Handsome anime-style archer is sure to defeat all his foes…as long as “nice abs” are a weapon.
There’s long been a stereotype that male fans of anime and video games with anime-style artwork are just there for the eye candy. If the female character who’s placed front-and-center has the right mix of cute and sexy design elements, it really doesn’t matter what else the artist does, detractors say.
But in the modern era, female anime fans are not only often as passionate as their male counterparts, but equally likely to have sexy but unpolished fan service pitched to them. Take, for example, this illustration from Fire Emblem Heroes, a mobile game based on Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series of strategy role-playing games. The shirtless archer’s hair is styled, his abs sculpted, his calves taut, and his shorts low-slung.
But while he himself may look perfect, there’s a pretty big artwork error in the picture too.
Specifically, there’s a problem with his weaponry. Well, several, if you count his bow being seemingly made out of desserts and his substitution of a Gari Gari-kun popsicle for an arrowhead. But by far the biggest tactical mistake going on here is that the arrow isn’t notched, and Mr. Shoot-an-Arrow-Straight-Into-the-Fangirls’-Heart isn’t even bothering to draw back the bowstring.
This isn’t the only trouble Fire Emblem Heroes has had depicting its archers. In the illustration shown on the right below, the archer with the pointed bangs seems to be wielding a bow with a string that’s simultaneously in front of and behind him, suggesting that either he has the string looped around the back of his neck (in which case that arrow isn’t flying anywhere when he lets it go) or that M.C. Escher had a side gig as his village bowyer.
Though, to be fair, it’s not just the steamy male archers who don’t really seem to grasp how their weapons of choice work, as this female cohort of theirs seems to be unaware of the necessity of stringing her bow entirely.
Granted, one could say the illustrations succeed at their purpose, which, as with many lavish pieces of anime and game artwork, is to be visually appealing. Still, it’s a little weird to have the artwork itself tell you that these heroes are literally doing nothing other than posing for the sake of looking cool.
Source: Hachima Kiko, Twitter/@hibi_kono
Follow Casey on Twitter, where he thinks he really should take a break and do some ab work.