Pretty Boys Who Look Like Girls

Boys don't cry.

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The first thing I thought about after reading the title was Hetalia.

I lurve me some Hetalia.

*Looks at Vaan*
Yes... Tell me again how the sexy armor in TERA is degrading to women.

And picking two of the worst written "Macho" men in gaming as a comparison, yeah that's totally fair

DVS BSTrD:
*Looks at Vaan*
Yes... Tell me again how the sexy armor in TERA is degrading to women.

And picking two of the worst written "Macho" men in gaming as a comparison, yeah that's totally fair

Welcome to The Escapist, JRPG lovers get in line four daily ass whuppping for not playing something else.

When the apocalypse comes, I'm looking to Boy George to save our asses.

Epic.

Macho Men are stock self-inserts, most of the time. Though it's hard to say from this side of the Pacific if there is any similar trend with Japan.

I feek less guilty for liking panty fighters after reading this.

D Moness:

RaikuFA:

DVS BSTrD:
*Looks at Vaan*
Yes... Tell me again how the sexy armor in TERA is degrading to women.

And picking two of the worst written "Macho" men in gaming as a comparison, yeah that's totally fair

Welcome to The Escapist, JRPG lovers get in line four daily ass whuppping for not playing something else.

Well we are used to that (well i am at least).

Now the real question is why was this article written(as in what point is this person trying to get across since i have no clue whatsoever(well beyond the asian games uses bishounen and western games uses rugged looking men as main characters (to what i can just say ... DUH))).

Thanks saintdane05 for posting that very cute picture <3

Here is more adorable. The ending Hetalia song.

saintdane05:

D Moness:

RaikuFA:

Welcome to The Escapist, JRPG lovers get in line four daily ass whuppping for not playing something else.

Well we are used to that (well i am at least).

Now the real question is why was this article written(as in what point is this person trying to get across since i have no clue whatsoever(well beyond the asian games uses bishounen and western games uses rugged looking men as main characters (to what i can just say ... DUH))).

Thanks saintdane05 for posting that very cute picture <3

Here is more adorable. The ending Hetalia song.

Thanks, I forgot how adorable were the Axis Powers.

WTF was the purpose of this article?
Anyways this seems to be a good time to post a link to "Manly Guys Doing Manly Things" since the gackt storyline draws near it's end.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/1002

Why this article, i don't understand.
Because you think there should be more men with stupid outfits and colored hair, or what?

I've always been a bit averse to the whole effeminate protagonist thing. It doesn't sound like it's a good thing to care about at all. 'I can't relate to this hero because he looks other than my cultural image of men'

I mean WTH? I know plenty of guys with long hair and non square jaws, at least there's more possible variation with crazy hair, whereas you have to look elsewhere for the character design with a buzzcut.

It seems much better to actually look at their character and character arc individually than make these generalisations. Been plenty of good macho and non macho characters

I'm shocked you didn't even mention the culture gap between east and west. Also ever ask yourself maybe the developers decided that they wanted to go with a more muscular male than a trying to actually think of the proper word here but you know what I mean and vise versa.

I remember the awful ruckus when MGS2 came out, the demo had 100% Snake, and then people bought the game and realized it was 80% Raiden, this new guy with a white lady-wig (see: SNL UPS) and a katana. I was one of the few on-board with him, but he was almost universally spurned. Along comes MGS4, he looks cooler than ever, and from the few cut scenes I saw during my friend's playthrough, he got schooled by an undead magician with no tech and questionable-at-best sexual preferences.

Now the news comes out they're planning on making another MGS game with Raiden as the lead again? I may have read that wrong, I didn't look into it too much, but I hope it works out better for them than MGS2 if so.

On JRPG heroes - media males in Japan are slim and generally have fritzy hair. Enter the JRPG template.
How many Western developed games have these unigender protagonists?

Now, where did I put my seven-foot sword..

I was hoping for a bit more into the "Why" for effeminate heroes in JRPGs, but this was good too I guess.

I suppose when most Western heroes are usually cut from the same "Grizzled, monosyllabic, white guy" it's fair for Japan to do the same with their preferred style.

Still, in games where the main character is a blank slate like in the Persona series, a character creator or something would be very much welcome. Because the dude in Persona 3 needs to get a damned hair cut.

Seriously just look at the box art for Persona 2:

Radoh:

Mcoffey:
I was hoping for a bit more into the "Why" for effeminate heroes in JRPGs, but this was good too I guess.

I suppose when most Western heroes are usually cut from the same "Grizzled, monosyllabic, white guy" it's fair for Japan to do the same with their preferred style.

Still, in games where the main character is a blank slate like in the Persona series, a character creator or something would be very much welcome. Because the dude in Persona 3 needs to get a damned hair cut.

Seriously just look at the box art for Persona 2:

Which one is the woman?PHA+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly9tZWRpYS5naWFudGJvbWIuY29tL3VwbG9hZHMvOC84NzIwOS8xODg1OTIzLWJveF9zbXRwMmlzLnBuZyIgYWx0PSJpbWFnZSIvPjwvcD4=

The one with hearts on her boobs.
Did I win?

Edit: Also upon closer inspection the guy on the left has a lighter in his hand and the Flame persona doesn't have massive mecha boobs.

Massive Mecha Boobs is my Furtive Pygmy cover band.

See! That's what I'm saying! You shouldn't have to look for breasts to know the gender of your character. Unless the character is a transgender, which could, admittedly, be interesting, but I don't think that's what they were going for.

Radoh:

I get that, though admittedly I think you chose a pretty extreme example in Persona Two.
The JRPGs that I'm familiar with are actually much better about sporting proper facial structure than that, and don't fall into the trappings of Macho man dudebros.

For 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

And from this we can clearly see that... I forget where I was going with this, so yeah, I guess? Maybe?

Yeah Symphonia was definitely good about that (As well as just being awesome in general). I guess I might be seeing it more because I'm playing the persona games currently, but it does occur enough to be a trope in japanese games.

Brian Molko anyone?

Mcoffey:

See! That's what I'm saying! You shouldn't have to look for breasts to know the gender of your character. Unless the character is a transgender, which could, admittedly, be interesting, but I don't think that's what they were going for.

You never know. It *is* Persona we're talking about here...

Mcoffey:

See! That's what I'm saying! You shouldn't have to look for breasts to know the gender of your character. Unless the character is a transgender, which could, admittedly, be interesting, but I don't think that's what they were going for.

Som no effeminate men unless it is Jun?

(from Happiness! The only reason people remember that game is because him(her?) The technical gender is male, but Jun is transgender. I never figured out which pronoun to use, and I don't want to use "it".)

Surprise.

I have to ask though what is this articles aim? It just seems to finish without really asking anything or discussing anything.

It's weird... I'm annoyed by the fact so many male characters in these games are basically chicks without breasts (exceptions being ones like Bridget which have a story explaining it), but I swing both ways, so I can't help but like them girly types too >_>

It couldn't be any clearer that a Girl wrote this article.

Some beefy hero pampered by the military doesn't know struggle like a broke fashionista.

Excellent :)

Ah yes, the 'make-him-pretty' phenomena, also known as Nomura Syndrome.

You can see in this comparison shot that Western Nier and Eastern Nier are two completely different characters when it comes to region release:

For me both extremes are not realistic.

One one side we have men who command entire armies... of hairdressers to tend to their hair.

On the other whe have men who saying that they have the emotional range of a spoon would be insulting to spoons.

And just to stir up the pot a little...
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/899