>Is it common for the antagonist/villain to be more attractive than the protagonist/heroine?
Yes. Let me use an example from something that's practically an old school shoujo manga protag from a work that was explictly inspired by old school shoujo manga. Pic related is Ayaka from Fate/Prototype. She has practically all of the characteristics of an old school shoujo manga protag: seems to be a plain jane, self-esteem problems, hot men being interested in her despite her seeming to be a plain jane who isn't charming, and the reveal that she's not a plain jane but actually beautiful once she gets some confidence and a new wardrobe. Now we'll look at the villainess in our next post.
I've never played an Otome game before...
Hudson Perez
Henry Ross
Will she do the ojou-sama laugh
Noah Morales
I think OniAi still holds the record for latest opening start, but yeah, it's rather stupid. If they don't want to "spoil" anything for the first episode, either skip it, or make it the credits for that first episode.
Justin Cooper
>Given how much women hate each other in real life
t. someone who has never spoken to a non-relative woman
Sebastian Roberts
It's.an export from shoujo manga
Jose Ramirez
No
Hudson Torres
The girl in the foreground is Manaka. She's the villain(ess) of Fate/Prototype and Ayaka's older sister. The reason Ayaka has self-esteem problems is because of her--Manaka is much, much more talented at everything, seemingly more beautiful, etc, and has been since they were children. This comes to a head when they end up in competition for the love of the same man (King Arthur). The reason Ayaka wins out over her older sister in the Arthurbowl is because she's a kind girl with a strong sense of empathy, where Manaka is anything but. All of these characteristics and developments I have described are practically staple
(and very tired) cliches of shoujo manga, which is why someone got the legitimately great idea to turn these cliches on their head. What if the heroine is using her seeming vulnerability to appeal to the protective instincts of men and thereby manipulate them? What if the villainess isn't actually a bad person and that the uncouth actions she takes in the story are a product of her being serious enough about her love to discard her morals to realize it and/or seeing the heroine for what she is and taking the gloves off as a result? Etc. It opens some interesting possibilities.
Ayden Kelly
That was 30 years ago. Chinks still have it but nowadays most shoujos and otomes are women love and female friends
Parker Phillips
yes
Justin Stewart
Protags in this genre are meant to be bland self-inserts, and villainesses usually have bad-girl energy. Not very surprising. With that said, I would in fact rate Maria as more attractive than Katarina.
She is so incredibly far from an ojou-sama.