Jump to content

How are 'waifu' character/series designed to appeal to so many different personliaties?


Mojofier

Recommended Posts

For the waifu demographics who like to fantasize until they find someone IRL, or just wanna marry that fictious one (not judging). How do you think designers/creators manage this? Individuals have their own personal values and tastes. My theory is that a base personality character is created for individuals to relate to, but from there you add your own ' with your own personal compatibilities and tastes as long as it's consistent with the character's core personality. This allows the consumer to enjoy that character and still appeal to mass (+ merchandise!).

An example are the Hyperdiemsnion series. It caters to a variety of demographics too. It's cute girls doing cute things, there's yuri teasing, and there's waifu component (esp evidenced by waifu CDs, etc). 

Plus how would you respond if you felt your favourite character's personality and a trait did not blend? Would you feel comfortable altering it to something you like as long as it works with that character's core nature?

Edited by Mojofier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Wedgy said:

I'm not certain what you mean... can you give an example of a waifu character/series? I'm not entirely familiar with the term, but my understanding is that you're asking if there are characters designed with the intent of fans becoming obsessive with them? 

Ah, I updated my question. Forgive me but I find it hard to translate thoughts into words at times. I am referring to those who like to >fantasize< about marrying their favourite character, etc. So the series caters to those individuals too. Pretty blatantly with Hyperdimension lol. But yeah. It's a phenomenon for sure. I don't think there's anything wrong with fantasizing.

Anyways my little perspective aside, I'm wondering how a character supposed to be waifu-d by many individuals works when you take into consideration that people have their own values and whatnot. Because fantasy or reality, people are gonna have their values, likes, and dislikes. I'm guessing the design would allow a degree of freedom?  So how do you think that works? 

Yes it seems really silly or deep, but I find even seemingly silly things like this fascinating (yeah I study psychology and human interaction always interested me haha). 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

a bit of clairity

waifu- female character you like, many otaku buy a dakimakura and treat  that pillow (dakimakura) like a wife

harem, same but with multiple chara

husbando same as waifu  but with male pg

now i like harem, and fancervice  but i think 2d and 3d world must be separate,however if you want watch anime about "family" i reccommend you aishiteruze baby and Usagi Drop, if you want search true values in a waifu or similar  i never see  somboby have for now  (and no i not saw HN for now) just fancervice above fancervice  

 

Edited by Misari
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/21/2018 at 9:28 PM, Mojofier said:

An example are the Hyperdiemsnion series. It caters to a variety of demographics too. It's cute girls doing cute things, there's yuri teasing, and there's waifu component (esp evidenced by waifu CDs, etc). 

Plus how would you respond if you felt your favourite character's personality and a trait did not blend? Would you feel comfortable altering it to something you like as long as it works with that character's core nature?

Interesting topic.

I'm a bit biased here, am a huge fan of Hyperdimension Neptunia (*cough* Noire / Black Heart / Lastation), got most of the figures and games and well there's a HDN forum theme here on AF. ;)

I feel HDN is unique because all the characters are personified off mainstream consoles. Then they also have little sisters, who are personified as handheld consoles. And all of them have fan service transformation modes that completely change their personalities! Some of the personality changes are polar opposites, some enhance them and some don't change at all..

On 4/21/2018 at 9:28 PM, Mojofier said:

Plus how would you respond if you felt your favourite character's personality and a trait did not blend? Would you feel comfortable altering it to something you like as long as it works with that character's core nature?

Your avatar of Iris Heart is a good example of this. :P Her human form Plutia is so laid back, slow and lazy.. yet when she transforms to Iris Heart she becomes extremely aggressive and a dominatrix... I think if they were two separate characters then most people wouldn't normally like both but because they're both the same characters I think HDN makes contrasting personalities work well..

Another example that comes to mind is KanColle. The characters are all personified off WW2 ships. I liked Yuudachi a lot until she transformed (got remodelled to her next form) and she became much more serious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Optic said:

Interesting topic.

I'm a bit biased here, am a huge fan of Hyperdimension Neptunia (*cough* Noire / Black Heart / Lastation), got most of the figures and games and well there's a HDN forum theme here on AF. ;)

I feel HDN is unique because all the characters are personified off mainstream consoles. Then they also have little sisters, who are personified as handheld consoles. And all of them have fan service transformation modes that completely change their personalities! Some of the personality changes are polar opposites, some enhance them and some don't change at all..

Your avatar of Iris Heart is a good example of this. :P Her human form Plutia is so laid back, slow and lazy.. yet when she transforms to Iris Heart she becomes extremely aggressive and a dominatrix... I think if they were two separate characters then most people wouldn't normally like both but because they're both the same characters I think HDN makes contrasting personalities work well..

Another example that comes to mind is KanColle. The characters are all personified off WW2 ships. I liked Yuudachi a lot until she transformed (got remodelled to her next form) and she became much more serious.

 

Interesting topic? Thanks, I like to question the 'weird'/'seemingly untalked' aspects of fandom from different and sometimes 'controversial' perspectives. I enjoy psychology, and how we respond to these creations! 

A fellow HDN fan here I see. Glad to meet you aha! The characters also feel pretty realistic in a sense even though they are playing on tropes to me at least. Their personalities do seem to change but it still retains their core nature. In other words, I've noticed that they are the same individual, but whatever restrictions they may have had in their normal forms are liberated in their HDD ones. Good examples are: Plutia who changes into Iris who plays with the dominatrix persona (she's not really into it as evidenced by a quote between Mega and Iris in SeHA), where she feels liberated in expressing her intelligence + add some fun sadistic trolling lol. Then you have Uzume, who has to play a persona of 'cool' in the post-apocalyptic context to retain order, but then goes her true self as Orange Heart. Yes, at face value both Plutia/Iris Uzume/Orange could be seen as different beings unless they were more explored. It was a nice meshing of seemingly contrasting personalities as you've said. The warships one? I have not heard of it, I should look into it...

(oh boy, I don't mean to come off 'creepy obsessed' but let's just say I've delved into the personas of Plutia and some other characters purely based off me finally finding characters I can relate to very deeply!)

What I was getting more at was if you felt a portrayal of a character didn't really suit their core nature (regardless of contrasting forms), would you feel comfortable "modifying" them in a way you see fit and more true to their personalities? 

And here's another mind twist: let's say if a character wasn't intended for a particular demographic, but you felt it would work there. Would you feel comfotable 'breaking the rules' to enjoy it because you feel it suits that character's personality more over what it was originally intended for?

You don't need to answer those if you find it weird. I know these are probably 'wth?'. But it's pretty entertaining to discuss such things sometimes. 

What's this HDN forum theme? :D

Edited by Mojofier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Mojofier said:

What I was getting more at was if you felt a portrayal of a character didn't really suit their core nature (regardless of contrasting forms), would you feel comfortable "modifying" them in a way you see fit and more true to their personalities? 

Thanks for the clarification. For me, that would be a no. First impressions are hard to shake. To me it wouldn't feel right. To use Noire as an example, she works extremely hard, to the point of making her little sister Uni worried. She is a tsundere. She rejects help from others. She is portrayed as having no friends (rather brutally by Neptune). By that nature, she is pushed to open up and rely on others more.

Yet in the spin-off game Hyperdevotion Noire, she was the protagonist of her own game instead of Neptune. Initially it was bizarre for me seeing the roles reversed, suddenly she had gathered a huge army of generals and it seemed her hard work had paid off. To me that felt odd given our previous first impressions of her.

*cough* @SanguineTear

17 hours ago, Mojofier said:

Their personalities do seem to change but it still retains their core nature. In other words, I've noticed that they are the same individual, but whatever restrictions they may have had in their normal forms are liberated in their HDD ones.

Yes that is true. Now that I think about it, in the HDN anime there are much more interactions of their HDD forms and others in their human forms. But the games have more dialogue which better explain their thoughts whereas the anime is more fast-paced.

Also I haven't actually played the SeHA spin-off yet, still on my list to play. 

 

17 hours ago, Mojofier said:

And here's another mind twist: let's say if a character wasn't intended for a particular demographic, but you felt it would work there. Would you feel comfotable 'breaking the rules' to enjoy it because you feel it suits that character's personality more over what it was originally intended for?

Not sure to be honest. But I feel there are enough spin-offs to portray this. Wasn't there an idol game spin-off for HDN? 🙃 I haven't played it but the characters look cute in their idol costumes.

And I'm pretty sure there was a event in Megadimension Neptunia VII where the characters were all cosplaying as fantasy characters (Noire and Blanc were wearing magical girl costumes)

And in the Fate stay/night series, there is a title called Fate/kaleid liner which completely changes two major characters from being serious into magical girls. Completely changes the serious nature of the show into a humorous yet cute comedy.

 

17 hours ago, Mojofier said:

What's this HDN forum theme? :D

You can change the forum theme on the lower left corner. A few different backgrounds in the HDN theme to choose from. :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/30/2018 at 12:55 PM, Optic said:

Thanks for the clarification. For me, that would be a no. First impressions are hard to shake. To me it wouldn't feel right. To use Noire as an example, she works extremely hard, to the point of making her little sister Uni worried. She is a tsundere. She rejects help from others. She is portrayed as having no friends (rather brutally by Neptune). By that nature, she is pushed to open up and rely on others more.

Yet in the spin-off game Hyperdevotion Noire, she was the protagonist of her own game instead of Neptune. Initially it was bizarre for me seeing the roles reversed, suddenly she had gathered a huge army of generals and it seemed her hard work had paid off. To me that felt odd given our previous first impressions of her.

*cough* @SanguineTear

It's hard to explain what I was getting at. To me, what you described isn't what I was getting at and I wouldn't change it myself, because it's still genuine and works with her core nature +what they are going for. What I as getting at was more something hard to describe I suppose aha. Someting beyond reason with what they've established, beyond "oh it's supposed to be this way!" sort of thing.

Eg. for me, with everything they've established for Plutia being an honest sweet girl with a cheeky and scary side, her suddenly or secretly being someone who'd lie to her friends and fans just does not work given what they have established and the context of the series (cute girls doing cute things), things like that. And this is in a way where it feels more than a "plot twist she was evil all along!" sort of thing if you are following what I mean. Essentially "unethical" misleading representations where us fans get led on, and/or mismatch of personality traits with the characters' core nature (beyond reason). Dw if this sounds depressing, I don't aim to make you sad or weird you out. Just some food for thought.

For the record, I doubt the creators of HDN would actually mislead their fans =P I just think the characters are designed very basic to initially appeal to a variety of fans and from there we can "modify" aspects of them to reflect our personal values as long as it works with their core nature. Otherwise with so many clashing views consumers of this series may have, it wouldn't work well! And I find these points very interesting especially when it comes to marketing and appealing to a variety of fans :)

 

BTW I REALLY appreciate you managing to follow to whatever degree with the stuff I ave to say! I'm just that weird quirky one in those regards I suppose :P MAte Seha is really cute as and NepBike (no spoilers since it's advertised) is great. 

 

Thanks mate! :D

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is one of the best posts I've seen on here. Very interesting. I imagine what you say is true.

I never have thought about giving the character the traits I like or would be compatible with to suit me, even if it's still aligned with the character's base personality. and I never will. Doing so, to me, is just odd. I would only be willing to accept the character's traits for what they are and are not because only then is it genuine. I can't imagine it any other way. I'd still be willing to buy merchandise too. ;3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...