Manly Men or Pretty Boys?

Well, let's consider my epic list of fangirl loves:

Kurama (YYH) - Pretty boy
Suzaku (Code Geass) - Pretty boy
Tamaki (Ouran) - Pretty boy
Allelujah (Gundam 00) - More pretty boy
Death the Kid (Soul Eater) - "Pretty" boy
Conrad Weller (Kyo Kara Maoh) - Pretty boy
Athrun Zala (SEED) - Pretty boy
Sasuke (Naruto) - Pretty boy
Roronoa Zoro (One Piece) - Manly
Yuki Sohma (Fruits Basket) - Pretty boy
Future Trunks (DBZ) - Some of both?

I... think I see an overwhelming pattern here. Honestly, I do appreciate the characters themselves over their appearance, but I have a pretty well established pattern. Maybe I like the emo ones... and the emo ones are usually the pretty boys
 
I will like a character based on personality more, but since this is strictly a looks-only based thread, I stick with manly men. I can't ever find pretty boys as an attractive factor.

This applies to real life: Though I don't know their stance now (haven't asked them), my Korean parents are pretty opinionated on wanting me to marry a Korean boy, which doesn't help because most of them in my age range look like girls. I don't know, maybe that's what threw me off overall.

There are exceptions, but it's rare. Perhaps that's why I've recently started to enjoy FullMetal Alchemist's artwork; most of the men there look like men.
 
Both, it depenRAB on the situation and the particular story involved. There's no set preference for or against either of them.

It's also a matter of art style, perhaps more than anything else, and sometimes that's a bit hard to determine depending on who happens to be the artist or character designer. You can easily make someone look more or less manly based on costume alone.

At the same time, as with many other preconceived notions, muscles don't automatically make one brave and the lack of them doesn't necessarily make somebody a coward. Appearances can be misleading.

After all, a lot of the time you've got a protagonist who beats, in terms of both looks and pure physical strength, a total musclehead.
 
Middle ground is good. Average or Fit, but not crazy-muscled. Nice looking, but doesn't look so much like a girl that I confuse their gender. I don't like the long-haired type. It makes me want to get out a scissors.

The amount of male characters in Gundam 00 for instance, with girl hairdos, annoys me.
But I don't go for the DBZ guys either.

The ones that are slim with boy hairdos I don't really categorize as "girly". So I guess I mostly like skinny boys who still look like boys.
 
The perfect blend of "Manly Man" and "Pretty Boy" enRAB up with the ultimate paragon of man: GAR!

But for serious, I never really cared how manly or pretty characters looked. Those were always in the background compared to other, more important elements. These days it seems like it hardly even matters, since almost all of the characters are "attractive" in one way or another.

I'd also like to mention Code Geass here. Lelouch is supposed to be the physically weak "Bishonen", while Suzaku is the much more powerful soldier. Thanks to Clamp, BOTH of them look malnourished, even with Suzaku doing the impossible pretty regularly.
As Hiromu Arakawa herself once said, "Men should be buff! Women should be vavoom!"
 
I don't care, as long as there smart/fight like say Lupin the 3rd, I've been watching his films/specials and he suprises me to this day with all his moves.
 
I find that the men who are manliest aren't too bad to look at on the eyes. Domon Kashu, Kamina, and Gai are essentially the first, second, and third manliest mecha pilots. And my mecha I mean super robots, a type of mecha where every pilot must be a GAR paragon to come out on top. So both at once.
 
As others have said, I'd go with the middle ground. Too much muscle and the guy looks like he's about to explode. Too girly and they look like even I could beat them up. I mostly go for hanRABome rather than pretty or manly.

A character I find really hanRABome is Yuri Mikailakov from Planetes. He's buff but not bursting with muscles.

Keiichi Morisato from Ah! my Goddess is nothing extraordinary in terms of looks, but he's such an all-around nice guy I can't help but like him.

Spike Spiegel is thin but absolutely not girly (the girly quota is already filled by Faye). And he's coolness incarnate.

Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Mendoza from Mysterious Cities of Gold was my first animated crush. Don't tell anyone.

Someone mentionned Vash, well Wolfwood is not bad either, right?
 
To tell you the truth, there has been an increase in an amount of Bishounen in Japanese media and fandom. There were probably some people that forgot what men looked like before.

And of course, Bishounen exist in real life.
 
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