["...why would THIS be any different?"](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fvy6hsxosgf631.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D232b622eee608c5a71a6019dd55d54ecf170bda5)
I was surprised that Columbo is so popular in Japan, to the point that they have a show inspired by it and serial novels. Pretty cool. I wish that Columbo could've had an episode set in Japan for this reason.
Apparently, Columbo was so popular in Romania that when a season wrapped up, Romanians thought their government had taken the show off the air due to import quotas, and the Romanian government legitimately feared rioting. [Source.](https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/04/02/columbos-world/) While whether or not the risk of riots was legitimate or mere paranoia on the Romanian Government's part is disputed, what is *not* disputed is that said government begged the US State Department to have Peter Falk (that's Columbo's actor for the three of you reading this who didn't know) record a speech (printed for him phonetically in Romanian) reassuring their people that Columbo will be back next Season. The full text of the announcement (in English) can be found on WikiLeaks, but I'm not 100% sure if we're allowed to link that here, and it's pretty short, so I'll just copy-paste it here like so:
> OH, EXCUSE ME. DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE. ALO. I'M LT. COLOMBO...SOMETIMES I'M KNOWN ASSPETER FALK. WHEN AN ACTOR PORTRAYS A ROLE, HE HOPES HE'S CREATING A CHARACTER THAT THE AUDIENCE CAN IDENTIFY WITH AND FROM WHAT WE'V HEARD HERE IN HOLLYWOOD ABOUT ROMANIA'S ACCEPTANCE
OF THE COLOMBO SHOW, I GUESS WE MUST HAVE BEEN DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. SERIOUSLY, I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH EVERYONE CONNECTED WITH THE COLOMBO SHOW FEELS ABOUT RECEIVING SUCH HEARTWARMING NEWS. WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ROMANIAN TELEVISION FOR HAVING PUT US ON THE AIR ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS. BUT MOST OF ALL, ALL OF US, MYSELF AND THE CREW AND THE OTHER ACTORS, WE WANT TO THANK THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE FOR THEIR GREAT RESPONSE TO OUR SHOW. I HOPE SOMEDAY I CAN COME TO YOUR COUNTRY AND ENJOY THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE AND HOSITALITY OF THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE. IN THE MEANTIME, COLOMBO WILL BE SEEING YOU AGAIN ON TELEVISION THIS FALL. UNTIL THEN, ONCE AGAIN, MY THANKS AND MY BEST TO EVERYBODY.
Not just that, there was civil unrest when people thought they weren't getting anymore and Peter Falk had to be drafted into recording a video message assuring the people that more Columbo was coming, so please stop rioting
I've heard that Columbo is popular everywhere because it was really cheap to get the rights to play it so it played everywhere and is also really good.
That and it's probably the most accessible detective show for filler evening TV, even moreso than Law & Order (which outside of SVU is probably the most direct competitor for this kind of detective TV from the US. Outside of the US's TV shows, you have British detective shows but those are a much slower burn compared to Columbo and border on full 4 hour movies per episode). It's extremely formulaic, there's no overarching plot and Columbo himself has a kinda timelessness to his character that makes it so you can essentially put the episodes on a random schedule and have a good time.
That's a goldmine for broadcasters - need to fill an evening schedule and unsure of what to put on after your latest talk show idea didn't work? Just broadcast a few Columbo episodes, it'll keep people happy and you don't have to worry about broadcasting the entire thing.
People love Columbo because most people grew up watching it, even far outside the original generation back when it was broadcast on TV since it was extremely easy to syndicate.
Not *in* Japan, but one episode did feature Mako Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh, the demon Aku) as a side character. They have different accents, but he and Peter Falk (Columbo himself) have similar voices. They’re…gravely. The scene is Columbo intruding on the villain’s dinner party, with Mako’s character present, who immediately hits it off with Columbo, and the two engage in friendly banter.
The rest of the actors—not the characters—look like they’re in hell. Like, “Dear god, I have to listen to *two of them now*.” It’s one of my favorite scenes in the entire show. 😆
The episode is Murder Under Glass. Episode 12 of season 7.
While I was visiting Japan last year, we were watching a late night talk show at our hotel. My friend and I lost our shit when Beat Takeshi dressed as Columbo came on and was doing a bit. We were equally confused and hyped.
Not just *one* show inspired by Columbo.
There's both an officially licensed Japanese Columbo and another show inspired by Columbo starring one of the most popular comedians of all time.
Former is Shinano no Columbo and the latter is Furuhata Ninzaburou.
I was surprised when I learned that not only is the best Tekken player in the world from Pakistan, but he claims he's not even the best person *there*.
At this point though, it's pretty universally agreed that Arslan Ash is the one of (if not the) best Tekken player of all time. For sure, there's definitely elements of "can only be a killer if you're also surrounded by killers," and I'm sure visa issues also prevents more strong players from playing on a global stage often.
But at the end of the day, only Arslan has done the miracle threepeat of winning EVO Japan, Vegas, and Tekken World Tour, all in one year.
There is something beautiful about a Japanese arcade game making it all the way to a faraway middle eastern country to be played and loved by a people that the creators likely never considered
Johnny bravo is super popular in India. So much so it got its own special in 2011 where Johnny goes to India. It was originally made strictly for Indian viewers before it got translated and made longer for global audiences
Some of the most famous sitcoms in Brasil during the 2000s were black sitcoms: My Wife and Kids, Everybody Hates Chris, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Kenan & Kel, Arnold. I feel like they were really prominent in the two major TV channels
Brazilians are so passionate about those shows that the cast members comment about this sometimes, positively and negatively
yeah I remember there was a thread a while ago and the author was talking about their CoD fanfics, which I was surprised was a thing. I thought it was like AC where it stood for something different but no it was Call of Duty
i was already in the COD tumblr fanfiction for one paring(it was for one of the male charater and a player insert)only so I did not find out about the whole possible fake death drama until it was mention on the scruffles.
out of all the COD artists followed, only one had reblogged the announcement about said possible death of a blogger. And even then just today, they have said that they are leaving tumblr(they have never given the exact reason but I have wonder if said drama played a part in it). They haven’t deleted their blog yet but have made it private for a bit but they since made it public again So there some hope they may return when it all calms down and they are in a better headspace but odds are currently low.
still can not believe this all happen over a meme text post
I was very surprised when I first learned about it due to the association with the toxic online dudebro players. But then I realized it made sense given it’s a franchise with mostly male characters, so it’s great for m/m shippers and ship self-inserters isn’t it
I was checking AO3 for reasons in the Elden Ring section and saw Morgott/MC was the most popular pairing and was confused until my sister-in-law said he reminded her of Beast from Beauty and the Beast
I think his personality aligns more with the Beast Archetype/Byronic Hero if placed into a romantic context (Honorable in a sense, standoffish, dutiful, modest with his clothing, self-loathing due to his identity). Maliketh seems more sad, tragic and far gone.
The CoD cast are just conventionally sexy men in general tbh. I don’t think they count as Tumblr sexymen when most people would probably agree that they’re attractive without even playing the games.
I've seen it a bit, a lot of it is over the story's characters, like ghost and price or something. I haven't played a COD since the original modern warfare 2 and I super don't care but it's kinda interesting? weird? that it has that section of the fanbase that I'd never seen before.
Aside from Dragonball Z, other anime popular in Mexico include Saint Seiya and Mazinger Z. I think Gegege no Kitaro was fairly popular over there at some point as well? Which is especially surprising since it's focused on Japanese folklore.
I don't even know a non-weeb in latam who knows what Getter is. Of course, it's all anecdotical experience.
Older non-weebs recognize Mazinger by name, but if you mention other Go Nagai stuff like Kotetsu Jeeg they blusecreen. They'll probably remember it as The Avenger.
That demographic does like Robotech though.
Went to see Ghost in concert last year, and all of my exposure to the band was through Heavy Metal communities, so I was mostly expecting to see metal fans in their 30's+. I was *not* anticipating half the audience to be teenage girls losing their minds over Tobias Forge. The realization that I was actually at a concert for the new generation's version of Hot Topic girls who were super into Nightmare Before Christmas hit me like a freight train in a way I was not prepared for.
Once I got past the initial shock though it was definitely a "the kids are alright" kinda vibe.
It’s kinda funny to see the evolution of the Papas go from serious and scary Papa I to ‘just a silly guy’ Papa IV. I wonder what direction Forge will go for the next album.
I have a female friend who would make fanart of them.
Paige really spoke thetruth whem she said that Girls like Spooky Guys,be ot Skeleton, Ghost, Werewolf or Monsterman!
The creator of Yakuza/Like a Dragon Nagoshi went on record multiple times saying how shocked he was with how popular the series was with women. Probably because of the hostess stuff but when 98% of your game is buff attractive men fighting each other shirtless it's probably shouldn't be that big a shock.
Germany love for shadowrun that they have multiple sets just for them. I thought they would be the same with all of Europe and love DND but shadowrun is king there. It’s the same with Wizardry not being a big thing in the states but like crack in Japan we’re it influenced all there fantasy media.
That's because for a period that was mostly it when it came to German translations and imports. Germany or Berlin specifically is also somewhat important or at least just really interesting in shadowrun lore
Naruto is super popular within the black community that it's reference in rap music like Lil Uzi Vert, Megan Thee Stallion, and Ski Mask the Slump God just to name a few.
Apparently this goes back to the 1970s, when both Blaxploitation and imported martial arts films used to be shown at the grindhouse theaters. Both were considered niche/weird/minority (read: not White) at the time, and there ended up being a lot of crossover.
And, of course, anime is super popular in South America as well, so there’s more crossover there.
... That makes sense. The Last Dragon did effectively fuse the 2 genres together, and it wouldn't have done that if people didn't want it ... probably.
Yup, the equivalent of the modern Black Anime fan in Mt Dad generation is exactly this.
One of my favorite things in life period is the cross-over between Japanese & Black American culture. This is how you get like Afro Samurai, The Boondocks, Jet Set Radio, BAPE, etc. etc. It's beautiful.
JJK is also really popular with the black community considering the amount of JJK "meme panels" that came out during the whole "Drake VS Kendrick" scenario.
My favorite example of this is the Golden Kamuy author discovering that the series had a surprisingly large gay male fanbase and deciding to make it even more homoerotic
Tanigaki’s cleavage carried the popularity of that series, even though I came for the indigenous cooking show. I mean, his google search result image is straight up gay fanart.
Makes sense after I heard about it but apparently straight women and gay dudes were getting really into Supernatural. On the surface it just seemed like a show about a pair of brothers who went around fighting monsters and demons and crap so to me it sounded more like a male demographic type show.
Well it turns out the two main actors are really hot.
Also apperently **The Mechanicus faction in 40k is really popular with the LGBT community**, i can kinda understand why, but, i was still surprising when i first heard about it.
Not that surprising.
Along with full-body cybernetics like Cyberpunk, in the Mechanicus gender and sexual identity and orientation is not an important concept (it's not really that important in most of the wider Imperial culture either but it's especially unimportant with the Mechanicus)
And the heavy augmentation most of them go through makes gender and biological sex irrelevant anyways.
Many are so augmented and covered by machinery and their robes that you can't even tell that they're human, let alone gender.
Like in the Mechanicus video game there is a female Tech Priest named Scaevola but you wouldn't even know until the other characters refer to her by female pronouns. [This is what she looks like.](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUeNXB1J1wb6lkU9R37_hs3fBnYGgMlwniog&s)
Not to say all Mechanicus are like that, there is a tech priest who cloned himself to create an heir, but the Clone came out female. He raised her as his daughter and she refuses to augment her body heavily, choosing to stay as human looking as possible. He finds it odd but he doesn't look down on her for it.
I like that the mechanicus care enough about pronouns and gender expression despite willing to be nothing but a skull with metal parts stuck into it sometimes.
The thing is, some of the tech priests, for all their dogma and tech worship, are still very human, in one of the Horus Heresy books there are also two of them that explain that they have a bond that could be considered be considered as a kind of marriage.
One of the books I was reading about a (Disastrous) Arc Mechanicus mission had an Enginseer who was vigorously human. She talked dirty and chased after guardsman with the best of them, while still being a devoted member of the AdMech. No one even commented on finding that strange. Presumably she could have sought the privilages of more extensive modification but she didn't seem to keen on doing so.
Yeah so this isn't k-on, this is a thing you see especially on twitter, where *It seems* like a lot of white supremacists or people close enough to that or on their way there, gravitate towards a lot of anime and japanese things cause to them it represents a racial hegemony of purity and despite not being white, a lot of anime characters could pass for white or are interpreted as white, so that fills in some of that bias and also there is a thing among many actual racists who like to think of a culture being homogenous and without much or any diversity, and see that as an example of what "the white race" should be like. (despite white not being a race, but whatever.) Throw in some Incel ideologies, some shit tier anime, and then overlap it with some Japanese fetishization overlapping all that shit, and there you go.
So even if the anime isn't shit and you see some stuff like that, it could be a sign ya know flip a coin on whether they're a massive tool or just a normal weeb. They will believe themselves to be what the normal sort of weeb is though. So watch out.
Also, a lot of lolis and the female characters often acting small and weak, meaning they are "naturally subduable".
There's a heavy predatory element to fascism.
When I use to be on twitter (left while ago) it felt like 90% of the time I saw someone with an anime pfp they were saying something racist/sexist/queerphobic. after a while I just started to instantly scroll by all anime pfps.
Which is fucking crazy seeing as like a lot of super popular anime especially the big 3 has a baseline theme of "you should accept people the way they are".
I feel like a few people with k-on profile pics on tumblr/twitter were caught being racist/homophobic (I know offical-mugi on tumblr was one of them), people took screenshots/made jokes about it ("haha the person with a profile pic of a wholesome slice of anime is saying vile shit, how wacky) then a bunch of other edgy people adopted the practice ON PURPOSE and the whole thing ballooned into a meme from there.
Or its just that K-on was really popular on /a/ and 4channers are always acting like shitheads even on other sites
Oh yeah the LGBT love New Vegas. Like a lot, a lot. I didn't know this for a while, I just was like "oh yeah well there are a few gay characters in there so I guess that's why some like it more." but nah it's like the whole thing, the themes or options get them especially for some reasons. I had a thing I read about it somewhere specifying it and I remember going "Oh yeah that makes total sense." but I lost it.
It wasn’t that surprising to me, considering that it was one of the first big games to have a lot of queer characters, and only it and (to a much lesser extent) fallout 2 are the only fallout games to have actually dialogue written for queer player characters. If you didn’t ask your companions to many questions and didn’t take certain perks I can get how it could be surprising though.
*Kamen Rider Kuuga* saw a notable viewership comprised of women in their thirties thanks to the lead actor Joe Odagiri, thus the trend was dubbed as the Odagiri Effect.
The swerves taken by the general public reaction to Bayo between 1->2->3 is pretty wild. You'd never think the game used to be the flashpoint for heated discourse the way Stellar Blade is now back when it initially came out
Platinum (and several Platinum employees) reposted a lot of the LGBT Bayo fanart over the years, including the famous one of Bayo ripping the sheets off Jeanne to wake her up in the morning which they posted on *Valentine's Day*. No wonder people felt betrayed by Bayo3's canon romance.
What I find odd is that the game acts like Luka and Bayo are some sort of Adam and Eve of the multiverse but we only ever see one Viola. Then again I think you only ever see one Luka, so I dunno. The entire thing was a jumbled mess.
I lived my whole life not having heard about Mantis Shrimps, and then I got on reddit and especially in the recent years there's been an uptake in mantis shrimp related content around me.
Its probably not the case anymore, but i remember being really suprised when in a 2017 interview, someone in marketing at Marvelous stated that around 30 - 40% of Senran Kagura fans were women (although the accuracy of the number is probably a bit dubious).
Kinda in a similar vein but more of a personal ancedote, Dead or Alive seems to have a decently sized female fanbase as well, just from the few DOA tournaments I was at and since a third of the people in my DOA group are actually girls.
The winner is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. _Especially_ with the OG Flash animation crowd from the 00s—i.e., Newgrounds, albinoblacksheep, flashgames.net, et al. The show was animated in Adobe Flash, which blew people’s minds back in 2012.
*clears throat* Bronies
Also Signalis has such a large lesbian audience, more specifically trans, that I did not know it was a horror game for like a month
I knew about the game in passing before, but It was like "oh Resident evil style game! cool!" Saw some girls playing it, then my trans girl friends got their hands on it and in any discord servers with them in it they are constantly posting fanart of characters being lovey dovey or in memes or whatever, some are doing the military spec ops stuff with them, sometimes they're depressing sometimes they're cute and fluffy, sometimes it's just them doing memes as signalis characters. There's animations, there's voice actors, there's so fucking much stuff. And a lot of it is really well done too. It's wild, (I still haven't gone past the opening area after the tutorial myself...)
For some reason Redo of Healer, a show infamous for its focus on intense sexual violence, is more popular with women according to an interview with its creator.
It’s actually not that surprising. People prefer not talking about it, but a **lot** of women have kinks for masochism, bondage, that kind of stuff. See also the insane popularity of Fifty Shades.
I read a little of it, I can't think of a series with less redeeming qualities than it. Everyone is just awful, and they all do the worst things. In the little that I read, I could tell it was just going to continuously try to one up itself and I was just totally fine not sticking around to find out if I was right.
The amount of fanfic Worm has, compared to its overall popularity, is absolutely **insane.** I can’t think of any other series with such an absurd disparity except arguably RWBY. Wormfic is a cultural phenomenon that escaped the original and evolved into its own entity, shit deserves to be studied by scientists.
Also on the subject of fanfic, I was baffled when I discovered Minecraft YouTuber fanfic is apparently a somewhat popular thing.
On a different subject - it’s less an example of “I’m surprised [X type of people] are fans” and more “I’m surprised there are fans at all” - Adam Smasher fans.
Never read Worm, but I know the basic due to the fanfics and I say this: There's much possibilties due to how powers work on that universe and the plot structure.
Closest I can think of outside some things thatvhas already been mentioned here is Donald Duck who in Sweden is much more popular than Micky Mouse by a large margin I'd guess.
Bitches love Twinks and Mystical Intimate Bonding between an older man and his younger Twink Lover with a androgynous haircut and Flower embroidered School Uniform.
I when I watch a male oriented anime having fangirls who consider a male character some sort of husbando.
I don't mean guys like Sasuke, Inuyasha, Sebastian Michaelis Itachi, Lelouch, or Ranma that are meant for handsome bishonen, but more "normal" guys like Tadano (Komi), Naruto, Eren, Gojo (of the girl who cosplays), Edward Elric, Vegeta, Goku, Dr. Tenma (Monster), Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul), Zoro (One Piece), Tanjiro, Ichigo, Deku or even Ash Ketchum.
Fiddler on the Roof, a musical about an Eastern European Jewish village in the early 20th century, is incredibly popular in Japan. Joseph Stein, the show’s writer, was apparently asked by the first Japanese producer of the show if western audiences even understood the show because it is “so Japanese”
Fallout has a pretty big female and LGBTQ+ fanbase, especially Fallout 4 with the inclusion of romance options. New Vegas is super popular with the trans community (Arcade and Veronica are fan favorite companions). From my experience, most of the big RPG's with romance options will have a good percentage of female and LGBTQ+ fans (Mass Effect, Fallout, Baldur's Gate), and they're the ones who produce a ton of fan content like fanfiction and fanart.
The creator of Dungeon Meshi, who's a woman, got a lot of notice in the D&D and Pathfinder communities after it was discovered that she did a lot of Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 & Pathfinder Kingmaker portraits.
I could tell when I started Dungeon Meshi that she was a huge fan of RPG's. The whole series feels like a DnD campaign. If I try Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 I'll see if I can mod her portraits in!
Have you seen her illustrations of elves from video games for Famitsu? You can tell who her favorite Baldur's Gate 3 companion is. It's not Astarion lmao.
Baki, a show and manga about big muscly men beating the shit out of each other with borderline schizophrenic detail, has a niche but notable fan base of women who love the characters. I've seen multiple pieces of fanart depicting self inserts going on dates and cuddling with Baki characters. It's a real gentle giant kinda feel I guess.
["...why would THIS be any different?"](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fvy6hsxosgf631.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D232b622eee608c5a71a6019dd55d54ecf170bda5)
I think i just took some IRL sanity damage reading that.
[Oh if you think thats bad wait until you see this](https://imgur.com/a/uS29Qdr)
Inset Oppenheimer picture here
That face when you am become death
>10/10/25 I always knew time travel was a factor.
I feel like I stumbled upon the dead sea scrolls.
Put them back where you found them so help me god
If I had a frenzy meter irl then that image would have added to it.
Thread glowing like the brain of mensis
Feelin like Vyke rn ngl
I wonder how that guy is doing nowadays
I wonder where that guy is now.
Good chance he's still on 4chan lol
A fate worse than death
For his sake I hope he is not.
He's off clopping
This is a prime example of when shitposting goes wrong. If you go too hard, people not in the know will take you seriously.
I was surprised that Columbo is so popular in Japan, to the point that they have a show inspired by it and serial novels. Pretty cool. I wish that Columbo could've had an episode set in Japan for this reason.
Comlumbo is popular all over, he’s got a huge fan base in Hungary too iirc
Apparently, Columbo was so popular in Romania that when a season wrapped up, Romanians thought their government had taken the show off the air due to import quotas, and the Romanian government legitimately feared rioting. [Source.](https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/04/02/columbos-world/) While whether or not the risk of riots was legitimate or mere paranoia on the Romanian Government's part is disputed, what is *not* disputed is that said government begged the US State Department to have Peter Falk (that's Columbo's actor for the three of you reading this who didn't know) record a speech (printed for him phonetically in Romanian) reassuring their people that Columbo will be back next Season. The full text of the announcement (in English) can be found on WikiLeaks, but I'm not 100% sure if we're allowed to link that here, and it's pretty short, so I'll just copy-paste it here like so: > OH, EXCUSE ME. DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE. ALO. I'M LT. COLOMBO...SOMETIMES I'M KNOWN ASSPETER FALK. WHEN AN ACTOR PORTRAYS A ROLE, HE HOPES HE'S CREATING A CHARACTER THAT THE AUDIENCE CAN IDENTIFY WITH AND FROM WHAT WE'V HEARD HERE IN HOLLYWOOD ABOUT ROMANIA'S ACCEPTANCE OF THE COLOMBO SHOW, I GUESS WE MUST HAVE BEEN DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. SERIOUSLY, I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH EVERYONE CONNECTED WITH THE COLOMBO SHOW FEELS ABOUT RECEIVING SUCH HEARTWARMING NEWS. WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ROMANIAN TELEVISION FOR HAVING PUT US ON THE AIR ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS. BUT MOST OF ALL, ALL OF US, MYSELF AND THE CREW AND THE OTHER ACTORS, WE WANT TO THANK THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE FOR THEIR GREAT RESPONSE TO OUR SHOW. I HOPE SOMEDAY I CAN COME TO YOUR COUNTRY AND ENJOY THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE AND HOSITALITY OF THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE. IN THE MEANTIME, COLOMBO WILL BE SEEING YOU AGAIN ON TELEVISION THIS FALL. UNTIL THEN, ONCE AGAIN, MY THANKS AND MY BEST TO EVERYBODY.
Asspeter Falk
Don't talk shit about my boy Asspeter
I copy paste as I see 'em.
Not just that, there was civil unrest when people thought they weren't getting anymore and Peter Falk had to be drafted into recording a video message assuring the people that more Columbo was coming, so please stop rioting
I've heard that Columbo is popular everywhere because it was really cheap to get the rights to play it so it played everywhere and is also really good.
That and it's probably the most accessible detective show for filler evening TV, even moreso than Law & Order (which outside of SVU is probably the most direct competitor for this kind of detective TV from the US. Outside of the US's TV shows, you have British detective shows but those are a much slower burn compared to Columbo and border on full 4 hour movies per episode). It's extremely formulaic, there's no overarching plot and Columbo himself has a kinda timelessness to his character that makes it so you can essentially put the episodes on a random schedule and have a good time. That's a goldmine for broadcasters - need to fill an evening schedule and unsure of what to put on after your latest talk show idea didn't work? Just broadcast a few Columbo episodes, it'll keep people happy and you don't have to worry about broadcasting the entire thing. People love Columbo because most people grew up watching it, even far outside the original generation back when it was broadcast on TV since it was extremely easy to syndicate.
Even Jotaro referenced him
Didn't they put him in some Final Fantasy gatcha game?
Yeah, he’s in brave exuvius as “colundo”
"Oh, just one more thing Sephiroth." **spawns a green pipe**
Now that shit is wild I gotta see that
https://exvius.fandom.com/wiki/Colundo
They need to put him in ff14 right fucking now
OMG, Columbo meets Hildibrand! The best part is, unlike every other "real" detective in the series, Columbo rolls with the reality bending.
Not *in* Japan, but one episode did feature Mako Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh, the demon Aku) as a side character. They have different accents, but he and Peter Falk (Columbo himself) have similar voices. They’re…gravely. The scene is Columbo intruding on the villain’s dinner party, with Mako’s character present, who immediately hits it off with Columbo, and the two engage in friendly banter. The rest of the actors—not the characters—look like they’re in hell. Like, “Dear god, I have to listen to *two of them now*.” It’s one of my favorite scenes in the entire show. 😆 The episode is Murder Under Glass. Episode 12 of season 7.
While I was visiting Japan last year, we were watching a late night talk show at our hotel. My friend and I lost our shit when Beat Takeshi dressed as Columbo came on and was doing a bit. We were equally confused and hyped.
Not just *one* show inspired by Columbo. There's both an officially licensed Japanese Columbo and another show inspired by Columbo starring one of the most popular comedians of all time. Former is Shinano no Columbo and the latter is Furuhata Ninzaburou.
I was surprised when I learned that not only is the best Tekken player in the world from Pakistan, but he claims he's not even the best person *there*.
The HxH dark continent reveal in real life
At this point though, it's pretty universally agreed that Arslan Ash is the one of (if not the) best Tekken player of all time. For sure, there's definitely elements of "can only be a killer if you're also surrounded by killers," and I'm sure visa issues also prevents more strong players from playing on a global stage often. But at the end of the day, only Arslan has done the miracle threepeat of winning EVO Japan, Vegas, and Tekken World Tour, all in one year.
There is something beautiful about a Japanese arcade game making it all the way to a faraway middle eastern country to be played and loved by a people that the creators likely never considered
Johnny bravo is super popular in India. So much so it got its own special in 2011 where Johnny goes to India. It was originally made strictly for Indian viewers before it got translated and made longer for global audiences
Johnny Bravo's brash, shameless confidence became the template for a generation of Indian men on Facebook.
Some of the most famous sitcoms in Brasil during the 2000s were black sitcoms: My Wife and Kids, Everybody Hates Chris, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Kenan & Kel, Arnold. I feel like they were really prominent in the two major TV channels Brazilians are so passionate about those shows that the cast members comment about this sometimes, positively and negatively
Also movies like White Chicks. The Wayans could probably rule a small town here if they ever came over lmao
You be surprised that Call of Duty has a pretty large female Fanbase on Tumblr and AO3.
It was pretty shocking to see just how popular some of the male operators from the recent games are on websites of more...adult natures.
Pretty much all of the best stuff being made these days is of them. Not like I'd know.
Ghost ticks a lot of boxes for what women think is super hot: masked, gruff, mysterious... British.
> what women think is super hot: masked, gruff, mysterious... British. what EVERYONE think is super hot: masked, gruff, mysterious... British.
I've seen more than enough vtubers that want to be spitroasted by the CoD cast.
Ah I see you’ve also been privy to the tastes of a certain whale
yeah I remember there was a thread a while ago and the author was talking about their CoD fanfics, which I was surprised was a thing. I thought it was like AC where it stood for something different but no it was Call of Duty
Bara
Ghost/Soap is a weirdly huge ship for the COD fandom after Modern Warfare 2.2.
The CoD dudes also flood those AI Character Chat sites.
I wonder what's the average demographic that give those bots like 1M messages.
You saw that HobbyDrama Scuffles post too huh
Oh hey my post is referenced on another subreddit
i was already in the COD tumblr fanfiction for one paring(it was for one of the male charater and a player insert)only so I did not find out about the whole possible fake death drama until it was mention on the scruffles. out of all the COD artists followed, only one had reblogged the announcement about said possible death of a blogger. And even then just today, they have said that they are leaving tumblr(they have never given the exact reason but I have wonder if said drama played a part in it). They haven’t deleted their blog yet but have made it private for a bit but they since made it public again So there some hope they may return when it all calms down and they are in a better headspace but odds are currently low. still can not believe this all happen over a meme text post
Holy shit, I just read that. I know it's Tumblr, but I had no idea the COD x Reader fandom could be that toxic.
I was very surprised when I first learned about it due to the association with the toxic online dudebro players. But then I realized it made sense given it’s a franchise with mostly male characters, so it’s great for m/m shippers and ship self-inserters isn’t it
Yes It does(i can testify, I do read a lot a fics involving one of the characters and a player insert)
I was checking AO3 for reasons in the Elden Ring section and saw Morgott/MC was the most popular pairing and was confused until my sister-in-law said he reminded her of Beast from Beauty and the Beast
Why not Maliketh though? He even has a little friendship arc with you if you bring him his little doggy treats throughout the game.
Female fanfic writers love the enemies to lovers trope, so Morgott would be more popular due to his enmity towards you. They can fix him.
I think his personality aligns more with the Beast Archetype/Byronic Hero if placed into a romantic context (Honorable in a sense, standoffish, dutiful, modest with his clothing, self-loathing due to his identity). Maliketh seems more sad, tragic and far gone.
> Why not Maliketh though? the furries already had claimed him
I know at least one who's obsessed with Zombies but doesn't give a fuck about the rest of it. Does that count?
The ‘Tumblr sexyman’ is truly a fascinating phenomenon
The CoD cast are just conventionally sexy men in general tbh. I don’t think they count as Tumblr sexymen when most people would probably agree that they’re attractive without even playing the games.
I've seen it a bit, a lot of it is over the story's characters, like ghost and price or something. I haven't played a COD since the original modern warfare 2 and I super don't care but it's kinda interesting? weird? that it has that section of the fanbase that I'd never seen before.
MW2's Ghost and Soap was a fujoshi miracle. And then they ruined everything.
Aside from Dragonball Z, other anime popular in Mexico include Saint Seiya and Mazinger Z. I think Gegege no Kitaro was fairly popular over there at some point as well? Which is especially surprising since it's focused on Japanese folklore.
Also Sakura Cradcaptor, Inuyasha and Ranma are super popular today over here.
They where aired a lot on cartoon Network and similar cahnnels in the 90s. All latín América has access to those.
For some reason Mazinger absolutely makes sense with this. Wonder if they similarly are big into Getter though?
I don't even know a non-weeb in latam who knows what Getter is. Of course, it's all anecdotical experience. Older non-weebs recognize Mazinger by name, but if you mention other Go Nagai stuff like Kotetsu Jeeg they blusecreen. They'll probably remember it as The Avenger. That demographic does like Robotech though.
Saint Seiya is quite loved here in South America too.
Went to see Ghost in concert last year, and all of my exposure to the band was through Heavy Metal communities, so I was mostly expecting to see metal fans in their 30's+. I was *not* anticipating half the audience to be teenage girls losing their minds over Tobias Forge. The realization that I was actually at a concert for the new generation's version of Hot Topic girls who were super into Nightmare Before Christmas hit me like a freight train in a way I was not prepared for. Once I got past the initial shock though it was definitely a "the kids are alright" kinda vibe.
It’s kinda funny to see the evolution of the Papas go from serious and scary Papa I to ‘just a silly guy’ Papa IV. I wonder what direction Forge will go for the next album.
I have a female friend who would make fanart of them. Paige really spoke thetruth whem she said that Girls like Spooky Guys,be ot Skeleton, Ghost, Werewolf or Monsterman!
Ghost gives all the Lore™ fanatic girlies an outlet they lack. Outside of TwentyOnePilots, no other band really does the storyline stuff anymore.
The creator of Yakuza/Like a Dragon Nagoshi went on record multiple times saying how shocked he was with how popular the series was with women. Probably because of the hostess stuff but when 98% of your game is buff attractive men fighting each other shirtless it's probably shouldn't be that big a shock.
Buff, attractive men who are deeply emotional, even. Like I'm assuming Ichiban Kasuga alone has a lot of simps, not to mentioned the others.
Man, I'm straight, and *I* simp for Ichiban Kasuga. He's just SUCH A GOOD PERSON.
I'm a transman and I strive to be as good of a person as Ichiban.
> shirtless in the rain
With close ups of their glistening muscles to give you a detailed view of the tattoo reveal.
I walk in the rain, in the rain 🤠🚀
He, or the entire crew, were especially surprised at how popular Majima is among women. Which lead to his starring role in Y0.
Shempai not beating the Majima simp allegations.
Baelz too, now.
Can Shen beat **any** simp allegation?
Germany love for shadowrun that they have multiple sets just for them. I thought they would be the same with all of Europe and love DND but shadowrun is king there. It’s the same with Wizardry not being a big thing in the states but like crack in Japan we’re it influenced all there fantasy media.
That's because for a period that was mostly it when it came to German translations and imports. Germany or Berlin specifically is also somewhat important or at least just really interesting in shadowrun lore
women love hentai and are a lot of the creators of it.
Pochimaru and Nekomataya are fucking fantastic artists.
Naruto is super popular within the black community that it's reference in rap music like Lil Uzi Vert, Megan Thee Stallion, and Ski Mask the Slump God just to name a few.
That's kinda just shonen in general. Likely from the classic black dad representation in Dragon Ball Z
More just action Shonen because in my experience they are vocal about hating gag manga for example.
Apparently this goes back to the 1970s, when both Blaxploitation and imported martial arts films used to be shown at the grindhouse theaters. Both were considered niche/weird/minority (read: not White) at the time, and there ended up being a lot of crossover. And, of course, anime is super popular in South America as well, so there’s more crossover there.
... That makes sense. The Last Dragon did effectively fuse the 2 genres together, and it wouldn't have done that if people didn't want it ... probably.
My man out here referencing The Last Dragon. Everybody clap. Thems the rules.
There's a reason why Marvel decided to pair Luke Cage and Iron Fist together.
There was also common ground in antiestablishment “fight the power and stick to The Man” themes
Wu-Tang Clan exists because RZA liked kungfu
Yup, the equivalent of the modern Black Anime fan in Mt Dad generation is exactly this. One of my favorite things in life period is the cross-over between Japanese & Black American culture. This is how you get like Afro Samurai, The Boondocks, Jet Set Radio, BAPE, etc. etc. It's beautiful.
JJK is also really popular with the black community considering the amount of JJK "meme panels" that came out during the whole "Drake VS Kendrick" scenario.
Also Hood JJK.
“GET YO PAPER UUUUP!” “Domain Expansion: Red Lobster Hotbox.” “Free Gojo N***a.”
Moses telling those 2 kids to go inside and watch Naruto in Attack The Block caught me off guard the first time I watched it
My favorite example of this is the Golden Kamuy author discovering that the series had a surprisingly large gay male fanbase and deciding to make it even more homoerotic
THAT'S WHY HES THE GOAT
THEEE GOOOAAATTT
Wait, that's why there are huge 2 page spreads of nude muscle men? Honestly that makes sense.
Tanigaki’s cleavage carried the popularity of that series, even though I came for the indigenous cooking show. I mean, his google search result image is straight up gay fanart.
Makes sense after I heard about it but apparently straight women and gay dudes were getting really into Supernatural. On the surface it just seemed like a show about a pair of brothers who went around fighting monsters and demons and crap so to me it sounded more like a male demographic type show. Well it turns out the two main actors are really hot.
> Well it turns out the two main actors are really hot. at least 3, dont forget castiel
Why there's so many capybaras in Japan? what the hell give them back you fucks, I never agreed to this
I think they also like Alpacas.
Everybody likes Alpacas. Apparently they use them in therapy sessions.
Also apperently **The Mechanicus faction in 40k is really popular with the LGBT community**, i can kinda understand why, but, i was still surprising when i first heard about it.
FROM THE MOMENT I UNDERSTOOD THE WEAKNESS OF MY FLESH, IT DISGUSTED ME "damn bro same."
Not that surprising. Along with full-body cybernetics like Cyberpunk, in the Mechanicus gender and sexual identity and orientation is not an important concept (it's not really that important in most of the wider Imperial culture either but it's especially unimportant with the Mechanicus) And the heavy augmentation most of them go through makes gender and biological sex irrelevant anyways. Many are so augmented and covered by machinery and their robes that you can't even tell that they're human, let alone gender. Like in the Mechanicus video game there is a female Tech Priest named Scaevola but you wouldn't even know until the other characters refer to her by female pronouns. [This is what she looks like.](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUeNXB1J1wb6lkU9R37_hs3fBnYGgMlwniog&s) Not to say all Mechanicus are like that, there is a tech priest who cloned himself to create an heir, but the Clone came out female. He raised her as his daughter and she refuses to augment her body heavily, choosing to stay as human looking as possible. He finds it odd but he doesn't look down on her for it.
I like that the mechanicus care enough about pronouns and gender expression despite willing to be nothing but a skull with metal parts stuck into it sometimes.
The thing is, some of the tech priests, for all their dogma and tech worship, are still very human, in one of the Horus Heresy books there are also two of them that explain that they have a bond that could be considered be considered as a kind of marriage.
One of the books I was reading about a (Disastrous) Arc Mechanicus mission had an Enginseer who was vigorously human. She talked dirty and chased after guardsman with the best of them, while still being a devoted member of the AdMech. No one even commented on finding that strange. Presumably she could have sought the privilages of more extensive modification but she didn't seem to keen on doing so.
"Gender is irrelevant meatbag." "But what's in your pants?" "A neutron laser."
Bionicle has a massive LGBTQ community, especially Trans women. The Facebook group I'm in, Maskposting, really picks up in June
I can't tell if it's a meme or not but last time I checked aren't a lot of K-On fans really really racist?
Honestly you can replace the k-on profile pic with any other cute anime girl and you probably get the same amount of n-words uttered.
Yeah so this isn't k-on, this is a thing you see especially on twitter, where *It seems* like a lot of white supremacists or people close enough to that or on their way there, gravitate towards a lot of anime and japanese things cause to them it represents a racial hegemony of purity and despite not being white, a lot of anime characters could pass for white or are interpreted as white, so that fills in some of that bias and also there is a thing among many actual racists who like to think of a culture being homogenous and without much or any diversity, and see that as an example of what "the white race" should be like. (despite white not being a race, but whatever.) Throw in some Incel ideologies, some shit tier anime, and then overlap it with some Japanese fetishization overlapping all that shit, and there you go. So even if the anime isn't shit and you see some stuff like that, it could be a sign ya know flip a coin on whether they're a massive tool or just a normal weeb. They will believe themselves to be what the normal sort of weeb is though. So watch out.
Also, a lot of lolis and the female characters often acting small and weak, meaning they are "naturally subduable". There's a heavy predatory element to fascism.
When I use to be on twitter (left while ago) it felt like 90% of the time I saw someone with an anime pfp they were saying something racist/sexist/queerphobic. after a while I just started to instantly scroll by all anime pfps.
Which is fucking crazy seeing as like a lot of super popular anime especially the big 3 has a baseline theme of "you should accept people the way they are".
I feel like a few people with k-on profile pics on tumblr/twitter were caught being racist/homophobic (I know offical-mugi on tumblr was one of them), people took screenshots/made jokes about it ("haha the person with a profile pic of a wholesome slice of anime is saying vile shit, how wacky) then a bunch of other edgy people adopted the practice ON PURPOSE and the whole thing ballooned into a meme from there. Or its just that K-on was really popular on /a/ and 4channers are always acting like shitheads even on other sites
My trans roommate revealed to me that Fallout New Vegas has a huge following among the trans community.
Oh yeah the LGBT love New Vegas. Like a lot, a lot. I didn't know this for a while, I just was like "oh yeah well there are a few gay characters in there so I guess that's why some like it more." but nah it's like the whole thing, the themes or options get them especially for some reasons. I had a thing I read about it somewhere specifying it and I remember going "Oh yeah that makes total sense." but I lost it.
You can make your courier bi for 10% extra damage. Of course the queer community loves it
Imagine taking 2 perks and then getting your ass kicked by the only Nonbinary dude in the Wasteland.
Thats why you take the anti-robot, beast, capitalist, anarchist and imperialist perks too. Equal opportunity racism.
It wasn’t that surprising to me, considering that it was one of the first big games to have a lot of queer characters, and only it and (to a much lesser extent) fallout 2 are the only fallout games to have actually dialogue written for queer player characters. If you didn’t ask your companions to many questions and didn’t take certain perks I can get how it could be surprising though.
*Kamen Rider Kuuga* saw a notable viewership comprised of women in their thirties thanks to the lead actor Joe Odagiri, thus the trend was dubbed as the Odagiri Effect.
It probably helped that Kuuga was filmed more like a J-Drama than most tokusatsu shows.
I don't know how it is after 3 but bayonetta had a lot of lgbt fans.
after 3 a lot of people aren't very interested in talking about it in general.
The swerves taken by the general public reaction to Bayo between 1->2->3 is pretty wild. You'd never think the game used to be the flashpoint for heated discourse the way Stellar Blade is now back when it initially came out
Platinum (and several Platinum employees) reposted a lot of the LGBT Bayo fanart over the years, including the famous one of Bayo ripping the sheets off Jeanne to wake her up in the morning which they posted on *Valentine's Day*. No wonder people felt betrayed by Bayo3's canon romance.
Didn't kamiya tweet something like "what is your fave couple" with things like dante/trish viewtiful joe/his gf and it also had bayo and jeanne.
What I find odd is that the game acts like Luka and Bayo are some sort of Adam and Eve of the multiverse but we only ever see one Viola. Then again I think you only ever see one Luka, so I dunno. The entire thing was a jumbled mess.
I feel like 70% of the time I see someone thirsting over Bayonetta online, the person is a lesbian.
Half this thread is guys being shocked that women like the same things they like
I was not expecting Mantis Shrimps to be so popular with redditors
you werent expecting people to get hype about something in nature that can punch so hard it creates an explosion on impact ?
Another Crab’s Treasure chose to adapt this as >!being so fast in short bursts that you flash step into the punch!<
It was a great moment of going "...Oh fuck >!this is a hard side boss isn't it.!<"
I lived my whole life not having heard about Mantis Shrimps, and then I got on reddit and especially in the recent years there's been an uptake in mantis shrimp related content around me.
That's mostly due to The Oatmeal, back in the day when a single viral comic could influence the entire internet-using community.
Yeah, you can kind of trace internet obssession of Tesla to Oatmeal comic as well
It’s literally the kind of thing you’d hear about in a monologue from Baki or Jojo’s. How could it not be popular?
AJ Styles, the wrestler; actually has a big following in the gay community.
as funny as that meme is, its good to let people know that AJ has embraced his LGBT fans and apologized for being a dumb redneck in the past
I wonder how much of the player base of SMTV is gay/bi/lgbt in general also actually. Since I'm very attracted to Nahobino as a guy myself lol.
Considering the very first mod for Smt V was thicc nahobino probably huge.
Also Nahobino is a cute ass gentleman even as a normal human too let's not forget that. Androgyny is fucking powerful.
Persona is the mainstream Gay. SMT is the even deeper, artistic niche of Gay.
Its probably not the case anymore, but i remember being really suprised when in a 2017 interview, someone in marketing at Marvelous stated that around 30 - 40% of Senran Kagura fans were women (although the accuracy of the number is probably a bit dubious). Kinda in a similar vein but more of a personal ancedote, Dead or Alive seems to have a decently sized female fanbase as well, just from the few DOA tournaments I was at and since a third of the people in my DOA group are actually girls.
The winner is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. _Especially_ with the OG Flash animation crowd from the 00s—i.e., Newgrounds, albinoblacksheep, flashgames.net, et al. The show was animated in Adobe Flash, which blew people’s minds back in 2012.
The main character looks like that and fights a bunch of demonic mean girls and yall thought this wouldn't have a sizable female demographic?
*clears throat* Bronies Also Signalis has such a large lesbian audience, more specifically trans, that I did not know it was a horror game for like a month
I knew about the game in passing before, but It was like "oh Resident evil style game! cool!" Saw some girls playing it, then my trans girl friends got their hands on it and in any discord servers with them in it they are constantly posting fanart of characters being lovey dovey or in memes or whatever, some are doing the military spec ops stuff with them, sometimes they're depressing sometimes they're cute and fluffy, sometimes it's just them doing memes as signalis characters. There's animations, there's voice actors, there's so fucking much stuff. And a lot of it is really well done too. It's wild, (I still haven't gone past the opening area after the tutorial myself...)
given the game's subject matter I wouldn't put it past them
For some reason Redo of Healer, a show infamous for its focus on intense sexual violence, is more popular with women according to an interview with its creator.
It’s actually not that surprising. People prefer not talking about it, but a **lot** of women have kinks for masochism, bondage, that kind of stuff. See also the insane popularity of Fifty Shades.
I read a little of it, I can't think of a series with less redeeming qualities than it. Everyone is just awful, and they all do the worst things. In the little that I read, I could tell it was just going to continuously try to one up itself and I was just totally fine not sticking around to find out if I was right.
The amount of fanfic Worm has, compared to its overall popularity, is absolutely **insane.** I can’t think of any other series with such an absurd disparity except arguably RWBY. Wormfic is a cultural phenomenon that escaped the original and evolved into its own entity, shit deserves to be studied by scientists. Also on the subject of fanfic, I was baffled when I discovered Minecraft YouTuber fanfic is apparently a somewhat popular thing. On a different subject - it’s less an example of “I’m surprised [X type of people] are fans” and more “I’m surprised there are fans at all” - Adam Smasher fans.
Never read Worm, but I know the basic due to the fanfics and I say this: There's much possibilties due to how powers work on that universe and the plot structure.
Closest I can think of outside some things thatvhas already been mentioned here is Donald Duck who in Sweden is much more popular than Micky Mouse by a large margin I'd guess.
That duck wishes us Merry Christmas every single year and we are thankful for it
Armored Core 6 somehow winning three slots of the Top 100 japanese female self-shipper when all three of them are faceless and only have a voice.
Bitches love Twinks and Mystical Intimate Bonding between an older man and his younger Twink Lover with a androgynous haircut and Flower embroidered School Uniform.
Sentai shows and JP young wives. It kind of makes sense upon knowing why
Adding on to the 'big in Japan' stream Tom & Jerry
Where’s that one tweet about how any fandom with fujoshi stay thriving
“They’re big in Japan” Completely unrelated but do the French still love Jerry Lewis?
As an aside I rewatched "The People Vs. George Lucas" and find it funny the biggest Jar Jar fan in the film was a french guy.
Welcome to Eltingville popping off recently was a surprise
I when I watch a male oriented anime having fangirls who consider a male character some sort of husbando. I don't mean guys like Sasuke, Inuyasha, Sebastian Michaelis Itachi, Lelouch, or Ranma that are meant for handsome bishonen, but more "normal" guys like Tadano (Komi), Naruto, Eren, Gojo (of the girl who cosplays), Edward Elric, Vegeta, Goku, Dr. Tenma (Monster), Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul), Zoro (One Piece), Tanjiro, Ichigo, Deku or even Ash Ketchum.
ABBA is absolutely massive in Australia
Fiddler on the Roof, a musical about an Eastern European Jewish village in the early 20th century, is incredibly popular in Japan. Joseph Stein, the show’s writer, was apparently asked by the first Japanese producer of the show if western audiences even understood the show because it is “so Japanese”
Girls also want that Nahobussy
Fallout has a pretty big female and LGBTQ+ fanbase, especially Fallout 4 with the inclusion of romance options. New Vegas is super popular with the trans community (Arcade and Veronica are fan favorite companions). From my experience, most of the big RPG's with romance options will have a good percentage of female and LGBTQ+ fans (Mass Effect, Fallout, Baldur's Gate), and they're the ones who produce a ton of fan content like fanfiction and fanart.
The creator of Dungeon Meshi, who's a woman, got a lot of notice in the D&D and Pathfinder communities after it was discovered that she did a lot of Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 & Pathfinder Kingmaker portraits.
I could tell when I started Dungeon Meshi that she was a huge fan of RPG's. The whole series feels like a DnD campaign. If I try Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 I'll see if I can mod her portraits in! Have you seen her illustrations of elves from video games for Famitsu? You can tell who her favorite Baldur's Gate 3 companion is. It's not Astarion lmao.
I'm looking forward to when she finally plays Wrath of the Righteous, to see if she changes her opinion on Camellia or not.
A bit off-topic, but being bisexual in New Vegas usually gives you advantages.
According to BG3 official stats, Astarion wasn’t in the top 3 favorite romance options, which I found interesting and surprising
Baki, a show and manga about big muscly men beating the shit out of each other with borderline schizophrenic detail, has a niche but notable fan base of women who love the characters. I've seen multiple pieces of fanart depicting self inserts going on dates and cuddling with Baki characters. It's a real gentle giant kinda feel I guess.