Where are the real men in modern Japanese games ?

[davshap]

Why are there hardly any virile heroes in Japanese video games these days ?

---

Moderation note: The thread is now locked due to its purpose of causing controversy.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Examples please?

 

[ZeromusVX4]

was there ever

 

[davshap]

Examples please?

It's hard to see the pinnacle of manliness here...

Post automatically merged: Dec 28, 2024

was there ever

There was a time...

 

[DunkeyKong]

It's hard to see the pinnacle of manliness here...
View attachment 6865

Manliness…like buff looking man? Like Hokuto No Ken?

 

[fake-kun]

Because cultural differences.

 

[dropsmegamega]

maybe they all moved to the west

 

[Gorse]

I stopped modelling for the character designers. ¥980 for a day’s work? No go, Hideo!

 

[AtlasM]

That era of Japan is sadly JoJover. These manly men can only be found mostly in fighting games now. Like Tekken

 

[Yousef]

Like men who look like men and act like men.

Watch out guys, we got a badass over here. I’m sure you’ll find a big burly to cuddle you up with their big arms if you search hard enough.

 

[AtlasM]

Watch out guys, we got a badass over here. I’m sure you’ll find a big burly to cuddle you up with their big arms if you search hard enough.

Why the hostility?
Some people just like playing as a macho man. There's nothing wrong with it.

 

[davshap]

Watch out guys, we got a badass over here. I’m sure you’ll find a big burly to cuddle you up with their big arms if you search hard enough.

Maybe when you play a game you prefer to identify with a girl or a boy who looks like a girl.
Am I right ?

 

[Waffles]

Guys, keep it civil.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Yeah just chill guys, talk the talk

 

[fake-kun]

Maybe when you play a game you prefer to identify with a girl or a boy who looks like a girl.
Am I right ?

And that's bad because..?

 

[Logi]

Yakuza?

 

[Gorse]

REAL ANSWER: The character designs in a lot of 80s action games were made as direct references to lead actors from 80s action movies — Stallone, Arnie, etc. The developers thought that people who liked one would like the other, so they tried to keep everything in sync. When you’d see an action game with a buff guy on the cover at Blockbuster, you’d go: “Cool, it’s just like Rambo!” and get the game. These games were made with the idea that male kids and teenagers would be playing them, and those were the kinds of heroes they liked.

As gaming developed, though, there was more opportunity for Japanese devs to replicate the style of manga and anime for their characters in-game and out-, so that’s what they did. There were a lot of manly manga protagonists in the 80s/90s, but they started going away around the turn of the century when new art styles appeared in trendy places like Shibuya and Akiba, then spread into games. At this point, all JP games just used mangaka as their character designers, so there was no longer a disconnect.

Modern Japanese protagonists aren’t manly because A) a lot of ‘em are drawn by women who prefer the cutesy, bishy, effeminate men they see in shoujo and josei manga and B) Japan in the 2020s has now been completely neutered by increasing American cultural dominance, and their men have cripplingly low self-esteem and zero sex appeal, so there’s no longer any desire to represent idealized depictions of them in fictional escapist entertainment. SORRY!!!!!!!

To throw a bone out to my friends who prefer playing as Body Type B protagonists, let me just say that I like playing as silly, well-designed cartoon characters, and those have mostly gone away, too. The industry has changed!

 

[gokusmacksmyds]

Non-macho looking guys from japan is barely a new trend, JRPG'S have been casting them as the main characters all the way back in 90's

 

[fake-kun]

It may be a symptom of a mental disorder.

Oh, so you're one of those people. There's no sense arguing with you, then, since you're clearly dead set in your beliefs.

 

[davshap]

Yep, one of the few Japanese franchises to retain real male characters.

 

[Waffles]

It may be a symptom of a mental disorder.

Absolutely not.

You know how many games let you play as a woman or even demand you to for the sake of completion? A ton, from Alone In The Dark to The Last Of Us.

 

[davshap]

Oh, so you're one of those people. There's no sense arguing with you, then, since you're clearly dead set in your beliefs.

''Maybe'' they're not ''beliefs''. Maybe it's just a reality you find hard to accept.

 

[AtlasM]

After thinking about it, I think it's mostly difference in style. There's less macho men because they're less common in anime-style games, and yet, anime-style games are the most popular or at least the most produced video games in the East (not only Japan).

If you see anime nowadays, the main characters are mostly young or teenage boys without much muscles or no muscle at all (been like this since a few years ago). The last buff MC I can think of is Mash from Mashle. And while it was popular, it was mostly because of the comedy not the character itself. I heard that even JoJo, where all characters are buff (even the women), was more popular among the older generations.

Not only that. I remember that most characters in live-action anime-adaptation movies are made pretty/beautiful, too. Like that Kenshin live-action movie, for example. He was East-Asian brand of handsome (aka pretty). Meanwhile, handsome/macho men are usually seen mostly in more realistic settings, like police, crime, and delinquent drama or movie (like Crows Zero).

That kinda reflects in their video games, too. Non-anime games like Elden Ring, Tekken, and Yakuza are full of manly men, while anime-style games like most JRPGs and Genshin Impact, for example, are full of East-Asian brand of handsome men (usually pretty), with manly/rugged men as side characters sometimes.

So, yeah, it's more about different in art or graphic style. Also, maybe difference in target audience. Anime games are tailored for majority of anime lovers, while non-anime games are tailored more universally

Post automatically merged: Dec 28, 2024

and been taken over by the WOKE Nation, if u try being a Real man, they call u toxic

Let's not bring politics or anything like that to me. I'm not into arguing about it

 

[davshap]

Absolutely not.

You know how many games let you play as a woman or even demand you to for the sake of completion? A ton, from Alone In The Dark to The Last Of Us.

And I've never seen this kinds of characters as anything other than puppets I can manipulate.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Alright admin, do your move
I think I know where this is going