Is it me or has the bishonen aesthetic become more prominent over the last decade?
With bishonen aesthetics i refer to male characters designed as pretty cute looking boys with very delicate and feminine features. Now, i know that type of design has always existed in anime, but I feel it has become way more predominant in the design of male casts of many different animes over the years. Especially from 2010 onwards.
A clear example is many modern sports animes like Haikyuu and Blue Lock. And when we compare it to an old one like Slam Dunk, you can see there is a big diference in how the male characters are designed; in Slam Dunk they look way more mature and manly, while in Haikyuu or BL is full of generated cute bishonen boys.
And is especially aparent now in big action animes too. Another example is JJK with most of the male cast full of bishi characters which leads to a big fujoshi crowd, the same with Demon slayer, MHA, Bungo Stray Dogs, Solo Leveling, not to mention the many male characters from modern isekais and romcom animes.
I feel back in the day male characters used to be designed way more manly or "mature looking" or with a bit more "edge" like in Fist of the north Star, City Hunter, Cobra, Lupin, Great Teacher Onizuka, Golden Boy, Ninja Scroll, Kinikuman, Golgo 13 Bobobobo, Detective Konan, DBZ, One Piece, Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo etc.
Even old more "feminine looking" guys like Griffith had still a mature look to them.