ctk495 said:
Hey everyone-thank's for you replies so far. Here are a couple of extra thoughts:
A couple of thoughts here:
Definitiveness
Definitiveness rests on the idea of binaries. I think that Westerners prefer definitive products like men or women over androgynous character- a man looking like a woman dressed like a man. For Japanese people this would be fine but for Westerners it would be better for it to be a woman or a men altogether. I don’t know where this preference comes from. But I see it everywhere if a concept is very similar to another then it’s the same but with an added adjective. Like saying effeminate(adjective) man(type) as opposed to creating a new word. I heard that many androgynous characters in Sailor moon where changed to women when they were localized. I think that that’s tipping the bar towards a more defined product than to one more ambiguous.
Dialogue and emotions
I have problem here. I am not a Westerner but from Latin America(indigenous mix with west)-so I find the dialogue appealing. The pauses add dramatic weight to the exchange between characters. But I guess you would have to have a degree of cultural background to understand.Going deeper into the pauses I think that at the core of western culture there is a rejection of emotions. “Grace” coming from Christianity or Stoicism seems primordial in the west. Where display of emotions make people uncomfortable. Therefore, in a lot of anime where the main protagonist goes to fight a battle like in Reborn(Kyoko tells Tsuna “ Don’t go!” I bet it sounds melodramatic to most people. However, I read a lot of Ultimate Spiderman and I find the display of emotions there ‘vulgar’ What I mean is that when Kitty pride gets angry she would just say “OMG you are racist’ or ‘OMG you are a misogynist’ to another character. The realistic visuals mixed with the blunt stating makes for a ‘vulgar’ display. I think that because Westerners are not used to expressing emotions when they do it just comes off as crass.
Causality
I think that generally most western gamers need to have a strong correlation of causality. Everything needs to have a purpose Neku’s haircut has no purpose, or Tetsuya Nomura’s belt’s have no purpose. Western culture highly values design with a purpose- as opposed to fashionable but impractical choices.
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You might be onto something with the definitive gender issue. Don't agree with the other two though.
The problem with dialogue is that the translations are generally done quite badly. Playing in Japanese with subtitles often works better than in English and does a far better job of conveying emotions and cultural nuances. When translated into English the dialogue is often translated too literally. That combined with the long dramatic pauses (which culturally don't occur so much in modern English) come off as over the top and cheesy.
I don't agree with the causality either. Plenty of Western developed characters have pointless clothing that simply appeal to Western audiences. The original Deus Ex had characters with over-sized coats and flashy sunglasses when the entire game was set at night. Female characters in both wRPGs and jRPGs have the most impractical (non-protective 
) armour ever conceived.
