In almost every niche online community, there are two types of people: those who like pornography in relation to their vague preferences, and those who don’t.
For headphone enthusiasts, especially those who prefer high-performance, Chinese-made or “chi-fi” in-ear monitors (IEMs), the fight is less fleshy, as anime girls languidly decorate the box art rendered as The muse is more than sexually explicit forage. But, it continues.
While IEM girls are often inconspicuous, they are gendered or at least romanticized by the people who buy them. Headphone aficionados will sometimes call these cartoon girls—usually original work created specifically for a particular IEM, not existing anime franchise characters modified for marketing—as “mascot”. But, more often, they talk about them as “lady,” shorthand for manga believers for “ambiguous, attractive Asian woman”.
Apparently, what makes the IEM girls “waifu” stuff is the fact that they look like babies. They often come in a feminine silhouette, with an ethereal childish face or a truly bouncy schoolgirl uniform, as is the case with Moondrop’s $360. Blessing 2 sunsetscollaboration with famous headphone reviewer crater. Sometimes they just decorate the IEM box, like the snow-haired girl seen from Tanchjim’s 40 US dollarsand sometimes they seem to aim to personify the soul of the product, such as Moondrop’s famous Instagram post about a girl with torn socks covered in…um, yogurt?
A console staple
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“Poured yogurt on the headphone,” says a translation of post has now been deletedimplies that the girl who is blushing is actually a Moondrop headset, a headset covered in yogurt.
Do they want people to play with headphones? The fans I spoke to didn’t seem to think it was that profound.
Don’t think too much about anime girls
“I do not know [anime girls on IEM box art] was a ‘trend’ until I heard about [the company] moon drops and how people in the West think it’s so unusual,” headphone fan M told me over Reddit chat. “I live in Asia, so anime artwork isn’t really rare or unusual. I think it gives the products and brands a sense of personality.”
Or, if not a personality, at least a soft, memorable sex appeal that you wouldn’t normally associate with technology, such as the way beer clattering gets you excited while sitting. on the couch and eat Bugles.
“[IEM anime girls help] attract more consumers,” said Jeremiah, another headphone fan on Reddit. And “sometimes, it makes the IEM more recognizable. Like, if you see a ponytail with glasses, you know right away this is Blessing 2 Dusk.”
But even those who appreciate IEM girls have their limits. “As an anime fan, I really like the trend if the box is done tastefully,” u/nopunterino told me. “But sometimes I think manufacturers can go too far.”
“I can [not even be able to order an] I was interested in IEM because I was afraid my roommate or relative would open my box and see a bunny girl in an inappropriate location,” says Jeremiah.
Both refer to SeeAudio’s collaboration with audiophile reviewer Z Reviewsthe $100—featuring two girls with bunny ears on the box, mouths agape as they hug their remarkable spherical breasts together — as an example of a brand taking its anime girls “too far”.
“And we can never forget the Moondrop ‘yogurt’ incident,” said u/nopunterino.
Most of the people I talk to talk badly about IEM girls (and they really IEM girl—Chinese-made over-the-ear headphones are items that attract massnot a nerd bait like IEM and their design clinically overwhelming). But it’s clear that some audiophiles have more loyalty to them than they’d like to admit, and they’re especially willing to defend companies that have gone “too far”.
I need to analyze anime girls
Read some passionate questions “why is this happening?” thread on r/headset for a few minutes will lead you to the proof. Those confused by all the breasts and childish mouths seem to fear that their opinions are unpopular before speaking up, wonder creeping like a fawn to avoid the hunter, “In danger of being burned alive—what’s wrong with the ‘waifu’ girls on many products?” or, more recently and to the point of, “What’s up with IEM and the anime girls?”
“Why? Where did this start?” u/brubby3179, who started the second thread, begged the user, “I’ve never seen that with ears.”
“I’m new to the hi-fi headset field so I only started paying attention to it in early 2021 when I started watching headphone reviews on YouTube,” u/brubby3179 tells me, about two week after his thread attracted nearly 200 controversial comments. —so much discord, that the moderator of r/headphones has locked the comment. “Some of the comments are interesting in that thread, and even more interesting is how vehemently some of them defend the waifus box.”
Aside from some vague theories about the crossover between headphone enthusiasts, anime fans, and tech workers with money to burn, no one has been able to give a concrete answer to the question “why?” stars” IEM anime girls are popular again. Moondrop, the company frequently cited as having disseminated them, also failed to respond promptly to publication.
But, although it’s unclear “why”, the guardians are sure that they want to keep the girls at bay.
“For me, it’s like harmless fun,” said one user. “It doesn’t make me want the product, but it’s not meant to appeal to me either. It seems strange to ask about it.” Hmm. IEM Tony Soprano doesn’t want people to ask questions. Suspicious.
“Why hate !!!!? Let me have my waifu. I need waifu yogurt!” another user wrote several times, each time more frantic. “I need waifu moondrop yogurt? Let’s make it happen I will buy 10 pcs. Laugh.”
Laugh. Personally, I like the IEMs, including Moondrop’s box art with $20 Chu, an austere figure with ash-gray bangs and eyes as clear as fresh water. These less erotic drawings are like patron saints or zodiac signs for techies, providing an eerie mystical way to visualize your headphones. Personifying them gives them a heart, and that, I think, can encourage care and care, which is good for the environment, your wallet, and your satisfaction.
Even so, I wish beautiful IEM art wasn’t just limited to girls, or more “waifus” to be objectified and literally thrown away. Although many fans claim that “Asian culture” makes their waifu different from the perversions of home, IEM art about sex is like the souvenirs you see rusting at the stations gasoline across America
Like breasts salt shaker or keychains from Florida, many of which are material by feminist artist Portia Munson in her silent damn drawingsIEM girls encourage men to think of women as pocket decorations, just something to keep around the house.
“These objects initially seem like a humorous and somewhat shocking anomaly, showing women’s bodies being commodified in tchotchkes,” Munson’s website says. .
I would like to see the IEM girls being more clearly judged by what their supporters say about them, their collectability and their artistry, by being part of a dynamic box art activism. more extended to include male anime, landscapes or fantasy creatures, or literally nothing more. I’m fed up with feeling like women are being used to sell technology, but not welcome.
