Generally, i know what you mean, but the male characters in patlabor werent manly or emo - they were just... normal!
Patlabor was kind of like hill street blues, but with robots.
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taters Bah weep grahnah weep ninibong,
Mon 6 Aug 2012, 19:39,
archived)
Yeah, mainly in action animes not really involving robots, the star kind of had to be a mountain of muscle.
Of course, Shinji in NGE was arguably the start of whiny protagonists. I dunno, I'd be pretty thrilled if I got to pilot a giant robot.
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Bourbon Fox Bourbon is a moron,
Mon 6 Aug 2012, 19:44,
archived)
Hahahaha! Yeah
That was supposedly Sadamoto poking fun at NGE fans for being perverts, or something.
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Bourbon Fox Bourbon is a moron,
Mon 6 Aug 2012, 19:52,
archived)