What is Gap Moe? Gap moe is a word many anime viewers often hear but do not know its real meaning.
If you are also searching for the meaning of the word, gap moe, go nowhere since this article will discuss the true meaning of gap moe and clear all your doubts regarding this word.
What Does “Gap Moe” Mean?
Gap moe is a term often used for fictional characters to describe when the said character does something completely contradictory to their usual personality/habits/appearance. Typically, this contraction is considered charming or likable by others.
Gap moe has two words that usually do not go together, gap and moe (cute). It is like a big muscular man who loves plushies. In simple terms, gap moe means the gap between expectation and reality. It plays into contradictions and hypocrisy.
However, a quick Google search will show that a gap is a void or pause, a break in continuity. It can also mean to be a difference. While moe (萌え, pronounced as “Mo-Eh) is a Japanese word coined in the late 90s.
It means the feeling you get when you see someone or something so cute that just want to hug them and take them home. If you use the word moe as an interjection, figuratively, it expresses that something is blooming within your heart.
So, if we combine the two words, gap and moe, its meaning will be something, which is an irresistible feeling you get when there is a difference in some ways someone or something acts or looks.
A technical definition describes gap moe as a contradiction in exhibited characteristics that people find cutely attractive in the opposite sex.
One reason for using the gap moe term for a character in an anime or manga is to allow the reader and the viewer to see the character as more than a one-dimensional figure, as in reality, it is entirely possible to be caught off guard by people who act differently than expected.
Showing conflicting characters aids plot progression since it makes sense in retrospect when the given character’s story and personality get explored.
Thus, gap moe is basically a product of hook, line, and sinker used to make a character attractive and give the writer a method of delving deeper into that character.
Let us see some gap moe characters from the anime or manga to clarify your doubts regarding the term.
What’s an example of a character that is considered a gap-moe?
Tohsaka Rin from the Fate series and Tsundere
Tsunderes and Tohsaka Rin are probably the most common examples of gap moe. Tsundere is a personality that behaves tsun (cold, rude, or brusque) towards the one they love. Then, in another minute, start acting all dere (lovestruck). It is one of the perfect examples of gap moe.
Nishikino Maki from Love Live
Nishikino Maki is one of the main characters and probably the most mature character from Love Live anime. Though she still believes in Santa Claus. That gap between being mature and believing in something a child (and child at heart) would only do. Nishikino Maki being mature and childish at the same time is called gap moe.
Tsugumi from Nisekoi
Tsugumi from Nisekoi anime looks like a tomboy but is a female character in the series.
Kuroneko from Oreimo
A character that usually dresses flashy but decides to dress normally is another example of Gap moe because a character is acting or looking in a way that contradicts what they typically do.
Takeo Gouda from My Love Story
Takeo Gouda is the main protagonist of the anime and manga My Love Story. He is a character that seems and acts serious, powerful, and threatening on the outside, but on the inside, he has a soft side and a heart.
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