| teigaga said: For me its not the existence on androdynous characters, its the over abundance of them. The norm for people in western society is for the majority of guys to appear distinctly male (regardless of sexual orientation), so the over emphasise of it within a lot of JRPGs is understandably irkesome. It would no different from any other stylised trait which becomes overused. I think whats also common is the same people find annoyance with it probably aren't big fans of generic anime artstyles. I think Its one of the main reasons the FF series succeed. They tend to have a great balance of all characters. |
And there we go. Good post that answered the root of the question. Many of the other responses so far seem to be following the "my personal preference are the only RIGHT way" path, which is tiresome.
JRPGs simply leaned too heavily on Japanese trends at the time for them to connect with western audiences. Not just with "pretty" male characters, either, but also with all the Visual Kei inspired costumes and aesthetics. Western fantasy, for the most part, is much more traditional. There is nothing wrong with any of it. It just has to do with what people expect, what they prefer, and what they can associate with. Cultural differences aren't about right or wrong.
However, if someone is arguing that they are too "manly" to play an androdynous character, then I would suggest instead that they have a lot of growing to do as a person before they can get over those kinds of minor and meaningless insecurities.
