How can some people unironically be attracted to anime/manga characters or just any cartoon/comic book character in general?

[EzraIsShy76028]

Below are three examples of some iconic anime/manga characters that a bunch of creepy dudes online claim to be their wife or whatever.

And to me it's just like... HOW can anyone be attracted to that kind of stuff? They're just goofy cartoons!

I see those three in the same way I see Cartman from South Park, Peter Griffin from Family Guy, or even fucking Spongebob. They're all just goofy cartoons!

I guess the three from above are drawn in a more "provocative" way than the three from below, but the way I see it those three from above are meant to be attractive for the other in-universe characters. Not to us in real life!

I see all six of the characters above as goofy cartoons that are supposed to make me LAUGH!

So it's totally alien to me how someone can actually be attracted to any of them.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Generally speaking people are attracted to either men, women, or both, usually in specific configurations, such as a petite large breasted woman with thick flowy hair and a cute face for example.

If whatever a person is attracted to gets represented sufficiently, it will trigger the same arousal response. This can be represented by a statue, a replica model, a sex doll, a robot, a photo, a drawing, an animation, CGI, a video game NPC, etc. Really anything that looks enough like the real thing to cause arousal.

In my opinion all of the images you posted are very unlikely to illicit that response in anyone.

You would be hard pressed to find one that does that gag would allow to be posted though.

In terms of the "waifu" thing, that is just people doing trope labels.
Basically if a character represents the type of person you'd be attracted to physically or mentally in real life, the character is used as a symbol for shorthanding the description of that type of person.

If you sit there and take it too literally (ie thinking people are infatuated with the cartoon character itseif), you are overthinking something far simpler.

What they actually want is hot cosplayers.

[EzraIsShy76028]

Ah yes. That makes sense about specific configurations. Being conventionally attractive, in other words, basically.

Ah... so in other words, it doesn't matter what the thing is, as long as it's presented sufficiently, lol. Even a piece of wood can trigger an arousal response as long as it resembles a sexy woman somewhat. Maybe even a stick figure in some cases, lol.

And ah yeah. The three anime characters I posted are not from R rated or TV-MA rated franchises, lol. They're just PG-13 or TV-14 rated. So they're not made to be as sexually explicit/pornographic as possible.

And yeah, GaG definitely wouldn't let me post something like that, lol. As neither would most other websites/apps/forums.

Ah yes, trope labels make sense. So the character themselves are just symbols, basically. It's not about the characters it's about what they represent.

Yeah, with a lot of things it's best to not take too seriously, lol.

And ah, that makes even more sense. They just want hot cosplayers dressed as those respective characters! Assuming some of them are middle aged fat guys living in their mom's basements though they're going to have to work on themselves a lot before any cute cosplayer wants to date them. Lol.

[TheSpaceGnome]

That about sums it up.
Remember that characters are either created to be liked or hated in most cases.
Often that means "fan service" can be present.
The intent with lewd characters for example is to design them around existing traits that humans find attractive in real people, often with those traits being exaggerrated or at least the focal points of the design.

[TheSpaceGnome]

In the case of Bulma for example, (your third pictured character), later versions of her were made to look more attractive (face redesign and large boobs), and a lot of people like her because she is hyperintelligent, creative, and kind hearted but not a pushover. She is a very well rounded character and has done a lot to help the characters in the show, and those traits are highly valued in real women.

Who wouldn't want a cute busty genius that can store an entire house inside a pill, cook well enough to impress even a destroyer god and angel so much that they decide to spare your planet, and invent both a time machine and a rader to detect wish granting orbs.

Now granted most of that stuff doesn't exist in real life, but its the trope of the ever helpful genius woman who solves all your technical problems, and there are plenty of real life situations that such a person would be valued in.

[NamerOfStars]

It's not the least bit alien; you understand it perfectly. But to explain to everyone else:

Ceci n'est pas un femme avec tetons de la grand plus bodaciousness

[EzraIsShy76028]

Ah yeah, true, lol. And don't know if it was your intention, but the image you attached doesn't really lead to anything. Just sort of shows the GaG logo. Though what you wrote translates to English into something like "This is not a woman with nipples of the greatest bodaciousness." So I assume it was a representation of women's breasts or nipples or something like that. Lol.

[chilldude33]

I don't know who those anime characters are but people are attracted to the values and personal qualities that the characters represent such as self-esteem, leadership, competitiveness, diligence into overcoming challenges, etc.

Basically people would like either a strong role model who can lead, compete and overcome challenges; or like a feminine role model with unconditional compassion and who stands by her values; or maybe like an innocent, cute and clueless concept that evokes feelings of protectiveness.

The characters from the American cartoons that you listed represent no personal qualities other than being dumb and dumber idiots to laugh at.

People are attracted to personal power whether it's a character or a person.

[EzraIsShy76028]

It's probably better you don't know who those three anime characters are, lol. Who they are isn't really relevant, just that a lot of creepy fat middle aged men online tend to fetishize over them.

But anyway, I get the general gist of what you're saying, but a lot of people who are attracted to those characters aren't exactly attracted to their personality, lol. Just how hot they are physically. And a lot of them even "rewrite" the characters in their own points of view to align with their fetishes, even if the actual characters would never do that.

But yeah. In general role models are nice. Male or female. I like those descriptions! Too bad the creepy perverts are just worried about physical attraction, lol.

And ah yeah. You're pretty much right about the American characters. Cartman from South Park does have smarter moments but he's only smart when he wants to do psychopathic things. Lol.

But yeah. What you said about personal power makes sense!

[Anonymous]

there's men attracted to men. there's women attracted to women. there's people attracted to all sorts of things. if you're looking for the science behind attraction you won't find it anywhere outside of heterosexual attraction and even then a lot of people will dismiss the science behind heterosexual attraction as "red-pill propaganda"

[EzraIsShy76028]

That's a pretty good answer! And yeah, a lot of things about humans don't really have scientific explanations, as our brains are just too complex for that.

[ClassicDropout]

You're reading too deep into it

[EzraIsShy76028]

Perhaps you are right, though I have zero clue what you mean by "itre-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft", lol.

Unless it's some sort of joke or reference I don't know about, or just sarcasm/satire.

[chilldude33]

It's a current bug on the website that pastes weird code on some comments

[EzraIsShy76028]

@chilldude33 Oh... good to know then, lol. It's low-key kind of creepy in my opinion. Kind of reminds me of AI taking over and inputting weird shit onto what you write.