I find it puzzling that so many people choose to mod their characters to make them look anime-esque.

Each to their own, I'm certainly not criticizing people's actual freedom to choose how they wish to play their game, I'm simply curious as to why anime looking characters are so popular when Skyrim and TES in general are so drastically different in tone and structure from anime.

I'm not sure if androgynous men in billowy white cloaks and rabid frost trolls were ever meant to meet.....

Surely people are missing the point? Let me reiterate that I am not questioning the concept of freedom of choice just the merits of one particular style of playing.

People have different standards of beauty, just because you don't agree with it doesn't make it wrong.

And the styles of the two genres have more common ground than you might think. Just look at Monster Hunter.

I'd like to pin it on the particular influx of a certain kind of people with the latest game... but I believe there were a number of anime mods before TES was a AAA action adventure title.

Well a lot of gamers like anime. I know I do. A lot of gamers like to roleplay the characters from those anime series they cherish. I know I don't. It is my point of view that the two styles clash in a grotesque fashion. However others will like the look regardless. They just love animes. I can't really blame them.

They're not missing the point at all. The point of playing games is to have fun. They're having fun, therefore they're not missing the point.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder...or something like that. I personally do not want Anime in my TES 5. Oblivion was okay because of the art style but Skyrim's art style is too gritty for anime in my opinion but still, people like it and like a cartoony art style in any game. To each his own.

I don't see the style in Skyrim as anime, therefore I don't see the point in my creating an anime-based character, for the sake of jiving with the world. Modding characters such that they would look more anime would feel strange and out of place.

Not really what I meant and I think you're aware of that.

I don't think they're missing the point, they're just ignoring the point in favor of making the game be what they want it to be. Honestly, that seems to be the case with a lot of people who mod TES games. For example, go to TESnexus and search for the most downloaded/endorsed quest mod of all time. If that's not ignoring the point of Oblivion completely in favor of what you want, I don't know what is. (And as a warning, people who don't want to see X-rated content should not follow those instructions.)

Most people just don't care about lore, and they aren't at all concerned with mods that fit into the game world.

To the OP: well, shooting fire or ice from your hands isn't that far off from the exaggerated world of anime. Anyways, if you really want to know the real inner workings of the mind that makes people choose one thing over another, you'll get a better insight if you visit a psychiatrist.

Part of the point of a SP moddable game is that you can play it the way you want
Some people like anime, some people aren't Dragonborn, some people change the game mechanics
In every case people are taking advantage of mods allowing them to play the game they want

People just fancy certain style, there is nothing wrong with that.
But I honestly really don't see how could Skyrim match with anime aesthetic quality.I am usually against mixing genres or styles that are so obivously very different, in many ways I feel like I am violating both styles I am mixing.

I dunno. Some folk just like it.

And even then, some of this thread seems to refer to "bishies" more than anime in general. Most people don't really see the difference, but whatever.

And of course, for a mage or rogue it would make perfect sense to look kind of soft and unthreatening anyway. Then you KILL IT WITH FIRE when people underestimate you.

^This^

There hasn't been a decent Western Fantasy TV series since the 90's other than Game of Thrones (As opposed to a LOT of fantasy Anime), and the only Western Fantasy Movies are remakes/adaptions of Conan and LotR.

Sad, but true.

The are two reasons why people can mix two art styles. One is that they don't see the contrast it does, or they don't care about it. The second one they don't value the source of the original art, and are looking for something better for themselves.
In the beginning of influencing European art by oriental outer world was purely superficial (painting camels and rhinos), then people noticed the ideology and started using it to change the concept of painting, but then the influence became completely superficial again which later on lead to the state we are in right now, since ideas spread too quick in mass media without the need of understanding.

I'm not saying that copying others culture style is bad all together, but I think that the mix of two cultures with ideological of both could be much better thing.

You'd have to ask them. That stuff looks silly as hell to me.

The Anime? Why, they're nothing more than escaped cattle from Akavir where the Tsaesci bred them for their tender delicate flavored meat. Only the strong ones were able to survive the trip to Tamriel. Perhaps, we should have pity on them? Their large soft eyes just makes me want to cuddle and protect them but that earthy barnyard smell that hangs about them just makes me hungry.

I'm a gamer, and I hate anime - I always thought that the sissy-looking boy characters that so many people seem to create these days just are like nails on a chalkboard to me. Males are supposed to be man-like, not feminine. And I personally think that the anime women characters that these people create with the skimpy-looking clothes with bloody bunny ears or schoolgirl outfits is so unattractive, it's not even funny. It's a sick, sick world we live in these days.

You'd be as well asking why so many people think there's only one style of "anime" art. It varies just as much as western art does.

Many of the responses on this thread seem to assume that all "anime" art is exactly the same as a particular type of popular one they've seen. That would be like assuming all of western art is just like Shrek.

Its mostly personal preference or that they are fans of said anime.

The trouble with these kinds of statements is that the definition of "man-like" changes from genration to generation. What you believe to be "man-like" would have been "feminine" a few hundred years ago. Or possibly even today, in some culture other than yours.

All males are man-like, by definition.

Men aren't supposed to look like women - they should have manly features, not some skinny needs-a-Big-Mac-looking sissyboy.

I find the stuff that has been manly for ages to STILL be manly - such as facial hair, muscular or bigger builds, etc. Even long hair can be manly, as long as it doesn't look all glimmery and perfect.

---

@Dragonbone - As for that statement, a bunch of skinny sissy-looking characters is just ridiculous. I mean, what guy wouldn't want to play some big, strong, muscular warrior with an epic beard? Really.

Me. But then, I prefer my men on the smaller side anyway

Bruce Lee was kinda skinny you know.

BTW, you should take a look at some paintings of middle ages noblemen. Lots of curled, perfumed hair, frills and ruffles and fancy, elegant clothing. By todays standards, quite effeminate looking.

And every single one of them a trained, expert killer and the very epitome of manliness.