When manga and anime creators go to design a new character, they have many options available to them. They might go with a simple imouto character with flowing twintails or try a variation of the iconic tsundere girl who hides her feelings of love with violent anger…or they might strike out in a bold new direction, like the eerie “clock eye” of Kurumi from Date-A-Live, or the odd single jeans-leg of Kaori Kanzaki from A Certain Magical Index. While various character design fashions might come and go like so many moe eye patches, I’m definitely a lifelong fan of meganekko, or girls who wear glasses. One of the key elements of moe is that the character must possess one or more imperfections or character flaws, whether it’s cute clumsiness or the inability to read social situations around her…or just bad eyesight. One of the cutest glasses-wearing girls in anime today can be seen in the new series by Kyoto Animation called Kyoukai no Kanata (English title Beyond the Boundary), the story of an immortal half-human high school boy and the clumsy glasses-wearing girl who befriends him (after trying to kill him several times). So far it can be summed up as “Fate/stay night meets K-On!” but the characters are quite endearing so I know I’ll keep watching. If you’re a fan of megane, we’ve got a full line of anime cosplay glasses on the site, and all on sale this month, too!
A new KyoAni anime about megane and demons, or something.
