My thoughts on Ochako are identical to my thoughts on Sakura Haruno from Naruto, Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail, Nobara Kugisaki from Jujutsu Kaisen (God, I hated that bitch), and basically any other shonenslop main girl/love interest: the female side characters almost
always fog. It's like an unwritten law I've come to expect. Besides being the archetypal all-loving nice girl who may or may not harbor feelings for the MC, there's really nothing that makes her stick out in comparison to the aforementioned Himiko, Tsuyu, or hell, even the Wild, Wild Pussycats, even with their big, doofy cat paws that are utterly impractical for combat. Those characters sport some of the most appealing female designs in the series, but that isn't saying much when you consider this:
Nothing about My Hero Academia has ever broken the mold or subverted the expectations of anyone who’s seen anything like it, or in other words, anyone who’s seen any shonen anime in the history of existence, but unlike every other shonen anime in the history of existence, My Hero Academia is ugly. Yes, the seasons after the 2nd or 3rd one have particularly shitty animation, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the design sense is awful. Please just take a second to think about shonen’s Big Three. Depending on the character, the designs in Bleach can be downright erotic, and it’s filled to the brim with hot babes and chad hunks. Despite Eiichiro Oda refusing to draw female characters whose anatomy aren't just stick figures with tits slapped on, One Piece has some of the most distinctive and eye-catching designs in manga, and while Naruto’s designs aren’t exactly glamorous or creative, its color palette is at least consistent, and Tetsuya Nishio’s anime adaptation designs were outstanding. The newer hits also follow this pattern. I think everyone with a functioning prefrontal cortex can agree Demon Slayer’s artwork is all it has ever had going for it in both manga and anime form, Hiro Mashima’s success is openly predicated on nothing but sex-appeal, and just look at One Punch Man. It was a cult classic when ONE was drawing it, but when Yusuke Murata began drawing it three years later with his absolutely insane digital manga detailing and irresistible females, it took the world by storm.
Say what you will about these series perpetuating visual archetypes despite high-quality artwork, but Jesus Christ on a fucking bike, at least their character designs are worth advertising! BUT ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER in My Hero Academia looks PANTS ON HEAD RETARDED, and forgive me for sounding so close-minded, but I simply will not entertain an argument to the contrary. They are just fucking goofy, period. A few waifus are marketable, like those few I already mentioned, but most just look dumb, and the thoughtless coloration of the anime makes the weirder ones stand out like a sore thumb and lose any niche moe they may’ve had in manga form. Also, and I’m not one to complain about fanservice, but when highschool girls dress like camera sluts despite having a shy and modest personality—I'm looking at you, Momo Yaoyorozu—their whole character feels backwards. I suppose it doesn’t matter, though, since even our protagonist himself is an inconsistent mess, an incongruous chimera who is both a soyboy crybaby loser who the viewer can empathize with during melodrama, and also a stone-faced alpha male they can self-insert with during hype action to satiate their power fantasies because they can't cope with reality.
Anyway, I agree that Ochako and Shino share similarities in appearance, but I think it's really a no-brainer who has the more aesthetically appealing, less goofy design. And for a man of utmost culture and exquisite taste such as myself, Mandalay's catgirl characteristics automatically give her the edge as the distinctly superior femalo as well as an EZ best girl candidate. Don't you think so?
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