Who doesn’t love a good research paper about being attracted to fictional anime boys? It’s easy to merely find it amusing that someone far smarter than all of us is spending time trying to figure out the science behind playing otome games (games in which romantic relationships toward male characters are the core of the experience), but it’s also worth understanding. Such games have had an audience in Asia for many years, particularly in China and Japan, but why they appeal to a Western audience, and where that appeal differs between demographics, is less understood. A few people decided to dig into the topic, spending time speaking with players to figure it out.

In short, the research suggests that the appeal for U.S. players is broadly similar to that for players in Asia, with one key difference. According to a research paper by Elena Yifei Zhao and Nicholas D. Bowman examining the appeal of these games for players in the U.S.…