Moe (萌え?, pronounced [mo.e], literally “budding”, as with a plant) is a Japanese slang word originally referring to a strong interest in particular types of character in video games or anime and manga. For example, 眼鏡っ娘萌え, meganekko-moe, “glasses-girl moe”, describes a person who is attracted to fictional characters with eyeglasses. “Moe!” is also used within anime fandom as an interjection referring to a character the speaker considers to be a moekko. It is even used in some anime, such as Ouran High School Host Club, Ai Kora, Lucky Star, Kaichou-wa Maid-sama!, The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, K-On!, Magician’s Academy and Bakemonogatari.[citation needed] There are various interpretations of what moe is today. Joseph L. Dela Pena argues that moe is a pure, protective feeling towards a character[1],

Both the spellings moe and moé are used in English.[2] Some writers add an accent mark in an attempt to indicate that the word should be pronounced as two morae, “mo” and “e”, but this usage does not conform to any standard of romantization. Compare bokeh (other non-standard romanization).

-Wikipedia

Since I come across lots of moe-ish things on the internet, I might as well share some of them with you in a new weekly feature.

To kick things off, I figured I’d start with one of the most famous female characters in all of geekdom, Princess Peach!

If anybody knows the source for the above image, please tell me!!! I accidentally deleted it from my computer, but luckily I had it set as my desktop background, so I managed to take a screengrab.