Have you heard the latest fetish down in Akihabara, of kegadoru? Kegadoru, which literally means “injured idols”, is a new obsession of the local otaku for injured women. Yeah, injured women. Women weren’t weak enough with glasses, nor submissive enough in a maid uniforms for some Akihabara patrons, nooo they have to be frick’n injured now for otaku to get their rocks off. As in: wounded, hurt, physically impaired, blinded.
The “idols”, the women who dress up and work in fetish cafes, are now donning eye patches and bandages to affect this new moe inspired fad. It makes the men want to protect them since “…all these women look as though they’re weak. This makes the men want to protect the women”, according to psychologist Yu Yuki. Vomit me a river.
This is nothing new (Rei Ayanami was doing the injured gal routine years ago dahlin’) but holy crap, talk about taking it to the next level.
But injuries as moe? Anyone sincerely think that a physically impaired woman is attractive for the reason that they want to protect her or is it because she can’t run away? Anyone ever see Misery? Wouldn’t it be better to nurse this kegadoru back to health and not focus on her weaknesses while doing it? Oh wait, that wouldn’t be moe, that’d be treating her like she’s a capable human being. Oops, let’s not do that.
To me this new Kegadoru fad reflects poorly on participating Akihabara otaku. Women who must, at least appear to, become progressively weaker, from loli to meido to meganekko to kegadoru only have one way to go to attract these otaku’s business: down. And honey, there ain’t much lower you can go and still have a pulse. So what’s next? Amputee, paraplegic, and coma idols?
Akihabara may be spawning a generation of men who feel they don’t need to develop actual social skills to find women who want them. Why should they when they can “protect” an injured women who charges them for the privilege?
Not just that but consider this; to become a meido or loli, one can dress as said idol and “become ” one. Isn’t a maid a woman who dresses in a uniform and cleans your house? Can’t almost anyone do that? There are also women who actually need glasses to see.
Kegadoru are merely pretending to have injuries. What happens when otaku are no longer content with this illusion of helplessness and want a more real experience? The difference between meido, loli and meganekko is blurred; illuson and reality can be one and the same. Not so with kegadoru.
This trend is disturbing. Anyone else think so? Is this a not so good thing or is them’s the facts of life? Do you think kegadoru are sexy? Or does the thought of a limping, bandaged women as sexual object make you ill? What are your thought on this latest manifestation of moe?
hahaha…nice article! XD
i don’t think this trend is ”disturbing” but it’s definitely not a good development and it’s not really attractive imo.
Honestly, what ISN’T considered moe by at least a small faction these days? Although this does seem rather large-scale. Strange, that.
To be frank, I really don’t see how this fad is worse than any of the others mentioned in terms of objectifying women/stunting social skills. I don’t see how it’s any less realistic or silly than being a maid, for one; very few houses have maids, and I imagine that the type described here aren’t just the cleaning but the ‘full service’ kinds with the ‘welcome home, master’ and all.
On a side note, though, what’s with ranking meganekkos below maids and lolis on the weakness scale? That’s how it sounded anyway. I think that glasses can also give off an air of class and intelligence – it’s not all “I can’t see without my glasses, oh no, save me” or whatever. But that’s just a personal taste of mine, so maybe I work harder defending it.
@CCYoshi, This is a progression of degrees on the thermometer o’ moe. Think of it; cute, but self-possessed lolis, then submissive meido to opthalmologically impaired meganekko to physically impaired kegadoru. Dear lord, next thing’ll be mentally impaired! Oh, the humanity!
But I really do believe that this is a bad thing. Not the end o’ the world, not the end of anime, but a bad trend.
I don’t think women wearing glasses are weak. I wear contacts/ glasses and I can take care of myself. So do the majority of my friends and family. However, if I were to crawl inside the head of one of these otaku, I imagine that their thought process is similar to what I previously stated. Scary places, the inside of otaku heads, which is why I seldom go there.
I’m probably going to get rocks thrown at me for saying this, but I really don’t see a problem.
It may be because I, personally, like the whole bandaged/bruised/bloody look, that I believe that these otaku most likely know the difference between fantasy and reality. A girl dressing up in bandages for fetishistic reasons is one thing, but but when a girl is actually wearing a cast because she needs to I think there’s a real difference in the way that it’s viewed.
Of course, there are always those few otaku who really can’t tell the difference between their fantasy and reality, and those are the scary ones who ruin it for the rest of us! (I have known my share like that…) But most of them are likely decent guys with strange hobbies.
What I think it comes down to is, even with certain things in the otaku culture getting more publicity these days, such as the kegadoru thing, is that what one person finds attractive in the bedroom is harmless to the rest of us.
I don’t know, I may be way off base with this one, but that’s just my two cents.
I loved the article, by the way.
@Rae, Thanks for the two cents and you know what, I agree with you about the fantasy reality thing. However, most of that stuff is interplay behind closed doors in a club or a bedroom, like you mentioned.
If pretend crippled, bloody gals make a man happy, that’s his, and her, business. When they take it out in public, whew, that’s everyone’s business.
And imagine if some otaku approaches an actual cripple and wants to take her picture. That’s scary.
My view on life is “Have fun, harm none.” When does that line get crossed or gets close to getting crossed? When does a private fetish become public?
On that mention of ‘girls in coma’ you might find kawabata’s ‘House of Sleeping Beauties’ interesting.