“Kawaii style dominated Japanese popular culture in the 1980’s. Kawaii or cute essentially means childlike.

…Cute style began as an underground literary trend amongst young people who developed the habit of writing stylised childish letters to each other and to themselves.”.
(Sharon Kinsella, Cuties in Japan)

“…Put these tones – Formalism and Cuteness – together and you get the somewhat unexpected style I call Cute Formalism.
It’s unexpected because in the west it would be an eccentric, if not forbidden, combination of signifiers.

Formalism for us is intellectual, masculine, dry, adult, hard, macho, unsentimental, avant garde.
Cute on the other hand is silly, feminine, wet, childish, soft, effete, sentimental and kitsch.
What kind of chimera is this?”.
(Nick Currie, Cute formalism)

Sharon Kinsella “has been involved in research looking at emergent social trends linking youth, the media, subculture, corporate culture and new modes of governance, based on Japanese case studies with global application.”.

Nick Currie “also known as Momus, is a songwriter, a blogger and a journalist for Wired.”.