stuff like surface level appearances DOES impact how likely I am to pick up a book but it doesn't have much bearing on how much I actually like that book in the end, you know... so I feel like I spent the whole time going "how often do I like the writing attached to this trope"...
like. plain ukes are honestly often pretty dull characters so they're bottom tier. but if a plain uke has a really strong personality/storyline, I'd actually probably like them more than the same personality/storyline on a cute/beautiful uke... so should I put them higher...
like some of these are visual (beautiful/etc) but then some of these are personality types (puppy/crybaby) so i feel like "plain uke with strong personality" should actually just be "strong personality uke" by itself somewhere??
I mean they are generally surface level presentation character types. crybaby less so since I do think that can and will be used more as a gap moe reveal than an immediate selling point but you can generally look at a cover and see if a chara is a puppy uke/seme
and bikei characters are generally characters where their appearance has also colored their treatment in life and thus how they interact with other people
but also like... puppy is surface level presentation bc body language, aka personality. that's also just an example, like there's pathetic seme and power bottom uke and those aren't necessarily design indicators
well when I said strong personality I didn't really mean in the sense that "strong personality" typically means but just "had a personality that is distinct and strongly defined" which could mean a lot of different things. anxious to the point of neurosis. my pace to a fault. obsessed with kofun. none of these are the same trope
and "strong personality" closer to like how ppl mean when they say "strong female character" actually IS pretty close to sasoi uke. I think it's kinda funny that sasoi uke got translated as "power bottom" cuz it's more just "uke who is willing to initiate" which isn't necessarily power bottom
like some of these are visual (beautiful/etc) but then some of these are personality types (puppy/crybaby) so i feel like "plain uke with strong personality" should actually just be "strong personality uke" by itself somewhere??