Did you know that Japanese women are going bonkers over the characters in the Sengoku Basara games? I didn't know it either! Turns out there's quite a trend building, and Hiroyuki Kobayashi (franchise creator) has thrown in his two cents on the matter.

From a social point of view, his experience is also interesting. He believes women are partly escaping into fantasy because they cannot find suitably heroic partners in real life. Capcom's samurai groupies may be the corollary of a widely discussed trend in Japan, that of "grass-eating men", who eschew the typical male trappings of cars and big salaries, and may prefer shopping and fashion to sex.

What in the world is a 'grass-eating man' you ask?

Definitions vary, but the new herbivores could be described as metrosexuals without the testosterone. Although most of them are not homosexual they have in common a disdain for the traditional accoutrements of Japanese manhood, and a taste for things formerly regarded as exclusively female. Girly men have no interest in fast cars, career success, designer labels and trophy women. Instead, they hold down humble jobs, cultivate women as friends rather than conquests and spend their free time shopping at small boutiques and pursuing in Japan what is regarded as a profoundly feminine pastime: eating cakes.

Long story short...Japanese women can't find suitable guys in real-life, so they fantasize about the manly characters from Sengoku Basara.

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