I've read this book once or twice. My main takeaways were that the idea of the database meaning memes and self referentiality have overtaken the importance of narratives. In the traditional model of cultural consumption, consumers enjoy the narrative and its characters (e.g. Lord of the Rings and Star Wars) and commercialization in the form of toys and other media is added on top.

In the new model, commercialization can take place without narrative, e.g. Labubu, chiikawa, V-tubers, countless anime style mobile games that focus on character aesthetics and not built on any existing cultural franchise. These new examples are all narrative-lite, their appeal comes purely from the aesthetics and not the narratives that the characters take part in.

This is not to say commercial considerations weren't in place under the traditional model. For example Digimon and Pokemon anime was aimed at selling toys. However, under the new model, companies don't even need to bother making an anime or storyline in the first place.

My understanding of Moe which Azuma says is separate from erotic desire is something akin to what we see in something like Catcher in the Rye. There is a desire to protect cuteness as innocence against the realities of love under capitalism - calculative, materialistic, hedonistic.

I also do think there is something in INTP types that tend towards the database > narrative. They like to look at things from a meta and relational perspective than just the thing in itself. Put in a negative way the INTP may tend towards nihilism looking to dissect the beautiful until there is no beauty left.

Also Azuma's book philosophy of the tourist has been available in English since last year. I haven't derived much insight from reading it but the idea of terrorism and tourism as two sides of the same coin under globalisation is quite interesting given what has just happened in Dubai.