flustered. When emotional spikes are all it takes to level an entire block’s power system, it makes life mildly difficult.

And so Chinami spends a large part of the beginning of Code-E attempting to be desperately boring, avoiding people and generally being a complete walkover. Now the anime fandom has proven to like walkovers before, but of course the story gets better.

As she meets other people who are like her and have her powers, naturally she opens up, starts talking more to others, makes new friends, starts some love triangles, so on so forth. It’s a nice development, as we go from utterly adorable shy clumsy meganekko to utterly adorable mildly confident clumsy meganekko.

And with the tone of Code-E as it is, always managing to feel relaxed and heartwarming despite containing a few action elements, I found it really difficult not to like Chinami as a character.

Well, the ending to Code-E, or more explicitly, the lack thereof, left a bad taste in my mouth, but then Mission-E came around to continue the fun, except now with more of an action twist and … it was incredible.

The show was a bit faster-paced, with a few chase scenes, some high-powered-electric-body-suit-lightning-shooting antics, but somehow, it still has that same light feel to it, avoiding what many imagine is the grimdark trap. It still has that same warm feel as Code-E and I love it for that, and Chinami is entirely to credit.

After a few scenes in Mission-E, you would probably double-take twice when seeing her again - well, aside from those trippy visors the Type-E’s wear – for the personality shift she’s gone over in the meantime between the two series.

The confidence development within Code-E was one thing, but from Code-E to Mission-E, it’s like seeing a childhood friend again after years of separation. You know it’s the same person, but the change is just astounding.


She still has that same soft side to her, that you saw from the first season. That slight clumsiness, a bit spacey without being completely airheaded (like so many lambast from typical Key games). That heaven-piercing happiness mode when she thinks of her lover Kotarou; it’s almost like seeing into a mirror of one’s own moe overload.

But in the heat of combat and in crunch time, suddenly Chinami’s the cool-headed, genki girl. It’s that almost Akari-like ability to keep a positive spin on things at all times, combined with the confidence of a general with years of experience, it’s really something to admire, not just as a development of character but as a personality that I wouldn’t mind emulating myself.

That’s the kind of character I appreciate. Chinami does not demand constant attention, nor does she fold like a house of cards at the slightest gust of wind. She’s the kind of person you wouldn’t just like to be with (in either sense of the word), but would flat outright want to be. That kind of charm. And isn’t that the strongest moe of all?

Well, that’s the sort of definition of ‘moe’ that I’ve evolved over my years, forming into something that is even less sensible than the typical definition of ‘urge to protect’. For me, it’s become things that moves my emotions and flutters my heart, whether it’s to give me a warm smile across my face or a shy blush … that’s my sort of moe.

Hopefully I’ve been able to convey that to you as well. It’s hard to explain such a moe with just still pictures and words; if you can watch Code-E or Mission-E for your own, that would naturally be best. It may not be the best series all-around, but it’s definitely an underviewed gem that I think is a nice warm show. If the storyline does not make it, I feel the character interactions should.

Well, that’s my 2000 words of the day. If a picture is worth a thousand words … how many pictures are worth a vote? It would turn into a complex math problem more than a bad wordplay pun at this rate; I should just hope that it was enough to stir your emotions too, enough for you to support Chinami with a little bit of your time in J-Saimoe.

I’ll be posting instructions on how to vote in J-Saimoe, if you do not recall or are having trouble, later in the morning, when polls open in about 7 hours from the time of this posting (2 AM PST). I shall hope you will still be there then.

-CCY